Ivy League tuitions creep up to nearly $90,000 a year

In the old days, being accepted into Harvard was the hardest part

Former Harvard students include US Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, actors Matt Damon and Tommy Lee Jones, former US presidents Barack Obama and John F Kennedy, and actresses Natalie Portman and Stockard Channing. Photo: Nick Allen

Kayaks at the John W Weeks Bridge and clock tower over Charles River in Harvard University's campus in Boston, Massachusetts. Getty

Despite popular opinion, and this statue, John Harvard did not establish the university, but he was the first major benefactor, donating half of his estate and his library. AP

Harvard University is one of cheaper the Ivy League options. AP

Harvard, the first university in the American colonies, was founded On September 8, 1636. Reuters

US presidents Woodrow Wilson and James Madison graduated from Princeton University. Getty

Michelle Obama, US Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and actress Brooke Shields are a few of the notable people to attend Princeton. Reuters

Former US president John F Kennedy left Princeton University to attend Harvard. Alarmy

The library and McGraw bell tower on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, New York. Getty

Cornell graduate Sandy Weill is an American banker and philanthropist who was chief executive of Citigroup for more than a decade and has an estimated net worth of $1.8 billion. Getty

Another notable Cornell billionaire is software pioneer David Duffield who co-founded Workday and PeopleSoft. AP

Brown University is in Providence, Rhode Island. The Boston Globe / Getty

Ivy League students such as Zoe Fuad have pushed officials to end legacy admissions, saying it is rooted in racism. AP

Actress Emma Watson left Hogwarts for a real education at Brown University. AP

Brown University is the seventh oldest in the US. Alamy

Four female students filed a federal class action lawsuit claiming Brown University systematically and repeatedly failed to protect women from assault. AP

Yale University is in New Haven, Connecticut. Reuters

Former president Bill Clinton met his wife and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton at Yale. Both Bush presidents went there as did Meryl Streep, James Franco, Jennifer Connelly, Jodie Foster, Claire Danes, Anderson Cooper and Hunter Biden. Reuters

Vice presidents Gerald Ford and Dick Cheney attended Yale. AP

The highly respected Yale University went co-ed only 51 years ago. AP

US Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh attended Yale. Alamy

Columbia University is on the northern end of New York City, New York. Getty

Former president Barack Obama, actors Jake Gyllenhaal, Amanda Peet, Julia Stiles and Casey Affleck, musician Alicia Keys, investor Warren Buffett and aviatrix Amelia Earhart all attended Columbia University. Reuters

Hundreds attend a December 3, 2021 candlelight vigil for Columbia University graduate student Davide Giri, who was killed in Central Park while cycling home. Getty / AFP

Ivy League University Dartmouth College is in Hanover, New Hampshire. EPA

Dartmouth College’s endowment returned 47 per cent in the fiscal year that ended in June 2021, giving the university some of its strongest investment gains in decades. Bloomberg

Shonda Rhimes, Fred Rogers, Mindy Kaling and Theodore Geisel (Dr Seuss) are just a few of the interesting people to attend Dartmouth. Bloomberg

Henry Paulson and Timothy Geithner, two former US Treasury secretaries, attended Dartmouth. Bloomberg

The University of Pennsylvania is in Philadelphia. Reuters

Former president Donald Trump went to Pennsylvania University's Wharton School of Business. Reuters

Elizabeth Banks, Elon Musk, Beau Biden and Shakira are just a few notables to have attended the University of Pennsylvania. Photo: US National Register of Historic Places

The University of Pennsylvania has the largest number of billionaire past students of all Ivy League schools, at 25. AP

Springtime in the US for some families is spent waiting by the mailbox for a coveted acceptance letter to one of the country’s prestigious Ivy League schools.

It used to be that being accepted was the hard part, but now paying for it just became even more out of reach.

As average Americans struggle to pay for eggs, overachievers and their parents will now have to dig a little deeper for that piece of parchment.

Four years at an Ivy League college now costs an average of $300,000, with the annual price of tuition, and room and board more than $80,000 at Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, Columbia and Brown, according to Bloomberg.

Cornell and Brown are even more expensive, with an average of $85,000 a year.

“Cheaper” options of Princeton and Harvard are about $76,000 a year.

Some economists warn that these hallowed halls are putting student numbers at risk if they continue to raise tuition at such rates.

And 44 per cent to 67 per cent of Ivy Leaguers receive financial aid, meaning growing costs can be prohibitive.

“At some point, that math stops working out,” Beth Akers, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who focuses on the economics of higher education, told Bloomberg.

“We get to a place where these degrees are just no longer worth it.”

Inflation is not helping to keep costs at bay, no matter the income bracket.

Commonfund, an asset management company, determined that the cost of university rose by more than 5 per cent in 2022, the most that operational costs have increased in a single year since 2001, Bloomberg reported.