Tuition fees, including comprehensive fees, and room and board, will increase by 3 percent in three years, compared to competitors’ increases of 5 percent.
According to the College’s Vice President for Finance, Planning and Treasurer Lori Sundberg, the tuition increase is based on comparisons to other Midwest colleges. “Including next year’s tuition rate, the tuition increase has been approximately 3.1 percent in the last three years,” Sundberg said. “We set that increase based on what we observe other colleges doing. It’s a market price, not a calculation. You see what competitors are doing and set the price in a reasonable way.”
Sundberg said the cost of attending Lake Forest College has remained “lower than our competitors, the Associated Colleges of the Midwest,” which includes small, liberal arts colleges like Beloit, Cornell, and Ripon, according to the ACM website. “Some of these schools were increasing (their costs) by 5 percent, which we didn’t think was that reasonable,” Sundberg said.
While the College’s tuition has increased, Sundberg said the overall budget remains “pretty static.” The College’s 2016-17 Revised Budget lists all expenses and income, including tuition. Because tuition is “one component” of the College’s total income, Sundberg said, it is not possible to equate tuition to the total expenses. The College’s 2016-17 budget reveals the net tuition revenue is approximately $26 million, and the total income amounts to $44 million.
“You can’t match tuition to the sum of those expenses, it is a whole pool of revenue and expense,” Sundberg said. The budget shows the College relies on a variety of income sources, including tuition, residence hall charges, annual funds or gifts from alumni or community members, and other auxiliary, such as renting out the ice rink and dorms during the summer.
While the Revised Budget shows that the tuition billing rate is $43,392, the average student is paying $18, 248. “On average, a student at Lake Forest gets a discount of close to 60 percent off tuition price,” Sundberg said. Despite the discounted tuition rate, the Revised Budget shows the gross tuition at approximately $63 million. “Gross tuition is each student times actual tuition,” Sundberg said.
Two students agreed that the discounted tuition fees were a reason they attended the College. “Personally, myself and a lot of others are here because of the scholarships. They are willing to negotiate,” Audrey Schuetz ’18 said. Fellow student Emily Morris ’17 agreed. “I chose this school because of the financial aid,” Morris said.
Each year, the Board of Trustees must approve the College’s budget after it goes through an extensive process. Sundberg described the budget approval process as having three avenues to pass through. “We start with a budget model and we forecast enrollment to get net tuition,” Sundberg said. “We then take a look at what we can afford for wage increases and any change in expenses.”
“Everybody who is a budget manager goes into a meeting with the president and me to present a budget, it then is taken to the College Council, and then [the president] will take it to the Trustees who will approve it,” Sundberg said.
Students can access more information about tuition on the College website’s Tuition and Fees page.
