The University of Wisconsin offers a guarantee to graduate in four years. The University of Illinois guarantees its tuition for four years. Both offers are fairly new to colleges in general and don’t have much of a track record in terms of students enrolling under the programs. So which is a better deal? Or are they both just gimmicks for colleges to sooth the family fear of rising tuition costs?
Let’s take a closer look starting with the more tangible of the two offers: guaranteed tuition. If you attended the University of Illinois and had guaranteed tuition starting in the 2010-2011 academic year, you would have potentially saved $3,822. Had you attended St. John’s University in New York, a private school, your savings would have been $10,715.
Except that’s not actually the case at St. John’s.
See, for the 2014-15 academic year, undergraduate tuition is $37,870, that’s $1,830 less than the fixed (guaranteed) tuition of $39,700 for incoming freshman. That probably means your tuition wouldn’t fall below the “normal” tuition until your junior year. St. John’s estimates your potential savings at $2,000.
The St. John’s guarantee isn’t really about saving you money but more about easing the fear of the astronomical college costs we have all been hearing about. That’s according its website “Just think—you will know the total cost of your four years of undergraduate study before you even start college– and you and your family will not have to worry about annual tuition increases.” You know how much the tuition is for the next four years so you can plan accordingly and not worry about rate increases.
Except for room and board.
It’s not included in the guarantee.
Given that the total cost of attendance at St. John’s starting in 2010 was $216,194, a potential savings of $2,000 doesn’t seem to be enough to be a major factor in my choice of which college to attend.
University of Illinois’ tuition guarantee plan works as you would expect so it really would be a savings of $3,822 over four years. But like the St. John’s plan, it doesn’t include room and board. The total cost of attendance for the four years without the discount would have been $111,816.
Now I’m not one to belittle $4,000 but given the total cost of attendance and the horror stories of $50,000, $75,000, or $100,000 in debt, I think people give more value to the guarantee than what it’s actually worth.
Which come to think about it, is probably exactly what the colleges intend.
You can argue that such tuition guarantees go a lot further a state institutions with lower tuition to begin with. Several states including Illinois and Texas have mandated four-year flat fees for their public universities. However, given that public institutions increase their tuition in response to cuts in state funding, you have to wonder as to the true cost of the savings. Guaranteed state tuition is good PR to mask reduced state spending on higher education.
The table below lists 103 four-year colleges with 500 or more full-time undergraduates with a guaranteed tuition based on information from the DIY College Rankings College Search Spreadsheet. I added schools that have announced that they will be implementing some version of tuition guarantees starting in the fall of 2015. Some of the guarantees apply to only selected students. This should not be considered a comprehensive list.
Next time, we’ll take a look at guaranteed graduation in four years.
Colleges with Guaranteed Tuition Plans
(4-year graduation rate for private schools, 5-year graduation rate for public schools)
Name State Type Full-time
Under-
graduates4/5 yr
Grad
Rate%
Admitted
AIB College of Business IA Private 732 69
Angelo State University TX Public 4726 28 80
Baylor University TX Private 13059 56 57
Becker College MA Private 1449 18 63
Brazosport College TX Public 968
Cameron University OK Public 3601 15
Chicago State University IL Public 2852 13 29
College of William and Mary VA Public 6195 89 33
Colorado State University-Global Campus Public 1520
Columbia College MO Private 9442 32
Concordia University-Irvine CA Private 1746 46 91
D'Youville College NY Private 1637 16 79
East Central University OK Public 3061 30 98
East Texas Baptist University TX Private 1066 20 74
Eastern Illinois University IL Public 7327 55 62
George Washington University DC Private 9609 74 33
Governors State University Public 1293
Hardin-Simmons University TX Private 1561 31 38
Hiram College OH Private 1117 58 57
Hofstra University NY Private 6380 45 59
Huntingdon College AL Private 898 34 63
Illinois State University IL Public 16632 68 69
Immaculata University PA Private 1184 40 80
Kettering University MI Private 1592 10 62
Lamar University TX Public 6604 25 77
Langston University OK Public 1836 22
Lincoln College IL Private 763 87
Metropolitan College of New York NY Private 810 20 55
Mid-Continent University KY Private 1903 7 70
Midland College TX Public 1544
Midwestern State University TX Public 3861 33 72
New England Institute of Technology RI Private 2401
Northeastern Illinois University IL Public 5068 13 60
Northeastern State University OK Public 5307 24 73
Northern Arizona University AZ Public 18769 45 91
Northern Illinois University IL Public 13821 49 56
Northland College WI Private 539 48 59
Ohio University-Main Campus OH Public 16863 60 73
Oklahoma City University OK Private 1646 39 72
Oklahoma Panhandle State University OK Public 1050 26 48
Oklahoma State University-Main Campus OK Public 17700 57 76
Pacific Union College CA Private 1454 23 51
Prairie View A & M University TX Public 6234 27 42
Quincy University IL Private 1080 42 89
Roger Williams University RI Private 3875 51 81
Rogers State University OK Public 2576 16 54
Saint Josephs College IN Private 1036 40 64
Sam Houston State University TX Public 13347 44 65
Sewanee-The University of the South TN Private 1580 74 60
South Texas College TX Public 10347 0
Southeastern Oklahoma State University OK Public 2650 25 80
Southern Illinois University-Carbondale IL Public 11844 43 79
Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville IL Public 9556 46 84
St John's University-New York NY Private 10908 37 53
Stephen F Austin State University TX Public 9333 39 57
Sul Ross State University TX Public 929 23 52
Tarleton State University TX Public 7412 34 57
Texas A & M International University TX Public 4069 32 48
Texas A & M University-College Station TX Public 39642 76 69
Texas A & M University-Commerce TX Public 5179 31 68
Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi TX Public 7283 34 93
Texas A & M University-Kingsville TX Public 6430 25 88
Texas A & M University-Texarkana TX Public 924 37
Texas Southern University TX Public 5342 10 45
Texas State University TX Public 25665 47 75
Texas Tech University TX Public 24338 57 66
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center TX Public 1197
Texas Woman's University TX Public 6347 41 86
The Sage Colleges NY Private 1446 41 57
The University of Texas at Arlington TX Public 15938 33 60
The University of Texas at Austin TX Public 36899 74 40
The University of Texas at Brownsville TX Public 4564 17
The University of Texas at Dallas TX Public 10628 60 59
The University of Texas at El Paso TX Public 12973 28 100
The University of Texas at San Antonio TX Public 20033 21 73
The University of Texas at Tyler TX Public 4091 37 82
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston TX Public 577
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio TX Public 740
The University of Texas Medical Branch TX Public 599
The University of Texas of the Permian Basin TX Public 1928 32 84
The University of Texas-Pan American TX Public 13119 32 62
Transylvania University KY Private 1069 68 96
University of Arizona AZ Public 28510 56 77
University of Central Oklahoma OK Public 10981 25 84
University of Colorado Boulder CO Public 23853 63 88
University of Dayton OH Private 7453 60 53
University of Houston TX Public 22829 36 58
University of Houston-Clear Lake TX Public 2092
University of Houston-Downtown TX Public 6895 7 95
University of Houston-Victoria TX Public 1466 51
University of Illinois at Chicago IL Public 15402 53 71
University of Illinois at Springfield IL Public 1969 46 60
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign IL Public 31516 82 62
University of Kansas KS Public 17193 58 92
University of Miami FL Private 10637 69 40
University of North Texas TX Public 24411 41 60
University of Oklahoma-Health Sciences Center OK Public 786
University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus OK Public 17538 61 80
University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma OK Public 806 38 62
Warner Pacific College Adult Degree Program Private 858
West Texas A & M University TX Public 5521 38 74
Western Illinois University IL Public 8805 50 59
Western Oregon University OR Public 4454 40 88
Love this…Thanks Michelle!