Make a gift in honor of the good that comes from BDN journalism in your hands, and help raise $60,000 this spring to support our reporting. Make a donation now.
Attending a college in Maine can now cost you nearly six figures a year.
Maine’s colleges and universities range from less than $30,000 a year to roughly $100,000 for in-state students, before financial aid, for the upcoming school year. Recent jumps in pricing have pushed Colby, Bowdoin and Bates to the verge of costing $100,000 a year — and can top that amount when accounting for various fees.
As the costs for most goods soar, so do the prices for colleges across the country. But Maine’s trio of “little Ivies” are among the nation’s most expensive. The average cost for in-state students to get a four-year degree is roughly $27,000, according to Education Data Initiative, but that number climbs to nearly $59,000 for those attending a private school.
However, the majority of students at each college receive financial aid, lowering the total cost to attend. The tuition and fees figures are taken from each institution’s pricing before financial aid is awarded.
“A national narrative about high costs and student debt has left too many Mainers believing door-opening postsecondary education is not within their reach, which is simply untrue,” Samantha Warren, a spokesperson for the University of Maine System, said.
Tuition costs account for the majority of the price to attend any university in Maine.
Colby, Bates and Bowdoin have tuition and fees costing more than $70,000. Colby edges out the competition with a $75,790 price tag for one year, while Bates is the least expensive of the group at $73,760. Bowdoin sits in the middle at $74,968.
All three colleges have hiked tuition costs in the past two years by between 3% and 6% per year.
Each school also charges roughly $20,000 for housing and food, pushing all of them near six figures in total costs for attendance.
Other fees factored into overall cost — like health insurance, books and travel — vary by student but are generally between $1,000 and $3,000. These fees can put the total cost to attend Maine’s most expensive colleges at more than $100,000 a year.
Another private college, Saint Joseph’s College of Maine in Standish, dips below the top three, with a total cost of $63,126 for tuition, fees, housing and food.
While the total costs are well above the national average, each college offers financial aid that they say can lower the price.
Colby offers financial aid based on income, a spokesperson said. Families earning less than $75,000 a year with typical assets won’t have any family member contribution toward the expense, a spokesperson said.
“Because of these commitments, the majority of Maine students pay significantly less than the published tuition amounts, making Colby an affordable reality for families across the state and beyond,” said Rosalind Drisko, a spokesperson for the college.
Bates awards more than $50 million in financial aid each year, with nearly half of all students receiving more than $64,500 in grants and loans.
Nearly 80% of in-state students attending Bowdoin receive a financial aid package of $74,057, according to Doug Cook, a spokesperson from the college. Bowdoin’s financial aid for in- and out-of-state students is above the national average, Cook said.
The Castine-based Maine Maritime Academy specializes in different skills than other public universities and costs $25,000.
A year of instruction and housing for an in-state student at the University of Maine Systems’s flagship university, the University of Maine, costs nearly one quarter of a year at Colby, Bowdoin or Bates, at $27,000. That price rose by roughly $1,000 earlier this year.
Across the system’s seven campuses, in-state students pay an average of $24,000 per year.
More than 85% of undergraduate students across the system receive financial aid, according to the system’s website. Those students are awarded an average of $9,000. Many students do not take out loans, but those that do have $26,000 in debt after graduation, Warren said.