As you start to compare the costs of your top colleges, you may see the term “Tuition Guarantee.” A tuition guarantee is a simple, straightforward incentive that guarantees the cost of undergraduate tuition for a set term. At Drake University, our tuition guarantee is valid for all undergraduate students who enter directly from high school or transfer part-way through their bachelor’s degree and is valid for four years. Tuition guarantees usually don’t apply to part-time students or those in graduate or professional programs.
Tuition guarantees make planning for the cost of college easy. You will know what the cost of tuition is going to be during your senior year once you enroll for your first year. The price of tuition under a tuition guarantee will not increase, unlike at schools without this incentive.
Savings over four years
Let’s say one school you’re looking at has a 4-year undergraduate tuition guarantee set at $51,444. That means for your first year, your gross tuition will be $51,444, and so will your sophomore, junior, and senior years. This does not take into account the annual savings from scholarships and grants. More on that to follow.
For the sake of simplicity, let’s say the second school you’re looking at is also $51,444 for your first year. But they don’t have a tuition guarantee, and they increase the cost of tuition by 3.5% every year. Your sophomore year, your tuition would cost $53,244.54, your junior year would cost $55,108.10, and your senior year would cost $57,036.88. By choosing a school without a tuition guarantee, you’ve paid an extra $11,057.52 by the time you graduate, just from the tuition increase alone.
Scholarships and grants
Another great thing about a tuition guarantee is that it does not affect scholarships. If you remain in good standing with your university, you can redeem your scholarship for its full term, making that final, fixed tuition cost as low as possible. At schools without a guarantee, if you earn a $20,000 scholarship for four years, that award does not increase by our example 3.5% from above to match your higher tuition costs.
When looking at tuition costs, it’s important to distinguish between gross tuition (the “sticker price”) and net tuition (how much you’ll actually pay). So, for example, $51,444 is the tuition guarantee at Drake University for full-time undergraduates. This is the gross amount before factoring in scholarships and grants. At Drake, 100% of undergraduates receive a Presidential Scholarship that covers 51-66% of gross tuition cost, putting net tuition (or out-of-pocket costs) in the range of $17,490-$25,208, and there are many ways to further lower net cost through additional scholarships and grants.
It is important to note that a tuition guarantee does not cover the cost of housing, meal plans, textbooks or other course materials, or any other required fees like technology or wellness fees.
Learn more about Drake’s Tuition Guarantee.
