Drake University announced today a new tuition model that will help families plan for the cost of a four-year education. Under the new Drake Tuition Guarantee program, the vast majority of undergraduate students will pay the same tuition price when they move in to campus as when they walk across the stage with their diplomas as graduating seniors.
“Paying for college is a significant investment for students and their families, and we don’t take it lightly that our students and their families have made the choice to invest in a Drake education,” said Drake University President Marty Martin. “After analyzing the results of many conversations, surveys, and focused research, we found that guaranteeing a tuition rate throughout the entirety of a student’s undergraduate experience would be the most effective way to simplify financial planning for Drake families.”
New incoming undergraduate students will pay the tuition rate in effect for the fall semester of their first academic year throughout their entire course of studies. Private universities similar to Drake have averaged annual tuition increases of 4.4 percent per year over the last five years. The Drake Tuition Guarantee breaks from this practice, giving families clarity and certainty regarding tuition, thus peace of mind.
Undergraduate students at Drake finish their degrees on time (within four years) at a rate much higher than the national average. Approximately 89 percent of students who begin and end their undergraduate careers at Drake complete their degree within four years. The six-year completion rate for all undergraduate students at Drake is 74 percent, compared to a national average of just 43 percent.
The Drake Tuition Guarantee enhances the value of an educational experience that is already touted as one of the nation’s best. At Drake, every student student benefits from personal mentorship, an educational environment enhanced by community service, the flexibility to explore their personal and professional interests, and the opportunity to build a strong resume through internships and undergraduate research.
U.S. News & World Report ranked Drake third for overall quality among Midwest master’s institutions, also placing the university among the nation’s top colleges for value, academic quality, commitment to undergraduate teaching, and excellence for military veterans. Drake has been touted as a national best value in higher education by publications including Kiplinger’s and The Princeton Review.
The Economist ranked Drake University 17th out of 1,275 institutions of higher education for return on investment in 2015, placing Drake in the 98th percentile for four-year, non-vocational American colleges and universities.
A 2015 report by the Brookings Institution placed Drake in the 97th percentile nationwide for the value that private colleges and universities add to projected mid-career earnings. Brookings found that a Drake degree adds more than 32 percent to the projected mid-career earnings of demographically similar graduates from institutions with similar characteristics.
Among Drake’s 2015 bachelor’s degree recipients, 98.9% had a job or graduate school acceptance within six months of graduation. Ten years after entering Drake, graduates earn almost $20,000 more than peers nationally (Department of Education College Scorecard)—No. 1 in the state of Iowa.
The typical federal student loan debt for Drake graduates is $25,000—a figure that is on par with Iowa’s three public state universities: Iowa State University ($25,250), University of Iowa ($22,500), and University of Northern Iowa ($22,148), according to the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard. Drake alumni also pay off their student loans at a rate significantly higher higher than the national average for student loan repayment, due in part to early- and mid-career success.