PROVIDENCE — Want to attend Brown University? The cost of going to the Ivy League this year is creeping up to just shy of six figures.
Facing a $29 million deficit due in part to federal actions by the Trump administration, Brown’s governing board voted over the weekend to approve a 4 percent tuition hike for undergraduate students for the upcoming academic year.
As of July 1, tuition at Brown will cost $74,568; other fees, including room and board, will total $22,338. Brown’s total cost of attendance will be $97,016 for the 2026-27 academic year. That price tag does not include indirect costs, such as books, travel expenses, or other items that vary based on individual students.
Over the past decade, Brown’s tuition alone has increased by nearly 50 percent — from $50,224 during the 2016–17 academic year to $74,568 this coming fall.
“While we continue to contend with an uncertain, challenging period of financial decision-making and losses in Brown’s budget from federal impacts, we remain focused on advancing our cutting-edge research and academic innovation,” said provost Francis J. Doyle III in a statement.
Brown also boosted its financial aid for undergraduates by another $6.5 million. Brown covers the full tuition for families earning $125,000 or less with typical assets. Students with families who earn less than $60,000 annually with typical assets receive scholarships that cover all expenses, including tuition, room, board, books, and other costs.
By contrast, Yale University in New Haven, said in January it would waive tuition costs for newly admitted students who come from families who earn less than $200,000 annually. Princeton University in New Jersey last summer said most students from families with incomes of up to $150,000 would pay nothing to attend, and the majority of students with family incomes of up to $250,000 would pay no tuition. Both universities boast much higher endowments compared to Brown’s $7.2 billion; standing at $41 billion and $36.4 billion, respectively.
Among current students at Brown, 48 percent receive need-based financial aid with an average aid package of $68,458, covering approximately 71 percent of the standard cost of attendance, Brown spokesman Brian Clark told The Boston Globe.
Graduate tuition for most doctoral and on-campus master’s degree programs will also increase by 4 percent to $9,320 per course. Medical school tuition will increase by 2.57 percent to nearly $75,200.
Despite the generous financial aid packages, Shellee Howard, the founder and chief executive of global college admissions strategy firm College Ready, said while many families won’t actually pay the full $97,000 cost, the high price tag does shape who can realistically consider universities like Brown as an option.
“Families most likely to be priced out are often middle- and upper-middle-income households who appear comfortable on paper but lack liquid cash flow, especially those in high cost-of-living areas, small-business owners, or families with multiple children in college,” said Howard.
Brown, like many of its peers, is bracing for further headwinds under the Trump administration. While Brown’s controversial settlement agreement with the federal government last year restored millions in funding, university officials said they are expecting negative financial impacts from various federal actions, including reduced federal budgets for some sponsored research agencies, increased net investment income taxes (such as new tiers to the “endowment tax”), and challenges with tuition-generating programs that admit international students. Enrollment data reviewed by the Globe showed that Brown has yet to see a significant dip in international students. Yet Clark said Brown’s executives expect those financial losses from federal actions to deepen in 2027.
Howard said federal actions can affect research overhead, timing of reimbursements, compliance costs, and overall planning risk, and universities often make preventive budget moves “because uncertainty itself is expensive.”
“The biggest ongoing issue is volatility; when federal policy is unpredictable, universities build more conservatism into their budgets, and that caution can linger even after a specific issue is resolved,“ said Howard.
During the fall 2025 semester, Brown eliminated 55 unfilled positions and laid off 48 filled positions across campus. Clark declined to confirm any specific positions that were cut, citing private personnel information.
The Brown Corporation also approved a 3 percent faculty and staff salary pool for employees earning up to $80,000, and a 2 percent pool approved for those who earn more. Those funds include base increases of either 2.5 or 1.5 percent.
The tuition hike at Brown comes as the annual cost of some Ivy League colleges is quickly approaching $100,000.
The total cost of attendance at Yale for the 2026-27 academic year will be about $98,000. Cornell University’s total cost reached nearly $93,000 for the 2025-26 academic year; the university has not yet revealed any potential tuition hikes for the next year. Dartmouth College estimated the total cost to attend is nearly $95,490, which does not include some additional fees associated with orientation for first-year students. Harvard estimates their total cost to be nearly $87,000 this year.
The sticker prices at other universities around the region have already surpassed $100,000, including Wellesley College. Other private schools are close behind, including Boston College, Tufts University, and Brandeis University where the total annual cost of attendance was well above $90,000 this year. Tuition hikes are expected at many of these schools, but have yet to be announced.
These tuition increases signal “how stratified American higher education has become,” said Catherine Rymsha, a visiting lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Even with financial aid, these sticker prices “are wildly misaligned with median US wages and the rising cost of living,” said Rymsha, which is “effectively squeezing upper-middle-income families who earn too much to qualify for full aid but lack the wealth to absorb near–six-figure annual costs."
Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.