BRENDAN BOND
AUG 15, 2014
It’s almost like clockwork. Every year, most schools, whether they are private or public, see an increase in college tuition costs. We went through Illinois private and public four-year universities to find which schools have the biggest tuition increase, by percentage, from 2013-14 to 2014-15.
Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) had the tuition and fees number for the 2013-2014 school year, but had not updated to the upcoming school year yet. As a result, the 2014-15 numbers are pulled from each school’s individual website. The tuition and fees numbers represent what it would cost an incoming, in-state freshman who is enrolling full-time at the respective school. Some schools have mandatory fees just for incoming freshman, so those are included. If the school’s tuition is listed by credit hour, we went off a 15-credit hour semester.
As noted in ISAC’s statistics, some schools such as University of Illinois at Chicago have differing tuition rates depending on the major of the student. We averaged the tuition rates, just as ISAC did with their data.
None of the tuition and fees rates include optional fees or room and board.
Below are the 15 Illinois schools which had the greatest increase in college tuition and fees cost from 2013-14 to 2014-15:
| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | 18.6% |
| Loyola University Chicago | 11.4% |
| Chicago State University | 10% |
| Illinois Institute of Technology | 10% |
| University of Illinois at Chicago | 9% |
| Shimer College | 7.7% |
| Lincoln College-Normal | 6% |
| Monmouth College | 6% |
| North Park University | 5.6% |
| University of Chicago | 5.6% |
| Benedictine University | 5.4% |
| Trinity Christian College | 5.3% |
| Bradley University | 5.1% |
| MacMurray College | 5.1% |
| Illinois College | 5% |
It’s interesting to note the school with the largest tuition and fees increase is the biggest public university in the state. Inside Higher Ed recently wrote about an Empirical Economics study that proved, from 1972 to 2003, in-state college tuition increases at four-year public schools are lower in election years, such as the one Illinois is currently in, than in other years. Writes Ry Rivard of Inside Higher Ed:
The study, published in the June issue of Empirical Economics by Kent State University Professor C. Lockwood Reynolds, found inflation-adjusted tuition is 1.5 percent lower in gubernatorial election years than in other years.
“If you’re a sitting governor up for re-election you would prefer that voters are receiving good signals about the state of the state,” Reynolds said. “And one of those might be tuition at a four-year institutions, because it’s announced pretty close to an election, and lots of people want to send their kids to college, and they probably don’t want to pay for it.”
For a natural control group, Reynolds, an economist, looked at private college tuition during the same period, from 1972 to 2003. It didn’t follow the same pattern as in-state tuition sticker prices at all. Instead, he found that private college tuition went up slightly more in gubernatorial election years than in non-election years, although the percentage increase was statistically insignificant.
Below is a full chart of the 55 four-year schools on the ISAC list that have also posted 2014-15 tuition and fees amounts on their websites. The chart includes the tuition and fees amount for both school years.
NEXT ARTICLE: The 15 best Illinois colleges, according to Forbes
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- Want to tell your elected officials what you think of the state of government in Illinois? Use our Sound Off tool. Brendan Bond is a staff writer at Reboot Illinois. He is a graduate of Loyola University, where he majored in journalism. Brendan takes a look each day at the Land of Lincoln Lowdown and it’s often pretty low. He examines the property tax rates that drive Illinoisans insane. You can findReboot on Facebook and on Twitter @rebootillinois.