A series of top US universities increased tuition fees

Next year's tuition for international students at 17 universities in the top 50 in the US will be about 60,900-69,900 USD, an increase of 3-9.9% compared to last year.

Among them, the University of Southern California, top 28 according to the US News rankings, has the highest income, more than 69,900 USD per year. Slightly lower, at around 68,000 USD, are Cornell (top 12), Brown (top 9) and Dartmouth (top 18). The remaining schools all have tuition fees of over 60,000 USD a year.

Regarding the increase rate, Rice University (top 17) increased tuition by 9.9% compared to last year, from 57,200 USD to 62,800 USD. This is the highest increase. Followed by Stanford University (top 3) and John Hopkins (top 9), both increased about 5%, to 62,900 and 65,900 USD a year.

The lowest increase belongs to the University of Virginia (top 24) with tuition of about 60,700 USD, up 3% compared to last year.

MIT
Stanford
Yale
Pennsylvania
Duke
Brown
John Hopkins
Cornell
Rice
Dartmouth
Georgetown
Carnegie Mellon
Emory
Virginia
Washington St. Louis
Nam California

The above rates mostly include tuition fees alone. If fees, housing and meals are included, the actual cost per student is higher.

For example, Emory University costs each student about 83,700 USD this year, while at Dartmouth it costs 87,700 USD. At Stanford University (top 3) and Duke (top 7), the package cost is also about 87,000 USD.

Explaining the reason for the tuition increase, most schools said it was due to inflation, increased teacher salaries and investment in facilities. For example, Brown University increased salaries for faculty and staff by 4.5%, the highest since 2009, to maintain competition in the labor market. MIT also spent money to establish the University Counseling Center (UAC) to support students in their studies, finances and career development.

"The increase in tuition and fees is due to annual increases in costs, such as recruiting world-class faculty, expanding programs, financial support...", quoted an announcement from the University of Pennsylvania (top 6) at the end of February.

In parallel with tuition increases, schools commit to increasing financial support to ensure opportunities to access higher education. Stanford University said it waived tuition and living expenses for families with incomes under $100,000 last year. At MIT, Rice and Pennsylvania, students whose families have an annual income of less than $75,000 enjoy a similar policy. At Duke, the income requirement is less than $65,000.

US News ranking organization data from 324 universities in the US shows that college costs, including tuition and living expenses, have increased over the past 20 years.

From 2004 to 2024, US public university tuition increased by 127-158%, depending on whether the student is in-state or out-of-state. Meanwhile, private schools do not differentiate tuition between international and domestic students, increasing by 132%.

Rising tuition costs have created a student debt crisis. According to CNN, the total outstanding student debt in the US is currently 1.6 trillion USD. 43 million Americans are in debt from college, many of whom carry debt into retirement.

For international students, rising tuition fees make pursuing the American dream more difficult. Most of them are not eligible for financial support from the government like local students, while they are only allowed to work a maximum of 20 hours per week.

The Open Doors report of the American Institute of International Education (IIE) said that in the 2022/23 school year, the US receives more than one million students from 210 countries and territories, an increase of 11.5% compared to the previous school year. More than 50% of international students choose to pursue a degree in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). All contribute about 40.1 billion USD to the US economy.

The number of Vietnamese students in the US is about 21,900, ranking fifth, contributing 816 million USD.