La Salle slashes tuition by nearly 30 percent

As the cost of higher education continues to rise, one Philadelphia collegeis offering prospective students a real bargain.

La Salle University will reduce its tuition 29 percent—from$40,400 to $28,800—for students in the 2017-18 school year,the university announced Tuesday. Students will pay next year what the school charged for tuition in 2008.

“We are taking decisive steps to respond to what we hear from students and parents: They want a La Salle education but are concerned about how to pay for it,” college President ColleenHanyczsaid in a news release.”By reducing our tuition by 29 percent, we are providing real savings to students, and also ensuring that a transformational La Salle education will be accessible by students from more diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, supporting ourLasallianvalues of inclusion.”

The tuition reset is a mark of La Salle’s ongoing affordabilityinitiative, known as An Affordable Path For All, which also includes offering tuition assistance to 97 percent of its students and freezing tuition for the 2016-17 school year. La Salle was the only Philly-area college to do so.

“The cost of higher education continues to spiral year after year, with no end in sight,”Hanycz said. “We cannot continue to assume that this issue will fix itself someday, somehow—the tuition model for higher education is broken. La Salle is working to reshape that model so college becomes an affordable reality for students and their families.”

Last month, Money magazine ranked La Salle fifth on its list of 50 Colleges That Add the Most Value. Forbes and The Economist also ranked the North Philly school among its top choices for best schools in the country for value.

“Many students and families see a ‘sticker price’ of $40,400 and assume they cannot afford to attend La Salle University,” Tom Delahunt, vice president for Enrollment Services said. “The reality, however, is that few students pay the listed price. The overwhelming majority of our students receive state, federal and La Salle-sponsored grants and scholarships.”