How much will it cost your children to go to Stanford University?
If you are a Freshman at Stanford University today, your child could pay an estimated $278K to $323K for tuition and fees, in today’s dollars, to attend the same school. That's an increase of $120K compared to the cost today.
Estimate 1 is based on the school's average tuition increase over the last 10 years.
Estimate 2 is based on the school's average tuition increase over the last 3 years.
Annual Inflation vs. Tuition Change at Stanford University
For the past decade, annual inflation has averaged 1.8%, while Stanford University has increased costs 3.5% per year.
Stanford University Annual Tuition in 2019 Dollars
After adjusting for inflation, Stanford University tuition & fees are up 17.5% over the past decade
Projected Tuition & Fees Over Time
If you are a Freshman today, your child will pay $69K to $81K / year, in today’s dollars, to attend Stanford University.
Estimate 1 is based on the school's average tuition increase over the last 10 years.
Estimate 2 is based on the school's average tuition increase over the last 3 years.
Projected Tuition & Fees Over Time
If you are a Freshman today, your child will pay $69K to $81K / year, in today’s dollars, to attend Stanford University.
Estimate 1 is based on the school's average tuition increase over the last 10 years.
Estimate 2 is based on the school's average tuition increase over the last 3 years.
See what could happen at your school or alma mater
How did we run the numbers?
- Step 1: Look at nominal tuition and mandatory fees for each school, as reported by IPEDS. This includes data through the 2017-18 academic year.
- Step 2: Adjust historical tuition + fees for 2019 dollars. Multiply nominal data by inflation factor. Specifically, anchor on 2019, look at Bureau of Labor Statistics data on what a dollar in 2018 is worth in 2019, for example. Repeat the process for all previous years.
- Step 3: Now that you have inflation adjusted tuition + fees, calculate the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the past 10 years. Mechanically, the formula is (Final Year Tuition / First Year Tuition)^(1/10)-1. You can also do this over a 3 year period.
- Step 4: Project future costs. We've already adjusted for inflation in the previous step, so the formula is (2019 tuition + fees) X (1 + Inflation Adjusted CAGR)^(t years in the future).