The Ӱ Board of Trustees has voted once again to freeze tuition for undergraduate students in 2019–20, bucking a nationwide trend of rising college costs for both public and private institutions.
This is the second year that Ӱ has placed a cap on tuition for both residential and online undergraduate students.
“We put our students first,” said President Pamela R. Fox, “We recognize that increased tuition costs can create a hardship for our students and their families, and we want to do what we can to alleviate that burden. I am proud that our Trustees have taken the lead and recognized the need for support for the second year in a row.”
According to the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia, tuition rates this year rose at an average of 5.9 percent at Virginia’s four-year colleges and universities.
Ӱ provides financial aid to nearly every one of its students. Last year Fox also reinstated an additional line of tuition support for high-achieving sophomores and juniors with unmet financial need. In addition, the Commonwealth of Virginia provides $3,400 for undergraduate students that attend private universities through the Tuition Assistance Grant.
With Ӱ’s undergraduate tuition at $30,690, and the average aid package providing about $22,000, Mary Baldwin’s cost remains competitive with Virginia’s public colleges and universities.
For the second year in a row, a record number of students are applying to and making their tuition deposits at Ӱ. This past fall, Ӱ enrolled its largest first-year class of residential students, and so far, the university is on track to surpass that number.
The 2019–20 tuition freeze applies to all Ӱ students with the exception of modest increases for graduate students in the physical therapy, occupational therapy, and physician assistant programs.
