Trustees approve 2000-2001 tuition
The Wake Forest University Board of Trustees gave tentative approval to new tuition and housing charges for the 2000-2001 academic year at its Feb. 3 and 4 meeting.
Full-time tuition for undergraduates will rise 4.6 percent to $22,410. This year, full-time tuition is $21,420.
The new tuition schedule calls for incorporating a miscellaneous fee of $31.50 for ThinkPad computer insurance. Previously, students have paid a separate fee.
Trustees will meet April 27-28 to give final approval to the university’s full budget.
Wake Forest’s current undergraduate tuition is among the lowest of the 42 “most competitive” private institutions listed in Barron’s Profile of American Colleges.” Others in the “most competitive group” include Ivy League schools, as well as North Carolina’s Duke University and Davidson College.
Only five of the schools in the group have equal or lower tuition compared to Wake Forest’s. They are located in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas and California.
New room charges also reflect an initiative to incorporate fees, as well as the inclusion of additional services.
“Generally, the university has refrained from charging fees,” said Maureen Carpenter, university controller. “There have been a few instances where fees were charged, and we are now absorbing them into tuition or room charges.”
Housing costs will increase from 9.5 percent to 12.9 percent, depending on the type of room and the hall. Included in the new rates will be the $40 cost of a post office box. Previously, residents have paid the cost as a separate fee.
Students living in campus housing will also receive two new services that will be included in their housing costs. A combination microwave oven and refrigerator (called a microfridge) will be placed in each room and each resident will be provided with access to laundry facilities at no cost.
Both new services are being added in response to student requests, said Connie Carson, director of Residence Life and Housing. By providing the special refrigerator-freezer/microwave units, the university will answer student requests to do some cooking in their rooms, she explained. The microfridge units, which are not available on the retail market, are designed to allow students to microwave food without using excessive power. The microfridges will not be provided in Student Apartments, the Townhouses, university-owned off-campus student residences, and Polo and North Residence halls, since those facilities have full kitchens and are built to handle the required electrical loads.
Students have also shown interest in improved laundry services on campus.
“Including the fees in the room rent will make it easy for students to do as much laundry as needed without having to add funds to their student ID cards throughout the year,” Carson said. “We also expect our laundry vendor to upgrade the laundry equipment this coming summer.”
The trustees also approved increases for part-time and summer school undergraduates. The new rates reflect a new policy, effective next year, of loaning ThinkPads to part-time and visiting summer school undergraduates. The increases also mark the first time that part-time and summer school costs have been adjusted for the Undergraduate Plan (launched as the Plan for the Class of 2000 in 1996).
Higher tuition rates were also approved for graduate, law, medical, MBA and divinity students. Graduate school tuition is being adjusted, for the first time, for the Undergraduate Plan, also. Although graduate students do not receive ThinkPads, they do benefit from other Plan initiatives.
The fee for automobile registration was increased by $25 to $150.
Financial aid for the current fiscal year totals more than $36 million. A total of 2,540 undergraduate students receive aid. That amounts to 66 percent of the undergraduates.
Need-based aid totals more than $22 million. Thirty-four percent of undergraduates receive need-based aid.
The average financial aid for all recipients is $14,393. The average need-based award for all recipients is $17,411.
Categories: Enrollment & Financial Aid, University Announcements
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