TCU is increasing tuition by 3% for the 2025-2026 academic year.
The Board of Trustees approved next year’s tuition hike, saying it will support “sustainability and initiatives to enhance TCU’s academic and student experience,” in an email sent out to students Monday.
Tuition at TCU has risen every year for a decade, with 2020 being an exception.
Flat-rate tuition for full-time students costs $30,825 per semester, or $61,650 per year. That’s compared to $38,150 per year in 2014 and compared to Harvard’s 2024-25 tuition at $56,550 per year.
Last year, the board approved a 7.9% increase “to maintain operations and future essential endeavors,” according to an email sent to students. They also implemented differential tuition for students in the Neeley School of Business. They now pay $250 more per credit hour.
Next year’s increase will apply to students in all of TCU’s colleges, including Neeley and the Anne Burnett School of Medicine. Need-based aid will go up by 3% as well, according to the email.
In a statement, TCU Student Body President Dominic “Dom” Mendlik said the following:
“While SGA does not have a direct voice in conversations surrounding tuition, I am keenly aware that issues surrounding affordability are of foremost importance to our student body. The Student Government Association continues to consistently advocate for additional resources to be put towards student scholarships and financial aid and that these must be top priorities in fundraising and capital campaigns. Meeting student need is crucial to ensuring access to a TCU degree. Above all, it is SGA’s imperative to continually communicate to University leadership that revenue growth cannot sustainably come from undergraduate tuition increases. That is how we fulfill our mission as SGA to advocate for the student body.”
The Office of the Chancellor and President has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Students react to next year’s tuition hike
“I love TCU so I’m gonna make it work either way,” Sara Harris, a first year pre-business major, said. She said while her scholarship covers the Neeley differential tuition, “I do feel for the people that that’s gonna directly affect.”
Izzy Miller and Emily Wagner, both junior biology majors, said they wished there could be a grandfather clause that keeps tuition the same rate during a student’s tenure at TCU.
“It’s a consideration of us choosing a school,” Wagner said.
“I think a tuition increase is gonna be inevitable,” Miller said, but she wants to see more transparency from administration on where the funds will be used. “I don’t know where that money’s going.”
Danh Pham, a first-year biophysics major, said the increase doesn’t affect him because he is on scholarship.
“It is definitely a financial burden,” Pham said, “but our spending also has to increase eventually to adjust for inflation… so I understand the motives behind the increase.”
In addition to tuition, the board also approved a plan to build a four-story parking garage in East Campus with 770 new spots. The board expects it to be completed in the fall of 2026.
