Belmont is set to increase its tuition to around $21,270 per semester for the 2024-25 school year, following costs for construction of the new Thomas F. Frist, Jr. College of Medicine and its simulation center Provost David Gregory announced at a faculty senate meeting on Feb. 5
The average cost of tuition for the 2022-23 academic year was $41,320, according to Belmont’s website.
The announced increasement will take tuition cost to around $42,540.
“It’s important that we hold our expenses down because our tuition rate increase will be right at 3.6-3.7%,” said Gregory.
The tuition increase ended up being set at 2.94%.
For freshman Skyler Duplessis, tuition and aid played a large role in her college decision.
“I think it makes sense that they’re increasing it, just given inflation in the world and prices in general,” she said. “But I also think that as tuition slowly rises through the years, Belmont needs to look at upping scholarships as well in order to balance out the costs. Because ultimately, while tuition is going up, people may not be able to track with it.”
As noted in Gregory’s email, the increase is “the lowest percentage in well over a decade.” However, the increase still poses issues for Belmont students.
“Knowing from one of my own friends who is having trouble with this, I’d say that it is actually a really significant increase,” said sophomore Eva Sanderson. “And it will keep a lot of students from having the opportunity to come here because of that.”
Gregory also expressed his concerns with the FASFA, as the university has yet to receive information from the FASFA necessary to determine what additional financial aid students need.
Universities are not going to get FAFSA applications until sometime in March.
“The normal process is our parents and students already know what their packages are by this time,” said Gregory. “So we’re looking at things with Charles Harper who does a great job. ‘What can we do?’”
Harper, the Associate Director of Student Financial Services and Director of Financial Aid typically addresses concerns like this.
Belmont is down 16% in deposits compared to last year.
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This article was written by Anna Blubaugh