BC Ranks No. 37 on Expensive College List

Campus Grotto, a national college news publication recently released its rankings of the most expensive colleges in the country. Boston College came in as the 37th most expensive school with a total cost of $54,528 for the 2011-2012 academic year.

This year's total cost at BC is up just under $3,000 from the 2010-2011 academic year. BC also dropped four spots in the rankings of most expensive schools from 33rd to 37th. The top three most expensive schools are Sarah Lawrence College, New York University, and Columbia University, respectively. Sarah Lawrence's total costs for this year are just under $60,000 at $59,170. This is Sarah Lawrence's fourth year in a row atop the rankings.

Despite being 37th in overall cost, BC came in at 48th in the rankings for tuition with a cost of $41,4180. Fees are not a major factor in the overall cost, demonstrating BC may have fairly high room and board fees.

The article explains that, "while the names on this list haven't changed much over the years, the numbers sure have. When we first started ranking colleges by cost back in 2007, only one school [George Washington University] had a total cost of over $50,000, now 111 schools do." Consequently, despite the increasing need for a college degree, it seems to be increasingly more difficult to pay for.

BC students and administration do not seem overly upset or concerned with the ranking, and for good reasons. Not only did BC drop four spots in the rankings this year, it dropped 13 spots from 2009-2010 to the 2010-2011 years.

When asked about this ranking and the overall cost of BC, University Spokesman Jack Dunn said, "Boston College works hard to limit tuition increases through careful assessment and planning, and by operating as efficiently as possible, while not sacrificing the academic programs, student services, and facilities that have helped to distinguish BC as one of the nation's best universities."

BC may remain in the upper echelon of the country's colleges when it comes to cost, but the administration is doing what it can to limit this cost and BC students still receive quite a product for their $54,528.

Tuition was increased 3.6 percent from the 2010-2011 year. However, financial aid increased 6.5 percent, or $5.1 million, bringing it to a total of $84.5 million.

"We also remain one of just 21 private universities that is need-blind in admissions and meets the full demonstrated need of all accepted students, which reflects our ongoing commitment to making BC accessible to students of all backgrounds," Dunn said.