Among the 100 most expensive colleges with the highest published costs for students, 64 charged tuition and fees exceeding $50,000 in 2016-17, and 25 had room-and-board fees above $15,000. Massachusetts and New York had the most institutions among the top 100, with 19 each, followed by Pennsylvania, with 14, and California, with 12.
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1. | Harvey Mudd College | $52,666 | $17,051 | $69,717 |
2. | Columbia U. | $55,161 | $13,244 | $68,405 |
3. | U. of Chicago | $52,491 | $15,093 | $67,584 |
4. | Columbia U. School of General Studies | $53,445 | $13,586 | $67,031 |
5. | Sarah Lawrence College | $52,550 | $14,440 | $66,990 |
6. | Claremont McKenna College | $50,945 | $15,740 | $66,685 |
7. | Scripps College | $50,982 | $15,682 | $66,664 |
8. | New York U. | $49,062 | $17,578 | $66,640 |
9. | U. of Southern California | $52,283 | $14,348 | $66,631 |
10. | Dartmouth College | $51,438 | $15,141 | $66,579 |
11. | Haverford College | $51,024 | $15,466 | $66,490 |
12. | Southern Methodist U. | $50,358 | $16,125 | $66,483 |
13. | Bard College at Simon’s Rock | $52,385 | $14,060 | $66,445 |
14. | Trinity College (Conn.) | $52,760 | $13,680 | $66,440 |
15. | Northwestern U. | $50,855 | $15,489 | $66,344 |
16. | Pitzer College | $50,430 | $15,762 | $66,192 |
17. | Amherst College | $52,476 | $13,710 | $66,186 |
18. | Bard College | $51,614 | $14,540 | $66,154 |
19. | Georgetown U. | $50,547 | $15,572 | $66,119 |
20. | Oberlin College | $52,002 | $14,010 | $66,012 |
21. | U. of Pennsylvania | $51,464 | $14,536 | $66,000 |
22. | School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts | $52,430 | $13,566 | $65,996 |
22. | Tufts U. | $52,430 | $13,566 | $65,996 |
24. | Barnard College | $50,394 | $15,598 | $65,992 |
25. | Brandeis U. | $51,548 | $14,380 | $65,928 |
26. | Fordham U. | $49,073 | $16,845 | $65,918 |
27. | Johns Hopkins U. | $50,910 | $14,976 | $65,886 |
28. | Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering | $49,986 | $15,800 | $65,786 |
29. | Duke U. | $51,265 | $14,438 | $65,703 |
30. | Franklin & Marshall College | $52,490 | $13,120 | $65,610 |
31. | Carnegie Mellon U. | $52,310 | $13,270 | $65,580 |
32. | Occidental College | $51,070 | $14,460 | $65,530 |
33. | Vassar College | $53,090 | $12,400 | $65,490 |
34. | Williams College | $51,790 | $13,690 | $65,480 |
35. | Drexel U. | $51,065 | $14,367 | $65,432 |
36. | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | $50,797 | $14,630 | $65,427 |
37. | Washington U. in St. Louis | $49,770 | $15,596 | $65,366 |
38. | Reed College | $52,150 | $13,150 | $65,300 |
39. | Boston College | $51,296 | $13,818 | $65,114 |
40. | Boston U. | $50,240 | $14,870 | $65,110 |
41. | Bennington College | $50,570 | $14,520 | $65,090 |
42. | U. of Rochester | $50,142 | $14,890 | $65,032 |
43. | Colgate U. | $51,955 | $13,075 | $65,030 |
44. | Connecticut College | $50,940 | $14,060 | $65,000 |
45. | Pomona College | $49,352 | $15,605 | $64,957 |
46. | Wesleyan U. (Conn.) | $50,912 | $13,950 | $64,862 |
47. | Tulane U. | $51,010 | $13,844 | $64,854 |
48. | Cornell U. | $50,953 | $13,900 | $64,853 |
49. | Yale U. | $49,480 | $15,170 | $64,650 |
50. | Bucknell U. | $51,960 | $12,656 | $64,616 |
51. | Hobart and William Smith Colleges | $51,523 | $13,050 | $64,573 |
52. | Brown U. | $51,366 | $13,200 | $64,566 |
53. | Bates College | $50,310 | $14,190 | $64,500 |
54. | George Washington U. | $51,950 | $12,500 | $64,450 |
55. | St. Lawrence U. | $51,200 | $13,190 | $64,390 |
56. | Union College (N.Y.) | $51,696 | $12,678 | $64,374 |
57. | Skidmore College | $50,834 | $13,530 | $64,364 |
58. | Pepperdine U. | $50,022 | $14,330 | $64,352 |
59. | Middlebury College | $50,063 | $14,269 | $64,332 |
60. | Hamilton College | $51,240 | $13,010 | $64,250 |
61. | Bryn Mawr College | $48,790 | $15,370 | $64,160 |
62. | Carleton College | $50,874 | $13,197 | $64,071 |
63. | Colby College | $50,960 | $13,100 | $64,060 |
64. | U. of Notre Dame | $49,685 | $14,358 | $64,043 |
65. | Dickinson College | $51,205 | $12,794 | $63,999 |
66. | Wellesley College | $48,802 | $15,114 | $63,916 |
67. | Smith College | $47,904 | $16,010 | $63,914 |
68. | Hampshire College | $50,550 | $13,274 | $63,824 |
69. | Babson College | $48,288 | $15,376 | $63,664 |
70. | Swarthmore College | $49,104 | $14,446 | $63,550 |
71. | Bowdoin College | $49,900 | $13,600 | $63,500 |
72. | Cleveland Institute of Music | $49,106 | $14,382 | $63,488 |
73. | Lafayette College | $48,885 | $14,470 | $63,355 |
74. | Kenyon College | $51,200 | $12,130 | $63,330 |
75. | Northeastern U. | $47,655 | $15,600 | $63,255 |
76. | Chapman U. | $48,710 | $14,368 | $63,078 |
77. | Harvard College | $47,074 | $15,951 | $63,025 |
78. | Gettysburg College | $50,860 | $12,140 | $63,000 |
79. | Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at the New School | $44,540 | $18,420 | $62,960 |
80. | Wake Forest U. | $49,308 | $13,404 | $62,712 |
81. | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | $48,452 | $14,210 | $62,662 |
82. | Colorado College | $50,892 | $11,668 | $62,560 |
83. | Stanford U. | $47,940 | $14,601 | $62,541 |
84. | Villanova U. | $49,430 | $13,093 | $62,523 |
85. | Stevens Institute of Technology | $48,838 | $13,500 | $62,338 |
86. | College of the Holy Cross | $48,940 | $13,225 | $62,165 |
87. | St. John’s College (Md.) | $50,228 | $11,888 | $62,116 |
88. | St. John’s College (N.M.) | $50,898 | $11,162 | $62,060 |
89. | Macalester College | $50,639 | $11,266 | $61,905 |
90. | Boston Conservatory | $43,860 | $18,000 | $61,860 |
91. | Webb Institute | $47,400 | $14,400 | $61,800 |
92. | Ursinus College | $49,370 | $12,320 | $61,690 |
93. | California Institute of Technology | $47,577 | $14,100 | $61,677 |
94. | Wheaton College (Mass.) | $49,012 | $12,500 | $61,512 |
95. | Davidson College | $47,897 | $13,547 | $61,444 |
96. | Emory U. | $47,954 | $13,486 | $61,440 |
97. | Santa Clara U. | $47,112 | $13,965 | $61,077 |
98. | Vanderbilt U. | $46,110 | $14,962 | $61,072 |
99. | Drew U. | $47,752 | $13,296 | $61,048 |
100. | Lehigh U. | $48,320 | $12,690 | $61,010 |
Note: The figures represent charges to first-time, full-time undergraduates based, typically, on a nine-month academic year of 30 semester hours or 45 quarter hours. The data do not reflect the lowered cost of attendance at an institution for some students after grants and other student aid are considered. Room-and-board fees charged by colleges may represent differing numbers of meals per week and so may not be comparable among institutions. Survey responses from more than 1,200 private nonprofit four-year colleges were analyzed for this ranking. More data are available at https://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing.
Source: “Annual Survey of Colleges 2016,” © 2016, the College Board. This material may not be copied, published, rewritten, or redistributed without permission.