Private, nonprofit colleges and universities continue to significantly discount their published prices for undergraduates, according to a new study from the National Association of College and University Business Officers.
In the 2024 NACUBO Tuition Discounting Study, 286 private, nonprofit colleges and universities across the United States reported their tuition discounts for the 2023-24 school year and estimates for the current year. For 2024-25, estimates show that the tuition discount rate among these schools reached 56.3 percent for first-time, full-time undergraduates and 51.4 percent for all undergraduates. This means that for every dollar of undergraduate tuition and fees that these institutions could have charged, they awarded roughly 56 cents in grant aid to first-time undergraduates and 51 cents to all undergraduates who received institutional grant aid.
Most students received grant aid, which covered more than half of their total tuition and fee charges. About 83.4 percent of all undergraduates at participating institutions received grant aid in 2024–25, up from 82.8 percent the year before. Study participants estimate the grants in 2024–25 covered 63 percent of tuition and fees for first-time undergraduates and 58.3 percent for all undergraduates, up from 61.2 percent and 57.4 percent, respectively, in 2023-24.