Ellie Park, Multimedia Managing Editor

The 2025-26 term bill for Yale College will be $90,550, the University announced on Feb. 10. 

The 3.9 percent bump, consisting of a $2,650 tuition bump and a $750 increase in housing and meal costs, continues the decade-long trend of consistent annual increases of just under 4 percent.

“[The increase was] our normal increase in finance, tuition, room and board to reflect the fact that the cost of everything goes up,” Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis told the News. “It’s important to remember that students on financial aid … won’t be paying the extra [portion] if their family income isn’t going up, so the effect is mostly on those who are paying the full price.”

Recent threats to Yale’s endowment and federal funding did not cause the rise, Lewis said. The mandatory Student Activities Fee, which is not included in the term bill but accounted for by Yale’s financial aid, will also increase from $125 to $175 due to shortcomings in funding for student organizations.

Yale has consistently raised the term bill by just under 4 percent each year since 2015, a rate that has mostly surpassed the rate of inflation rate of the year before the term bill was determined. It first surpassed $80,000 for the 2022-23 term and $70,000 for the 2019-20 term.

Adjusted for inflation, the 2021-22 term bill was the highest ever. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, annual tuition increases have fallen below high inflation rates until this latest bump.

Griffin Hengelsberg, a high school student touring the campus, told the News that the term bill increase would have a minimal impact on whether he would choose to attend Yale, especially due to the financial aid package.

“I think that the financial aid will benefit me as much as it needs to,” Hengelsberg said.

Linda Hengelsberg, Griffin Hengelsberg’s mother, told the News that whether financial aid would completely cover the increase in the term bill is an important decision-making consideration. 

Henry Shang ’28 said that he was glad that the increase would not immediately impact students receiving financial aid.

“I think that’s fine, so long as [the bill after] financial aid remains the same. I just know that college gets more expensive every year,” Shang said. “I doubt that is going to happen, and I think that people who are on partial financial aid are going to see their tuition rise, maybe in the future.”

Yale awarded almost $68,800 in need-based scholarships on average for the 2024-25 academic year. 

In the Yale News press release about the increased term bill, Kari DiFonzo, director of undergraduate financial aid, said that “if a family’s financial circumstances stay the same, their net cost will stay the same.”

“Our decades-long commitment to admitting all students regardless of their financial need, and meeting 100 percent of that need, has made Yale College more diverse and more excellent. Maintaining that commitment as we increase the class size will ensure that costs will not be a barrier for the world’s most promising students,” Jeremiah Quinlan, dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid, said in the Yale News press release.

All financial aid offers made for Yale undergraduates are completely based on a family’s demonstrated financial need.

Still, with the comparatively lower 2.9 percent inflation rate, the planned expansion of enrollment and recent changes to dining halls, Shang questioned if the change would actually enhance student life.

Since 1810, the Yale College term bill has decreased once, for the 1943-1944 term.

Karla Cortes contributed reporting.