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- graduates | 4/5 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!