Georgetown University announced a 4.5% increase in undergraduate tuition for the 2024-25 academic year, the third increase in the past three years. 

With the 4.5% increase, tuition for the upcoming academic year will be $67,824, a figure that does not account for room and board. This increase comes after the university announced a 3.5% tuition increase in 2022 and a 4.9% increase in 2023 for the current academic year. 

A university spokesperson said the university considers several factors when setting the tuition price, including educational costs, faculty and staff salaries and national price inflation, while also seeking to support students with financial aid. 

“Georgetown is deeply committed to ensuring that all students and families can afford the cost of a Georgetown education,” a university spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “Georgetown plans to continue our commitment to our ‘meet full need’ policy and provide financial aid for all eligible new and continuing undergraduate students across our campuses. The University will increase its institutional support for financial aid in the face of these tuition, room and board increases.”

In a Jan. 12 email to undergraduate students, Provost Robert M. Groves said the university allocated $257 million in financial aid for undergraduate and graduate students in the current academic year. Groves said the additional tuition cost will go to providing students with resources such as academic programming and account for rising costs.

“The tuition rate reflects a balanced approach to managing rising costs, as well as providing the resources needed for academic and student priorities, new programs and initiatives and our commitment to minimizing add-on fees,” Groves wrote. 

Private universities like Georgetown saw a 4% increase on average in tuition for this current academic year. While this average tuition increase is less than the inflation rate of 4.5%, the cost of tuition will remain increasing with inflation, according to Forbes.

Kyndall Jackson (CAS ’27), a member of the Georgetown Scholars Program (GSP), an organization that supports first-generation and low-income students (FGLI), said she expected the increase in tuition based on inflation. 

“Because of how the economy is going with inflation, I knew that they were going to raise tuition,” Jackson told The Hoya. “I knew that for at least by the time I graduate. I just didn’t know that it would happen this soon.”

The prices of colleges and universities have generally increased due to the rising expenses schools face and the impacts of inflation. During the 2022-23 academic year, Boston College increased its tuition by 3.86%. The University of Pennsylvania enacted a 4% tuition increase for the 2023-24 academic year. 

Jackson said the university’s increase in tuition without yet knowing her cost of attendance after aid means she and other low-income students fear they will be unable to attend Georgetown next semester. 

“I’m honestly scared,” Jackson said. “With tuition increasing, I’m questioning if my aid will increase. The only reason I go here is because of my aid.”

Barbara Brousseau (CAS ’94) studied economics and French at Georgetown and has a high-school senior daughter who is considering attending Georgetown. Brousseau said she believes that despite the tuition increase, Georgetown still aims to promote the opportunity for all potential students to attend through need-based aid and programs like GSP. 

“Georgetown wants to be engaged in a lot of different socioeconomic communities,” Brousseau told The Hoya. “I do think that is not lost, even if there is a tuition hike. There are other ways that Georgetown is trying to ensure there is diversity in the makeup of the student body in a really significant and real way.”

To promote socioeconomic diversity on campus, Georgetown supports FLGI students through the GSP, servicing over 2,000 graduates since the inaugural class in 2009.

Brousseau said seeing Georgetown provide both need-based aid and increasingly strong programs represents Georgetown’s investment in students. 

“When I visit Georgetown, I ask, ‘What do the buildings look like? What do the programs look like? What does the food on campus look like?’” Brousseau said. “Every time I go back, it’s always better. Yes, it is an investment, but the money is going to the right things.” 

Brousseau added that an institution’s tuition may be a deciding factor for some students, but Georgetown’s opportunities and community represent a substantial investment in education. 

“At 30 years out, I wouldn’t trade my Georgetown experience,” Brousseau said. “It’s priceless to me.”