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News

Most-Expensive 4-Year Private Nonprofit Institutions, 2016-17

Almanac 2017 August 13, 2017

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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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.


Return to the Almanac home page, or go to the Profession, Students, Finance, or States section. To purchase a copy of the Almanac in print or as a downloadable interactive PDF, visit the Chronicle Store.


RankInstitutionTuition and feesRoom and boardTotal
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.

A version of this article appeared in the August 18, 2017, issue.
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