Announcement

Emerson College announced today that charges for full-time undergraduate tuition and a typical room and board package will increase next year by 4.3 percent, from $45,550 to $47,526. The new charges, approved by the Board of Trustees, are $33,568 for tuition and $13,958 for a double room with board.

The new per-credit charge for part-time undergraduate and graduate students will be $1,049 per credit hour, beginning September 1, 2012. The basic cost of taking a four-credit course will increase from $4,016 to $4,196. The percentage increase for tuition alone is 4.5 percent.

More than half of the 2012–2013 tuition increase is offset by increases in institutional financial aid in support of Emerson’s efforts to maintain economic diversity in its student population. Financial aid now represents 25 percent of the College’s operating budget, up from 19 percent just five years ago.

In a letter to parents and students, Emerson College President Lee Pelton and Chair of the Board of Trustees Jeffrey Greenhawt wrote: “Emerson College’s Board of Trustees is mindful of the impact that tuition increases have on students and their families and, therefore, has sought to keep annual tuition increases as low as possible, while, at the same time, meeting the College’s operating and capital needs—now and into the future.”

In their letter, Pelton and Greenhawt went on to note that Emerson plans to be especially vigilant and to seek creative ways to hold down future tuition increases. “Because Emerson is heavily dependent on tuition to meet its expenses, we are seeking to identify ways to diversify our revenue sources, including a major effort to increase substantially our endowment,” Pelton and Greenhawt wrote. “Additionally, we have created an Efficiency Task Force whose purpose is to seek cost reductions in our operations,” they continued.


About the College

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, opposite the historic Boston Common and in the heart of the city’s Theatre District, Emerson College educates individuals who will solve problems and change the world through engaged leadership in communication and the arts, a mission informed by liberal learning. The College has 3,780 undergraduates and 670 graduate students from across the United States and 50 countries. Supported by state-of-the-art facilities and a renowned faculty, students participate in more than 90 student organizations and performance groups. Emerson is known for its experiential learning programs in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, the Netherlands, London, China, and the Czech Republic as well as its new Global Portals, with the first opening last fall in Paris. The College has an active network of 51,000 alumni who hold leadership positions in communication and the arts. For more information, visit Emerson.edu.