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Mississippi College System Prepares for Tuition Hike

Mississippi College System Prepares for Tuition Hike

Most state college systems approve tuition increases on a yearly basis. However, the state college system in Mississippi recently announced that they are approving a multi-year tuition increase for the next two years that will impact eight public universities. Increases will be between 4.5 and 9 percent. The following charts show how the increases are distributed:

RESIDENT TUITION INCREASES

Institution

FY 2011

FY 2012

ASU

8%

8%

DSU

9%

9%

JSU

9%

9%

MSU

6%

6.3%

MUW

5%

5%

MVSU

4.5%

4.5%

UM

6.5%

6.5%

UMMC

6.5%

6.5%

USM

7%

7%

System Average

6.8%

6.9%

NON-RESIDENT TUITION INCREASES

Institution

FY 2011

FY 2012

ASU

8%

8%

DSU

9%

9%

JSU

9%

9%

MSU

6%

6.3%

MUW

5%

5%

MVSU

4.5%

4.5%

UM

6.5%

6.5%

UMMC

6.5%

6.5%

USM

0%

0%

System Average

6.1%

6.1 %

USM president Martha Saunders said that the two-year tuition increase schedule will have a two-fold benefit.”(It’s) part of an overall strategy for a proactive business strategy, (and) students and their families can plan for the cost of their education,” she said.

The silver lining to this multi-year tuition increase is that first year students going to a state college in Mississippi this coming year will already know what their tuition expense will be for the next two years. No surprises right? – That is always good! The bad news is that it is still an increase (each year) and it will provide additional tuition expense for students. Unfortunately, as state school systems across the nation continue to encounter budgets woes, my hunch is that tuition increases in the upper single digits and lower double-digits are probably likely to occur in other states. Maybe Mississippi will still come out on the low-end of tuition increases when compared to their peer institutions from other states?

This information brings up a good point. If you are going through the college search process, be sure to ask your prospective college what their tuition increases have been on average in the past 2-5 years. The answer they provide will by no means set into stone what you can expect your tuition increases to be but past performance does provide a good indicator for what you may experience in the future.

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