It’s hard to say there’s such a thing as a ‘cheap’ Ivy League college, especially when you add in rent, books, and living expenses. On average, Ivies can cost double what typical US universities do, meaning tuition alone reaches over $60,000 per year. Let’s look at the details.
Education is, unfortunately, expensive, especially when it comes to US universities with the academic reputation and history of the Ivy League. In part, those high prices are down to high demand, there are at least ten applications for every place, even more for the most popular courses. However, the Ivy League’s reputation attracts the highest caliber — and therefore best paid — faculty, and the cost of that passes on to students.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there is little difference in the fees between the eight Ivy League colleges - Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, or Yale - and it’s perhaps better to think about the Ivy League more as a tier. Tuition and fees at an Ivy League school will typically be close to $60,000 a year, while costs for other public and private universities in the US are between the $30,000 and $40,000-a-year.
According to data collected by Statista, for example, Columbia is the third cheapest for tuition, but the most expensive overall when living costs are factored in. It means that, over a four-year course, Princeton will be nearly $50,000 cheaper than Columbia.
Columbia
- Fees $60,420
- Living costs $27,860
- Total $88,280
University of Pennsylvania
- Fees $63,452
- Living costs $17,888
- Total $81,340
Brown University
- Fees $65,146
- Living costs $15,840
- Total $80,986
Dartmouth College
- Fees $62,658
- Living costs $18,099
- Total $80,757
Yale University
- Fees $62,250
- Living costs $18,450
- Total $80,700
Cornell University
- Fees $62,456
- Living costs $17,088
- Total $79,544
Harvard University
- Fees $57,261
- Living costs $19,502
- Total $76,763
Princeton University
- Fees $57,410
- Living costs $18,630
- Total $76,040
Source: Statista
Is tuition to much for you? Look for Ivy league scholarships
Each Ivy League university has a generous set of scholarships and grants. While the specifics may differ, they all share similar principles. The most important is that they are intended to be generous enough that no-one receiving an Ivy League education should need to use loans to fund their course.
One way they achieve this is by making each scheme needs-based. Needs-based means that grants are not awarded for academic or athletic ability, but instead to any student who needs it. Around half of all students will receive a grant or a scholarship. And they all operate on the principle that anyone attending can access the support they require, so international students are not excluded.
Check out scholarships in the US on our portal
If you are applying for assistance, it’s important to check the rules before you apply for any course. Cornell, for example, will not offer grants to students at any time during their course if they indicated they would need not financial assistance in their initial application. It means that because the grants are generous, and it’s impossible to predict the future, it’s always worth applying, even if you do not think you are eligible at the time.
Collectively, though, the grants available can mean that despite the seemingly high price of an Ivy League education, most students actually pay significantly less. And, for many, the support available may make getting an Ivy League education one of the cheapest options available.
