More colleges offering free tuition to middle-class families

The burden of student debt and the difficulties gauging college costs have reached such a fever pitch that more schools are taking big steps to make college less expensive.

A desire at some schools to fulfill promises related to affordability and the dire need at other schools to offset declining enrollment have resulted in a boon for families earning upward of six figures: More schools are offering free tuition to middle-income families.

If your family earns less than $75,000, Brandeis University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Richmond will cover your child’s full cost of tuition starting fall 2025.

The same will be true for students enrolled at the nine University of Texas campuses whose parents earn below $100,000.

Starting fall 2025 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania, students from families earning up to $200,000 a year — a cutoff that includes the vast majority of American families — will pay no tuition.

At MIT, students were happy about the news of the aid, said Enoch Ellis, who is student body president. But he has also heard complaints that their school, and ones like it, are “middle-class killers”: painful to students who are too poor to pay full tuition, but too wealthy to receive generous financial aid.

Amir White is one of those whose family was squeezed in the middle.

He was happy for his friends and others who have been getting generous financial aid, but his family’s income was above the former threshold, and he has struggled to pay for MIT.

He expects to leave school with more than $50,000 in student loans. “It’s nice to see so many low-income people have access to these resources,” he said. “But for those of us who are middle class, it is stressful.”

His family would meet the new cutoff. “Many people will benefit from this,” he said.

Schools are fundraising and using endowment funds to cover the increase in financial aid.

At some schools, the initiatives are new, while others have expanded on or simplified existing efforts. University leaders say they are sending a clear message that their institutions are affordable for a large and important portion of the college-going public.

“Many families look at the sticker price and they think, ‘Wow, I can’t afford that.’ And they don’t realize the amount of financial aid that they can get awarded,” said Stuart Schmill, dean of admissions and student financial aid at MIT. “Policies like what we’ve enacted can help communicate affordability.”

Vanderbilt University expanded its aid this year as well, offering full-tuition scholarships to students whose families earn $150,000 or less. “We want to be a destination for the most promising students, irrespective of their financial circumstances,” said Daniel Diermeier, Vanderbilt’s chancellor. “I think it has transformed the university.”

Across the board, colleges and universities have made significant investments in financial aid in recent years. Institutional grant aid grew by 30% between 2013-2014 and 2023-2024, according to the College Board. The money schools provide now accounts for a larger share of their students’ financial aid than state and federal dollars.

The undergraduate tuition programs announced in the past year vary in size and scope. Many plans provide funding after state and federal grants are taken into account — what’s known as a last-dollar model. Some have academic requirements or are open only to area residents.

All have earnings thresholds — between $55,0000 and $200,000 — that capture families in the middle of the income spectrum.

The Census Bureau pegged the median household income at $80,610 in 2023. Families that earn between two-thirds and double that figure — or $53,740 and $161,220 — are considered middle income, according to the Pew Research Center.

Efforts to promote college affordability have long focused largely on students from households at the lower end of the income scale.

While families in the middle can qualify for financial aid, they are receiving a smaller share of grants and scholarships and absorbing a larger portion of the cost of attendance.

The latest federal data from the Education Department shows students from

families earning between $75,000 and $110,000 received half as much in grants and scholarships as those whose parents made less than $48,000 in the 2021-2022 academic year.

At the same time, the share of middle-income undergraduates on college campuses has been slipping. Data released by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center in October shows that students from middle-income neighborhoods account for about 20% of the decline in 18-year-old freshman enrollment.

Still, higher education experts say policies to support families in the middle must not come at the expense of those who have even fewer resources to cover the cost of college.

Schmill at MIT said the school’s increased support for middle-income students “doesn’t diminish the need to offer robust financial aid for low-income students,” which he called a necessary first step. He said the private research university already offers generous scholarships for low- and middle-income students but wanted to communicate that more clearly.

MIT, where tuition for the 2024-2025 school year was about $62,000, will lift the income threshold for free tuition from $140,000 a year to $200,000 in fall 2025.

Students whose families earn less than $100,000 will also get their housing and dining expenses covered, up from the current level of $75,000.

Penn is taking a similar approach to MIT by upping its threshold for free tuition from $140,000 to $200,000.

The Ivy League university will also pay for room, board and books for students whose families make less than $75,000 a year.

In addition, Penn will no longer count home equity in its calculation to determine financial aid, a change Penn estimates will result in affected students receiving an average increase of $4,000 in grant aid from the university.

“One of the things we hear most frequently from families is, ‘You’re penalizing us for the equity that we’ve built up into our home,’” said Mark Dingfield, vice president for finance and treasurer at Penn. “Taking that part of the calculation off the table will give families a better sense of their capacity to pay.”

There was a lot of excitement about the news on campus, said student Shivani Desai. The senior who works as a peer educator counseling Penn classmates about finances knows the concern many have about affording college and navigating the forms required for aid.

“It is something that’s always in the back of your mind,” she said. Now, she said, that burden will be reduced for those who qualify.

For years, wealthy universities have used their considerable resources to cover expenses for undergraduates of modest means. Harvard University began waiving tuition for families earning below $40,000 a year in 2004, while Penn and Yale University instituted similar policies in 2008.

Now some schools are signaling to students with more resources that they can also expect significant financial support.

Ultra-wealthy private schools are not the only ones making that calculation.

In October, the University of Massachusetts said tuition and fees at all four of its campuses would be fully covered for instate undergraduates whose families earn less than $75,000, while the University of Wisconsin made a similar announcement in August for students whose families earn less than $55,000.

Last year, the University of Texas System announced it would waive tuition at all nine campuses for Texas residents making under $100,000 starting this fall.

In the case of UMass and UT, the public systems are bringing parity to campuses across their institutions, many of which already had tuition guarantees.

The Texas Board of Regents established a $167 million endowment in 2019 to cover tuition and fees at UT Austin for instate students from families making up to $65,000.

Three years later, they expanded the program to all UT institutions, with income thresholds ranging from $65,000 to $125,000.

As one of the largest state university systems in the country, with more than 256,000 students, UT’s expansion of its financial aid could have a far-reaching impact.

“We have been looking for ways over the past several years to send a strong message to Texans that college is affordable,” James Milliken, chancellor of the UT system, said. “And we’ve become convinced that this is one of the clearest ways to deliver that message.”

Large public institutions have struggled to maintain similar tuition commitments as the popularity of the programs stretched resources too thin or state support dwindled. Wisconsin had to retool the tuition policy it debuted in 2023, which initially covered students whose families earned $62,000, after state lawmakers refused to fund a second year.

Several schools that have made tuition commitments this year are small, private liberal arts institutions in New England, a region teeming with colleges and competition for a declining population of high school graduates. Tuition pledges offer a way to stand out and attract high achievers who have their pick of private and public institutions.

The University of New England in Maine, a private research university, will provide free tuition to students who hold a 3.8 GPA and hail from families earning less than $100,000 starting next fall.

“We’re dealing with a population of students who tend to gravitate toward the publics,” said James Herbert, president of the University of New England in Maine. “All we’re trying to do is get them to take a look at some of the privates they may not have heard of but may be a better fit.”