If you’re an undergraduate student at Princeton University, you may be happy to hear that tuition for the 2007-08 year will hold steady at $33,000, or only $3,000 more than a seminar with the Maui Millionaires.
Don’t get too excited, tiger. While tuition isn’t increasing, the costs for room and board will be substantially higher. Total cost to attend Princeton on campus next year will be $43,980.
Princeton was able to keep tuition costs at bay thanks to donations and strong performance in their endowment, now totalling $13 billion. At a safe withdrawal rate of 4%, that’s $520,000,000 each year that the University could withdraw and use for scholarships or programs.
According to Wikipedia, Princeton University has the fewest students graduating with debt. That’s an interesting statistic, but it’s provided without a source.
Published or updated January 22, 2007. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I’d also be interested to see the percentage of Princeton undergrads who receive financial aid. My guess would be that it’s somewhat lower than the Ivy/”little Ivy” average.
Nevertheless, Princeton’s ability to make education affordable is admirable–I’m looking at PhD programs, and Princeton’s is the cheapest I’ve encountered yet (among the schools I’d look at from an academic standpoint).
It is not surprising to me that Princeton graduates the fewest students with debt. I suspect that the Ivies, collectively, should all be Top 25 in that ranking. Financial aid is awarded solely on need, and they will meet 100% of a student’s family’s need. For instance, if the family files for financial need and returns an “expected family contribution” of $6,000, Princeton will award scholarships, grants, and other aid totaling their cost of attendance minus $6,000. If all schools did that – there would be very few student loans! On the other hand, if all schools had a $13B endowment, there would be a lot fewer loans!
They’re probably trying to make a statement, like they did when they got rid of loan obligations for students. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure it won’t catch on, as I went to one of those “little ivy” schools and despite Princeton’s bold move, our admissions department published a letter explaining why raising their prices 6% for the next academic year was “modest and completely justified.”
They haven’t published the same letter this year, not yet anyway, but they’re certainly going to eclipse Princeton in terms of cost.
How credible is that Princeton statistic? Schools like Harvard will soon offer tuition for free, which makes sense.
$40k+ is a ton of money to spend.