October 1, 2001

Baylor moves to flat rate for tuition
___WACO--The education may be advanced, but the math will get much simpler for parents sending their children to Baylor University next fall.
___For the first time, the university will charge a flat-rate tuition rather than a tuition based on the number of credit hours a student takes.
___The basic rate will be $15,700 per year for students taking 12 or more hours per semester.
___Current students will not be charged the flat rate. Rather, the new tuition structure will be phased in with each entering class.
___In adopting the new structure, Baylor's board of regents also voted to limit future tuition increases for existing students to 6.8 percent annually for the next four years.
___The new pricing plan also will not impact students in Baylor's Truett Theological Seminary or Law School. Baylor will strive to keep Truett's tuition competitive with other Baptist seminaries, according to President Robert Sloan.
___As part of the new pricing plan for the majority of Baylor students, the regents also announced a plan to double all categories of merit scholarships and increase the number of scholarships based on need.
___Currently, 45 percent of Baylor students receive merit scholarships and more than 70 percent receive financial aid of some kind, Sloan said.
___The flat-rate tuition will encourage undergraduate students to take larger class loads and therefore not stretch a four-year degree into five or six years, he added.
___The new rate, part of Baylor's 10-year plan to become one of the top 50 universities in the United States, will represent a significant increase in tuition for students without financial aid.
___The current tuition is $379 per hour, which translates to $12,128 per year for students carrying 16-hour loads both semesters or $13,644 for students carrying 18-hour loads. That's a 29 percent increase for students taking 16 hours a semester and a 15 percent increase for students taking 18 hours a semester. The percentage increase will be greater for students carrying less than a 16-hour class load.
___While the new pricing structure will place Baylor's tuition rate higher than other Texas Baptist schools, Baylor will remain a good value compared to the average tuition for private institutions in Texas, according to Baylor spokesman Larry Brumley. Baylor's tuition price will be higher than Texas Christian University but lower than Southern Methodist University, according to data provided by Brumley.
___Baylor will cost about $10,000 per year less than Duke, Vanderbilt and Notre Dame, he added.

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