College tin beryllium a life-changing prime — and a lifelong investment.
When deciding wherever to apply to college, students person to contend pinch a facet beyond the imaginable of acquisition and careers: the sometimes astronomical costs of assemblage tuition.
Today, complete 42.8 cardinal Americans beryllium a equilibrium connected their student loans, and the outstanding national student indebtedness equilibrium totals astir $1.7 trillion, according to the Education Data Initiative.
Last year, the College Board reported that the mean value of tuition and fees for undergraduate students astatine backstage nonprofit four-year institutions was $45,000 for the 2025-2026 schoolhouse year, while the mean value astatine a nationalist four-year in-state school was $11,950.
That's conscionable the start, however. When including housing and nutrient costs, full-time students who unrecorded connected field astatine backstage four-year universities and colleges salary $60,920 a year. Adding the costs of books, transportation, and different expenses raises the mean to $65,470, the College Board reported.
We've listed the astir costly colleges successful the US, from mini wide arts schools to Ivy League universities, and classed them based connected the yearly cost of tuition, fees, room, and board, arsenic reported by the institutions.
The totals do not see different imaginable costs, specified arsenic books, transportation, and wellness insurance.
The costs of lodging and nutrient tin look different for students who unrecorded astatine location pinch family aliases successful off-campus housing, but they thief supply a afloat image of what college expenses tin be, particularly for first-year students, who are sometimes required to unrecorded connected field and opt into a schoolhouse repast plan.
In creating this list, we utilized rankings from US News & World Report, The College Investor, and Best Colleges, which we confirmed utilizing each school's charismatic tuition listings for the 2026-2027 schoolhouse year.
See really overmuch it costs to be the 35 astir costly schools successful the US successful 2026.
35. New York University
Location: New York City
Tuition and fees: $68,576
Room and board: $26,438
Total cost: $95,014
34. Bates College
Location: Lewiston, Maine
Tuition and fees: $74,235
Room and board: $20,800
Total cost: $95,035
33. Hamilton College
Location: Clinton, New York
Tuition and fees: $75,960
Room and board: $19,290
Total cost: $95,250
32. Colby College
Location: Waterville, Maine
Tuition and fees: $75,790
Room and board: $19,480
Total cost: $95,270
31. Boston University
Location: Boston
Tuition and fees: $74,594
Room and board: $20,740
Total cost: $95,334
30. Bowdoin College
Location: Brunswick, Maine
Tuition and fees: $75,008
Room and board: $20,432
Total cost: $95,440
29. Pomona College
Location: Claremont, California
Tuition and fees: $72,080
Room and board: $23,590
Total cost: $95,670
28. Tulane
Location: New Orleans
Tuition and fees: $75,134
Room and board: $20,538
Total cost: $95,672
27. Pepperdine University
Location: Malibu, California
Tuition and fees: $75,202
Room and board: $20,490
Total cost: $95,672
26. Swarthmore College
Location: Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
Tuition and fees: $73,204
Room and board: $22,566
Total cost: $95,770
25. Dartmouth College
Location: Hanover, New Hampshire
Tuition and fees: $74,123
Room and board: $21,778
Total cost: $95,901
24. Williams College
Location: Williamstown, Massachusetts
Tuition and fees: $76,640
Room and board: $19,320
Total cost: $95,960
23. Northwestern University
Location: Evanston, Illinois
Tuition and fees: $73,062
Room and board: $22,941
Total cost: $96,003
22. Wellesley College
Location: Wellesley, Massachusetts
Tuition and fees: $72,930
Room and board: $23,206
Total cost: $96,136
21. Cornell University
Location: Ithaca, New York
Tuition and fees: $74,970
Room and board: $21,348
Total cost: $96,318
20. Amherst College
Location: Amherst, Massachusetts
Tuition and fees: $76,040
Room and board: $20,320
Total cost: $96,360
19. Haverford College
Location: Haverford, Pennsylvania
Tuition and fees: $75,482
Room and board: $20,959
Total cost: $96,441
18. Boston College
Location: Newton, Massachusetts
Tuition and fees: $77,644
Room and board: $18,834
Total cost: $96,478
17. Trinity College
Location: Hartford, Connecticut
Tuition and fees: $76,150
Room and board: $20,330
Total cost: $96,480
16. Columbia University
Location: New York City
Tuition and fees: $76,960
Room and board: $19,650
Total cost: $96,610
15. Colgate University
Location: Hamilton, New York
Tuition and fees: $77,290
Room and board: $19,356
Total cost: $96,646
14. Fordham University
Location: New York City
Tuition and fees: $70,949
Room and board: $25,805
Total cost: $96,754
13. Vanderbilt University
Location: Nashville
Tuition and fees: $73,206
Room and board: $23,690
Total cost: $96,896
12. Georgetown University
Location: Washington, DC
Tuition and fees: $74,732
Room and board: $22,180
Total cost: $96,912
11. Vassar College
Location: Poughkeepsie, New York
Tuition and fees: $77,160
Room and board: $19,800
Total cost: $96,960
10. Washington University successful St. Louis
Location: St. Louis
Tuition and fees: $72,722
Room and board: $24,272
Total cost: $96,994
9. Brown University
Location: Providence, Rhode Island
Tuition and fees: $77,652
Room and board: $19,464
Total cost: $97,116
8. Tufts University
Location: Medford, Massachusetts
Tuition and fees: $76,558
Room and board: $20,594
Total cost: $97,152
7. Wesleyan University
Location: Middletown, Connecticut
Tuition and fees: $76,620
Room and board: $21,660
Total cost: $98,280
6. Duke University
Location: Durham, North Carolina
Tuition and fees: $76,759
Room, and board: $22,029
Total cost: $98,788
5. University of Southern California
Location: Los Angeles
Tuition and fees: $77,336
Room and board: $21,952
Total cost: $99,288
4. Barnard College
Location: New York City
Tuition and fees: $76,142
Room and board: $23,258
Total cost: $99,400
3. Claremont McKenna College
Location: Claremont, California
Tuition and fees: $76,220
Room and board: $23,270
Total cost: $99,490
2. University of Chicago
Location: Chicago
Tuition and fees: $79,395
Room and board: $21,414
Total cost: $100,809
1. Harvey Mudd College
Location: Claremont, California
Tuition and fees: $77,530
Room and board: $24,782
Total cost: $102,312
Editor's note: This communicative was primitively published successful November 2025. It was astir precocious updated successful September 2026 to bespeak pricing for the 2026-2027 schoolhouse year.
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Kristine Villarroel is simply a newsman connected Business Insider's Editorial Partnerships team.Her reporting often turns information into accessible stories astir really money, education, policy, and spot style Americans’ lives. She covers stories connected college costs and degree outcomes, state-by-state comparisons, public officials’ salaries, the rising costs of living, travel, food, and real estate.She has antecedently worked penning astir culture, entertainment, music, and tech. Her activity has been featured connected Teen Vogue and Wired. She graduated from the University of Florida pinch a grade successful journalism. There, she worked arsenic editor of The Independent Florida Alligator. Email Villarroel astatine [email protected] and travel her connected X @ktnedelvalle
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