Why Tuition Prices Keep Increasing in 2025

Hailan Yu, Williams College, Sophomore, Summer 2025

For the first time in American history, the sticker price for undergraduate tuition has officially surpassed $100,000 a year. Wellesley College recently announced that its full annual cost of attendance will pass this figure for the 2025–2026 academic year. Other highly ranked institutions are not far behind, with annual costs climbing well above $90,000 (CBS News, 2025). Tuition sticker prices at many elite colleges are set to rise by 4% or more this year, signaling a troubling trend in higher education affordability (Forbes, 2025).

“It’s honestly shocking that tuition is hitting $100,000 a year, and we don’t even know where that money is going,” said Felicity Cole, college student. 

While some may argue that financial aid helps low- and middle-income families, increases to cost of attendance widen the gap between the institutional cost of delivering education and the financial capacity of most American households. Even students receiving aid often face steep out-of-pocket expenses or are forced to take on significant debt.

These rising costs are not coming out of nowhere. A sharp increase in U.S. tariffs is further driving up expenses. As of June 2025, the average effective tariff rate has surged to 14.2%, up from just 2.3% last year (Fitch Ratings, 2025). These tariffs, aimed primarily at imports from China and other major trading partners, are inflating the prices of goods and services that colleges depend on. Additionally, the Senate’s version of the OBBA was passed in July 2025 “[holds] colleges accountable for the earnings of former students who received federal financial aid,” increasing the financial burden of a college education even more (EAB, 2025). Jonathan Fansmith, the senior vice president for government relations and national engagement at the American Council on Education, told Forbes that the bill shifts both jurisdiction and funding away from institutions to the federal government, preventing schools from using the money for what the school and students want like financial aid support (Forbes, 2025).

Hannah Surrette, political science student researcher, advises prospective students to be proactive, “to take the time to research each school’s financial aid system, including need-based and merit-based scholarships, work-study opportunities, and private and federal loan practices… it’s important they understand the full financial commitment of attending their top-choice institutions”.

Statistics: 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2025/04/01/tuition-sticker-prices-increasing-by-4-or-more-at-many-elite-colleges/ 

https://www.fitchratings.com/research/sovereigns/world-economy-will-slow-sharply-despite-us-china-tariff-de-escalation-26-06-2025 

https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/wellesley-college-tufts-university-tuition-costs/ 

https://eab.com/resources/blog/student-success-blog/what-the-obbb-and-the-new-carnegie-classification-could-mean-for-higher-education-accountability/ 

Interviews: 

Hannah Surrette, Williams College Stanley Kaplan Scholar

The Stanley Kaplan Program in American Foreign Policy enables students to pursue studies of the past, present, and future of American leadership in world affairs. Thanks to a generous contribution from a donor, the program is able to bring distinguished visiting professors in both history and political science to spend a year offering courses to students at Williams. Students who are particularly interested in American foreign policy leadership have the opportunity of pursuing a concentration in leadership studies.

Felicity Cole, Sophomore at Davidson College

Questions for Hannah: 

1. As a Stanley Kaplan Program in American Foreign Policy scholar that focuses on world affairs, what are your opinions on tariffs on upper level education in America? 

2. What do you foresee for the future in terms of tariffs and tuition prices? 

3. What are your opinions on the OBBA in terms of tuition prices?

Questions for Felicity: 

Context: Wellesley is the first school to increase their cost of attendance for the 25-26 school to $100K. Other elite schools, especially liberal arts colleges, are soon to follow suit, also increasing their tuition every year (not past $100K yet)

1. As a liberal arts college student, what are your thoughts on another liberal arts college, Wellesley, increasing the cost of attendance to over $100k for the 2025-2026 school year?

2. In your time at Davidson, have you seen the school increase programs, student sizes, or projects that may have been the reason that the cost of attendance increased for students?

3. Do you think that Trump’s tariff policies may have taken a toll on the increase of material costs for liberal arts college students and thus the increase in cost of attendance for liberal arts college students?

“[the bill is] taking money that was given to institutions for charitable purposes and giving it to the federal government, which basically means it’s not being used for the purposes it was given, which is financial aid support, research, things that people really want schools to spend their money on”