Class of 2012

Spider_Admission
Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:34:34 +0000

Otis,
There are many factors that go into calculating the total cost of attendance of a given university outside of just tuition. While tuition is oftentimes a large portion of your expected costs it is not the only measure by which to distinguish universities based on price. I would also encourage you to look at what a given institution has done with tuition dollars to improve their facilities or to bring about changes to campus that reflect students’ needs. I firmly believe that while Richmond underwent a substantial tuition adjustment a couple of years ago, our commitment to meeting students’ needs and improving campus facilities has never been stronger.

The Forbes ranking is not really accurate. The University of Richmond is not the second-most-expensive college in the country. Although we have repeatedly brought it to their attention, Forbes.com and other news media persist in using ‘tuition’ as their basis for comparing costs, when they should be using ‘cost of attendance.’ ‘Tuition’ is defined in various ways from campus to campus. At Richmond, it is a comprehensive fee covering virtually all fees except room and board. Elsewhere, it is one of many charges that must be totaled to accurately determine the cost of going to College XXX for a year. When ‘cost of attendance’ is compared, Richmond isn’t even in the top 50. That isn’t to say attending Richmond is inexpensive, but the university believes it is charging what it must in order to provide the high quality instruction and facilities it has traditionally offered.