The Birmingham metro has four of the nation’s most expensive universities.
Coming in as the most pricey school in the metro is Samford University. It ranks among the top 400 most expensive schools in the nation. When accounting for “all-in” costs that included books, fees and “other on-campus expenses” for the typical student, the price tag comes to $52,514 annually in 2022. It is also the second most expensive university in the state, surpassed only by Auburn University with a cost of $53,810 annually.
Auburn University also recently ranked 97th in the National Universities category in the U.S. News and World Report rankings followed by Samford at 127th. The schools ranked as the top two in the state in the National Universities category.
The University of Montevallo follows Samford as the second most expensive in the metro with an annual cost of $40,866. The University of Alabama at Birmingham comes next at $39,462, followed by Miles College at $23,144.
Use the database below to find out how Alabama colleges and universities compare to the national leaders for cost of attendance.
Among 1,694 degree-granting four-year colleges that reported cost of attendance estimates since the beginning of the pandemic, roughly 74% hiked prices in the recently completed academic year. A total of 1,402 schools reported sticker-price increases over the course of the pandemic, with hundreds increasing their cost of attendance by 5% or more since 2020, according to Department of Education data. Last year’s median increase among all schools analyzed was 1.1%.
Among the nation’s 35 most expensive universities — which you can see in the gallery below — the median increase was 3.1% and cost of attendance increased at all 35 compared to 2021.
The increases corresponded with broad inflationary pressure throughout the U.S. economy, a theme many schools have pointed to when explaining recent pricing increases.
When accounting for “all-in” costs that included books, fees and “other on-campus expenses” for the typical student, University of Chicago’s asking price of $84,126 in the recently completed 2021-22 academic year was tops among all U.S. schools and marked a 3% change from the prior year, according to DOE. Some 28 schools topped the $80,000 threshold last year, compared to six in the 2020-21 academic year and only one — again, University of Chicago — in the year heading into the pandemic.
That pricing momentum has shown no sign of abating in the current academic year, particularly among schools already charging top dollar. A Business Journals review of newly published tuition figures for the current academic year puts Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois, as the most expensive school in the nation. The college’s “direct” cost of attendance of $82,908, which differs from the DOE’s measure, includes tuition, fees, and room and board.
That tally does not include books and other ancillary costs that can inflate the annual tab for students by another $5,000 a year, according to Northwestern’s website. The university said its direct student costs are up 4% this year over last.
Financial aid was not included in The Business Journals’ calculations. In a statement, Northwestern said north of 60% of its students received financial aid last year.
Schools with some of the largest increases in costs since the pandemic include the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where direct charges this semester are $81,340, up 10% versus what it asked two years prior during the 2020-21 academic period, according to Penn’s website. On a year-over-year basis, Penn’s direct costs are up 3% this semester, according to the university.
A university spokesperson said 45% of Penn undergraduates receive need-based financial aid, with an average award of $61,047.
Other schools to see increases in direct student costs of 4% or more this year are Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts (direct costs of $80,250), Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut ($80,590), University of Southern California in Los Angeles ($82,162) and Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania ($80,844).
The pricing increases follow a challenging financial period for most campuses. The U.S. government dispersed approximately $80 billion in relief funds for colleges and universities during the first two years of the pandemic. While some of the nation’s wealthiest schools, Northwestern included, did not accept those funds, many others including USC, which received more than $100 million in relief funds and deferred more than $80 million in Social Security taxes, did.
At the same time, many schools — Northwestern and USC among them — trimmed payroll and other expense categories as enrollment and on-campus activities downshifted during the pandemic. As of this month it remained unclear to what degree those expense cuts were restored on college campuses in the 2022 fiscal calendar that ended last spring.
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