Top 10 Most Expensive Colleges Include Four From NY

...for the tuition money? (Via Union College's website)

The horrifyingly high cost of higher education is on display at a U.S. Department of Education website which allows students and their parents compare costs at various schools. The most expensive four-year college on the list is Bates College in Maine, which costs $51,300 (including room & board), but number four is NY's Union College at $50,439 (including room & board); number seven was Sarah Lawrence ($41,968; no room & board), eight is Vassar College ($41,930; no room & board) and ten is Columbia University ($41,316; no room & board). Here's the top 20:

1. Bates College ME $51,300 *
 2. Connecticut College CT $51,115*
 3. Middlebury College VT $50,780* 4. Union College NY $50,439* 5. Colby College ME $50,320*
 6. Sanford-Brown College VA $45,628 
7. Sarah Lawrence College NY $41,968 
8. Vassar College NY $41,930 
9. George Washington University DC $41,655
 10. Columbia University in the City of New York NY $41,316 
11. Kenyon College OH $40,980 
12. Colgate University NY $40,970 
13. Carnegie Mellon University PA $40,920
 14. Trinity College CT $40,840 
15. Bucknell University PA $40,816
 16. Tulane University of Louisiana LA $40,584 
17. Skidmore College NY $40,420
 18. St John's College NM $40,396 
19. St John's College MD $40,392
 20. Tufts University MA $40,342
(*denotes that fee includes room & board)

The NY Times explains the website "[shows] the institutions with the highest and lowest tuitions, the highest and lowest percentage tuition increases over the last two years, and the highest and lowest net price — that is, the actual price full-time students pay, including room and board, after financial aid like grants and scholarships are taken into account." And by the way, Bates complained about the results, noting that some schools' room & board is listed separately. "Bates’s average net price, taking into account financial aid, is below that of more than 400 other institutions. Bates’ percentage increase in tuition and fees over the last three academic years is lower than that of more than 800 other institutions."

You can look up tuition costs via the DOE's College Navigator site. Here are some facts and figures about tuition from local schools:
New York

NYU: $38, 765 (no room & board)
Hamilton: $39, 760 (no room & board)
Cornell: $39, 666 (no room & board)
Pace: $33,702 (no room & board)
St. John's: $31,980 (no room & board)
Fordham University: $38, 602 (no room & board)
CUNY Brooklyn College: $5,051 (no room & board)
CUNY Hunter College: $4,999 (no room & board)
CUNY City College: $4,929 (no room & board)
SUNY Binghamton: $6,881 (no room & board)

New Jersey

College of New Jersey (public): $12,722 (in-state; no room & board)
Stevens Institute of Technology: $38,180 (no room & board)
New Jersey Institute of Technology (public): $12,856 (no room & board)
Drew University: $38,267 (no room & board)
Princeton: $35,340 (no room & board)
Rutgers: $12,582 (in-state; no room & board)

Connecticut:

Wesleyan University: $42,084 (no room & board)
Connecticut College: $51,685 (with room & board)
Yale University: $36,500 (no room & board)
University of Connecticut: $10,416 (no room & board)

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on June 30, 2011 3:08 PM

Comments [rss]

KansasHokie

The schools who have room and board included are schools that will not provide a breakdown of costs (i.e. $40000 tuition/fees, $10000 room/board), these schools instead market a "comprehensive fee". The figures are what is reported to the Dept. of Education and that's all the school will report. Blame the four schools at the top for trying to play money games with their fee structure.

chauzer

what a retarded list. why the hell would they lump together schools that include room/board with schools that don't in the same list for cost...

Nos Feratu

Yup, starting off in life $200K in the hole is the apple pie, Mush Limpblow, 'Merican way. Know what? $200K will buy a lot of AK-47's and RPG's from an Albanian arms dealer. Kids, can you say "Revolution"?

lovelette

$51,00.00 per what? Year? Semester?
I don't get it. It made sense that the figures were per year until CUNY schools joined the list at 5,000.00. I know CUNY schools are far cheaper, but I doubt they're just a measly 5 grand per year. Somethings off.

devonbanks

CUNY is 5K a year. http://www1.ccny.cuny.edu/pros...

69GeorgeWBush69

Why do people choose to go to these schools? The name of your undergraduate school doesn't mean dick.

Matthew Ferry

GWU has a 13,000 Room and Board Charge... putting us at $54,655 a year.. more expensive than even Bates.

alxnys

Bard College Tuition $42,476 with room and board $55,592 - why is it not at the top of the list?

maccaca21

Sarah Lawrence? Is that still a college? I thought it was downgraded to a summer camp.

Mabel Marte

Where is Syracuse University?? That should definitely be on the list

Len_Drexler

Tuition for 2010-2011 was $36,302 according to the DOE website.

Jibreel K Riley

so who did a major that only pays 20K a year?

Joshua

Rich kid schools . . .

yello10

Makes me sad to see my alma matter on this list :(

jeremy dine

Wesleyan was $54,000 including room and board last year.

Roger_the_Shrubber

Learn a trade, at least you'll have a job.

Inmybunk

They also seem to forget to mention that specific schools within NYU are much more costly than others. Tisch cost me several thousand dollars more per year than my CAS counterparts (not to mention classroom expenses that were necessary in order to be an active participant in the class). It was all worth it, though - I've only been unemployed for two years!

caroline_is_awkward

I graduated from Gallatin in 2008 and have been unemployed probably 80% of the time since. All of my Tisch and Gallatin friends still in the city make way under $30k a year.

Inmybunk

It's a scam. I'm lucky that my family home is 45 minutes east of NYC otherwise I'd have no shot of being here. I know a bunch of people who moved back home to bumblefuck America because they didn't find a job before their savings ran out to pay their rent. And for our industry you need to be in NYC or LA, and not everyone is lucky enough to live close enough to live free at home while interviewing and doing other part time jobs to pay back these crazy loans.

And then NYU has the nerve to call and email and send me mail about donating money. How about you don't spend tuition on paper and mailings and printer ink and hiring people to call us up and beg for cash, and instead stop raising prices?!

Len_Drexler

Whoever put the lists together wasn't consistent in which year they cited. Yale's $36,500 is the 2009-2010 tuition. 2010-2011 was $38,300 and 2011-2012 will be over $40,000. The number cited for Princeton was also from 2009-2010 whereas Cornell's is the 2010-2011 number. Didn't look right that the Ivy's wouldn't be about the same. Surprised that Columbia is so much more but oddly their estimated room and board is lower.