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The $36,370 price tag, which may make GW the nation's most expensive university for incoming students, is a 3.9 percent increase from this year's freshman tuition.
The board traditionally implements yearly tuition hikes at its winter meeting. This year, however, University officials announced the increase early to let prospective students know about tuition before the application deadline. Next year's room and board costs will be made available in the spring.
Last year, after the board approved fixed tuition in February, admissions officials scrambled to inform students already admitted to the University about the plan. Scores of parents and students were upset that they were not notified about the plan before they committed to GW,
"We want to give students who are high school students as much advance notice as possible," University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg told The Hatchet.
The class of 2009 will be paying what could be the highest tuition in the country their freshman year. But their payments will be equal to and possibly less than tuition at other private universities when they become juniors and seniors.
Trachtenberg expects GW's tuition to drop "30 places" in the next few years. He cited the 20,000 undergraduate applications GW received last year's evidence that parents and students are attracted by the stability of the fixed plan.
"We are gratified with the overwhelming positive response to the University's fixed tuition initiative, designed to take the mystery out of the cost of higher education," Trachtenberg said in a written statement. "Bolstered by feedback from current and prospective students and their families, we are pleased to continue this innovative program for the next academic year."
