US college costs approach $100,000 per year

Tuition, housing, food and insurance for international students at some US universities is up to 95,000 USD, a record high and could exceed 100,000 USD next year.

Ahead of the 2024-2025 admissions season, many US universities have announced increases in some fees by 3-9.9%. As a result, the total amount that international students need to pay is up to more than $90,000 (VND2.3 billion).

In early April, an engineering student at Vanderbilt University, a top 18 school according to Us News , received a letter stating that he had paid more than $98,400 in tuition, fees, housing, personal expenses, and a laptop. This is an unprecedented amount in the history of higher education in the United States.

At Tufts University, the total cost for a new student is expected to be nearly $96,000, while the University of Southern California and Pepperdine estimate around $95,200. On their websites, many other schools estimate costs for international students to be $81,000-$90,000 a year.

Of this, about 70-80% is tuition. The rest is mainly insurance, housing and food. In addition, students need to pay for library fees, campus activities, transportation and other personal expenses.

11 universities with the highest total costs for international students in the top 100:

School	Rating (US News 2024)	Cost (USD/year)
Vanderbilt University	18	98,426
Tuft University	40	95,888
Pepperdine University	76	95,234
University of Southern California	28	95,225
New York University	35	93,184
University of Pennsylvania	6	92,288
Wake Forest University	47	91,266
Yale University	5	90,975
Boston University	43	90,207
Brandeis University	60	89,824
University of Rochester	47	89,326

US News data from 324 colleges in the US shows that college costs, including tuition and living expenses, have increased about 40% over the past 20 years.

If we only count tuition, public university tuition in the US increased by 127-158%, depending on whether the student is in-state or out-of-state. Meanwhile, private universities, which do not differentiate between international and domestic students, increased by 132%.

Schools have cited inflation, rising faculty salaries and investment in facilities as reasons for the increase. With tuition rising an average of about 4% annually, the cost of attending college in the U.S. for an international student could exceed $100,000 next year, according to Bryan Alexander, a senior scholar at Georgetown University.

Along with increasing tuition fees, many schools also increase financial aid for international students.

Vanderbilt said families earning less than $150,000 a year will not have to pay tuition. Stanford University has waived tuition and living expenses for students from families earning less than $100,000 since last year.

At MIT, Rice and Pennsylvania, if parents earn less than $75,000 a year, students are eligible for similar policies.

Vanderbilt University campus, USA. Photo: Vanderbilt University Fanpage — Vanderbilt University campus, USA. Photo: *Vanderbilt University Fanpage*

In the 2022-2023 school year, about one million international students will come to the US, contributing about $40.1 billion to the economy, according to a report by the Institute of International Education (IIE).

Of these, Vietnamese students accounted for about 21,900, ranking fifth, contributing 816 million USD. The majority of international students pursued degrees in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics).

Doan Hung ( According to Strait Times, CNBC, US News )

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