The university estimates that each senior graduating this spring will owe around $5,000 less than a student who graduated last spring. The spring class of 2017 is projected to leave UD with $6 million less in student loan debt than the previous year’s grads.
Officials called the debt decline a victory, especially since 2015 UD students graduated with an average debt of $35,740, around $5,000 more than the state average, according to a report from the Institute for College Access and Success.
In 2013, UD began promising prospective students their financial aid would match any increase in tuition so they would same price all four years in college. UD also got rid of individual fees and began offering four-year projections for the cost of housing and meal plans.
“I knew up front what my end of the financial impact would be, so I didn’t have that to worry about that,” Brown said. “I’m definitely an intensive planner… I would have had more stress figuring out how to pay. This kind of alleviates that.”
Brown, who is from Lexington, Kentucky, said the guarantee was why she chose UD over the University of Louisville and Bellarmine University in Louisville.
Officials are projecting the tuition model will generate a record four-year graduation rate this spring, though specific details will not be available until the May commencement draws closer, said Jason Reinoehl, UD vice president of enrollment management and marketing.
“We’re really excited about where we see this going,” Reinoehl said. “For sure we’re going to set an all time record for four-year graduation rates and for sure it’s going to be significant.”
The program has led to increased retention, Reinoehl said, meaning the students who usually transferred to another school because of rising costs are not leaving as often.
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UD officials this week credited the price plan for a 2 percent tuition bump for fall 2017, something they tout as a success because it’s the smallest increase in 45 years.
Full-time students currently pay $20,470 per semester at UD, according to the university’s website. Despite the university’s high price, president Eric Spina said the cost guarantee makes UD more competitive with other colleges.
“Our sticker price is not low, its significant but there’s a lot of value that comes with that sticker price,” Spina said. “But, when you think about the fixed net tuition, when you think about no fees, it doesn’t just make us competitive with schools in the state, it makes us competitive with schools around the nation.”
The success of UD’s price guarantee has drawn national attention, as the college was one of the first in the country to adopt such a model. The university has been featured in The New York Times and The Atlantic magazine, among others.
The attention has drawn the interest of other colleges around the state, officials said. Ohio University was the first school after UD to adopt a similar plan and Miami University last fall implemented a “tuition promise” that guarantees first-time students that tuition, room and board, special fees and course fees will not increase during their four years there.
“There’s some similar characteristics but overall ours still stands alone,” Reinoehl said.
While UD’s tuition solution has generated positive results, officials said it can be difficult to explain why the initial price tag for a UD degree looks so much larger compared to the one-year costs most other schools provide. The difference though is UD officials only have to have that conversation once with families, Spina said.
“It’s just a very transparent, open and honest conversation that we can have,” Spina said. “I think then that kind of changes the relationship of the university with the student and the family. We don’t have to talk about price any more…we can talk about the value piece.”
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