George Washington U aims for affordability

WASHINGTON POST

George Washington University is launching a five-year plan to make the school more affordable, including holding tuition increases next year to 3 percent for freshmen and pushing to quadruple fundraising for financial aid to $40 million annually by 2013, President Steven Knapp announced Friday.

For several years, the school has frozen tuition rates for incoming freshmen, so that they pay the same amount for up to the next five years, and their financial aid is guaranteed not to decrease. But the school has taken considerable heat for its sticker price — it’s easily one of the most expensive colleges in the country, with annual costs over $50,000.