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.
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 tuition will cost $51,444, and so will your sophomore, junior, and senior years. 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.
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.
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.