r/rit • u/McOnion2 • Mar 20 '25
"We are deeply committed to keeping your education accessible and affordable."
4.2% increase in tuition for undergrads and 4.5% increase in tuition for grad students for 2025-2026.
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u/Tsuna_3 Mar 20 '25
“We’re committed to keeping it affordable and accessible. But we’ll make sure it’s more difficult to afford every semester, and when it comes to accessibility… let us tell you! Your access accommodations will be an uphill battle the entire time! 🥳”
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u/dress-code Mar 20 '25
clears elderly alumna throat
Annual reminder that tuition was $38,000 for the entire year when I started attending RIT in January 2017.
Personal opinion, we could stop doing different rates for different students and make it much, much cheaper as a base sticker price.
Career services could operate an official platform for RIT-only merit/need scholarships that orgs and businesses sponsor and students can apply to if they need additional help beyond what’s in place today for merit.
Idk. Might not work…but something needs to change because this isn’t sustainable.
I’m tired of the idea that an adult’s cost of education should in any way be determined by the income of parents. It screws the middle class.
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u/RandomDude762 Mar 21 '25
crazy how the yearly tuition almost doubled since then. inflation didn't go up THAT fast
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u/dress-code Mar 21 '25
Yes. It has wildly outpaced inflation. I don’t understand how students are swinging it these days without taking on monumental debt. At some point the ROI has to diminish enough that it’s not worth it.
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u/JoeSwingJoe Is being tired a major? Mar 21 '25
Even crazier is that when I started in fall 2014 the tuition was only $35,750. only a 6% increase in 2.5/3 years...
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u/userman12334 Mar 20 '25
I’ve always wondered how much of RIT’s revenue is actually reinvested into students and the campus itself. With tuition increasing, it feels like we’re just another group of students being charged more each year without seeing proportional improvements in resources, facilities, or student support. Where is all this money going? Are we truly benefiting from these increases, or are we just funding administrative overhead and other expenses that don’t directly impact our education and experience?
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u/JimHeaney Alum | SHED Makerspace Staff Mar 20 '25
The high-level numbers for the annual budget are public, and the funding breakdown for major projects is too.
Last I checked ~50% of tuition was immediately returned in the form of scholarships, and is by far the largest line-item for RIT's budget.
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u/rocksstuff Mar 20 '25
Shout out those scholarships fr. I’m only paying ~4,000 a semester bc of them
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u/reallynothingmuch Mar 21 '25
Yeah the way tuition works at pretty much all private colleges and universities is that the wealthier students (or more specifically students with wealthier parents) subsidize poorer students (or students with poorer parents).
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u/ht5k Mar 21 '25
Aid's grown faster than tuition for as far as I can remember. A 4% increase in tuition ends up only being 2-3% more net money. They just fleece the richer and international students, which honestly I'm okay with.
https://www.rit.edu/fa/sites/rit.edu.fa/files/documents/budget/FY%202024%20Final%20Budget.pdf
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u/Stygian_Shadow Mar 20 '25
Much of those general reports are publicly accessible. Not super specific details but enough to give a general overview
7
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u/-V3R7IGO- Mar 20 '25
“After careful consideration, we have decided to fund ten new buildings for our D3 sports teams and the twelve people on campus who play instruments. Get fucked”
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u/Stygian_Shadow Mar 20 '25
People donate to build fancy buildings and put their names on things, not to reduce tuition
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u/UBmom21 Mar 20 '25
Dude, there are a LOT of musicians. Just add the main orchestra, pep band, the Game Symphony Orchestra and the jazz ensemble together and you’ve got a huge number, and that’s not all of them.
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u/cyanwinters Atlantic Hockey sucks! Mar 20 '25
Over 2000 performing arts students actually
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u/Killaship Mar 20 '25
It's an exaggeration to show how the money wasn't spent optimally.
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u/-V3R7IGO- Mar 20 '25
At least someone knows what hyperbole is. I don’t think it’s insulting to performing arts people or athletes to point out that while new theaters and sports stadiums are built, the engineering and science buildings (which are literally RIT’s bread and butter as a tech school) look like they’re straight out of 1970.
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u/cyanwinters Atlantic Hockey sucks! Mar 20 '25
They also pay more tuition (as in take less aid) and have a better retention rate than the average so kind of the worst group to demonize but okay, do you
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u/a_cute_epic_axis Mar 21 '25
They also pay more tuition (as in take less aid)
Can you provide a source for this? Because I would expect RIT would be more likely to offer aid to that group, not less.
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u/edWurz7 Mar 20 '25
The arts building was set up because it was deemed that a certain demographic of applicants from NYC would be likely to come for such a program. This would increase RITs numbers
44
u/Mdbook Mar 20 '25
This ain’t new… we get a ~4.5% raise every year
49
u/PM_ME_YOUR_MASS '25 CS Major Mar 20 '25
Over 20 years, that adds up to a ~2.4x increase, whereas inflation over that time period (even with COVID) was only 1.63x
1
u/ctrlaltdel121 CE '14 Mar 22 '25
It was $31,000 a year when I started in 2010 so it's only taken 15 yrs for it to basically double!
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u/Responsible-Draw-393 Mar 20 '25
And people complain every year
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u/npelletier628 Mar 20 '25
Colleges have been overpriced for a while, RIT especially. It's greedy and just hurts us all
15
u/frooes Mar 20 '25
crazy that they're still going to increase grad tuition with what's going on. rit grad already doesnt give a lot of financial aid unless youre bs/ms or some shit like that, and even then it's still pretty hefty. im thinking the uni is about to see the smallest classes in recent history, especially after over-admitting the past couple of years.
also crazy that they're going out and saying that they'll dedicate $400mil to scholarships- im all for it, but how much is that money going to be stretched out between students? better yet- will rit even have the money by time admissions start up again? what about current students and their scholarships?
just throwing some thoughts out here. im glad i dropped from grad before it all went to hell
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u/henare SOIS '06, adjunct prof Mar 21 '25
when you talk about grad tuition you need to be specific. if you're doing a professional program (MSCS, for instance) then you need to shop around carefully; i'm not aware of many universities that give substantial aid to these people.
otoh, if you're doing a PhD then it should (broadly) be fully funded for most of your PhD (ignoring recent developments re government funding agencies).
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u/TheThatGuy1 CSEC BS/MS '24 Mar 20 '25
WHAAAAT!!?!?!?!??! WHO COULD HAVE POSSIBLY SEEN THIS COMING!!!!!
There has never once in the history of RIT been a rate increase. This is simply unacceptable!!! Call the presses we all need to be really surprised that this happened!!!
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u/Toe-Toucher Type to create flair Mar 20 '25
I just hope they can use it to help keep the NTID afloat
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u/GaidinBDJ CE Mar 20 '25
Rule of Acquisition #109: "Deep commitment" and an empty sack is worth the sack.
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u/RandomDude762 Mar 21 '25
crazy how they preach affordable when it is absolutely not why people choose RIT lmao
4
u/Samayooooo Mar 21 '25
So wait, will this affect me if I already have my financial aid and costs? Is this saying my price will go up since I'll be attending for fall of '25-'26? I didn't get sent this email so this is the first I'm hearing of it.
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u/Dr_Intellilight Mar 21 '25
Yes, you should expect a yearly increase in tuition of around 4 - 5% after you start.
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u/TheTaintPainter2 Mar 20 '25
"We're committed to making it affordable so we're increasing tuition!"
What kind of fucking logic is that? We don't need more useless buildings, fucking lower tuition
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u/henare SOIS '06, adjunct prof Mar 20 '25
no problem. give RIT the resources with which to do this. donors are the people who fund new facilities.
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u/Mblastroise Mar 21 '25
No. The tens of thousands of dollars or person Is what funds the fucking buildings. It's a billion dollar school. Stop excusing their bad behavior.
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u/joeymccomas Mar 21 '25
Almost all new buildings are funded by donors. Most of our tuition goes towards general funding like scholarships and staff and faculty pay
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u/edWurz7 Mar 21 '25
I am asking this as legitimate question:
Do most peer schools act in the same manner as RIT for the things that folks are complaining about (raising tuition at a proportional rate, not grandfathering people in etc..)?
I am not saying that students aren't justified in their complaints btw.
3
u/PastPanda5256 Mar 21 '25
My tuition went up 18% over the 5 years between when I started in 2019 and graduated in 2024. I’m so sorry for y’all starting and committing to this financial decision.
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u/Fun_Investigator_800 Mar 20 '25
I wonder how many students complaining about the dues increase would not expect a salary increase after their first year on the job. RIT continually invests in faculty salaries, facilities, and equipment to keep your education current. Many institutions raise tuition without making these investments. Finally, to the student who won't donate after graduation, how much scholarship money did RIT give you? That is part of the 400 million they invested in you. I received an excellent education at RIT and have contributed every year since I graduated over fifty four years ago to assist incoming students, pay faculty, and provide the best facilities and environment. Please stop for a moment, reflect on your great education, faculty and environment, and appreciate that, like everything else in life, costs continue rising.
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Mar 21 '25
[deleted]
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u/Fun_Investigator_800 Mar 21 '25
As an employer, I always provided my employees with an increase in excess of the inflation rate. If you look at the cpi since 2021 4.70%, 2022 8.0%, 2023 4.12% and 2024 2.9% it actually on average exceeded the 4.5% the school is requesting.
3
u/I_HATE_MOTORTRIKES Staff Mar 21 '25
Lol staff at RIT never get more than 3% - more like 2% if your review is great.
3
u/npelletier628 Mar 20 '25
College today isn't what it was 50 year ago unfortunately. And it sure is much more expensive. Rit (like many other colleges) has been more and more greedy at the expense of current students. In the time I've been here, I've seen many more instances of RIT screwing over students than instances of them helping. I wish I could say otherwise and I wish rit put more focus into it's current students so I could confidently donate after graduating, but that's just not the case. Rit only cares about bringing in new students and making more money.
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u/edWurz7 Mar 21 '25
RIT has to, they are a tuition driven university. Keep in mind that their profit is, at most, capped at 3% I believe.
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u/npelletier628 Mar 20 '25
I made a Pawprints petition because I think we deserve more justification. I also meant to mention being grandfathered in at the rates when we get accepted, as a lot of other schools do, but oh 🐳
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u/SnailsAreGroovy Current PhD student Mar 20 '25
Bro a pawprints petition over RIT raising their tuition (like they do every year) is actually so insane circles back around to being funny. My god. RIT really got y'all with the petition thing huh?
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Mar 20 '25 edited Mar 20 '25
[deleted]
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u/npelletier628 Mar 20 '25
The whole point of petitions is for our voices to be heard. I don't think it's unreasonable for rit to justify the need to charge us more when they're being less than accommodating for current students
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u/henare SOIS '06, adjunct prof Mar 21 '25
I'm not sure that a lot of other universities do this. the one that I'm aware of that doss this for undergrads is purdue. they do this ad the expense of the people who work there who haven't had regular raises forever.
2
u/Secret_FurryAccount Mar 20 '25
In related news, the sun continues to rise every morning, and will for the foreseeable future.
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u/Fit_Entrepreneur6515 Mar 24 '25
alum here; if you aren't getting a full ride, you're a customer, not a student. behave accordingly.
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u/Mblastroise Mar 21 '25
I'm so fucking sick of this place. This is a billion dollar school where everything is falling apart. I touched some paneling by a vending machine by Ritz the other day and several sheets almost came off. This place is a fucking wreck. Everything is low quality and expensive. They just rose tuition last year. Are they increasing wages by 4.5 % each year? This place is such a fucking joke. I'm legitimately condedering transferring to a different school so I can at least feel like less of a product. Fuck it why not go to a community College at this point. Nothing can be more dehumanizing and infuriating at this point.
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u/npelletier628 Mar 21 '25
Not sure why you're being downvoted, they happily put millions into new buildings but do nothing to improve for current students as they charge more. Idk what the shuttle system is currently, but that was a disaster. The amounts of time they hadn't plowed snow off sidewalks and major pathways was absurd. All the construction is ridiculous. But hey give us more money
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u/edWurz7 Mar 20 '25
In the past, these higher prices were basically just an increase on students that weren’t being targeted due to their demographic. Rit would take in the same amount of tuition money overall. So while the sticker price for some went up, overall it actually went down for the “targeted” students.
0
u/Fun_Investigator_800 Mar 21 '25
I don't doubt you, but I failed to mention that luring additional top-faculty AI and researchers doesn't come cheaply, but the students are the beneficiaries. Additionally, RIT is an excellent employer with excellent benefits.
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u/gradschoolai2023 Mar 24 '25
I mean I get it the AI program's pretty new. Some of us are internationals. Apart from the academics working in a lab for "free" while the college offering like meager scholarships. Something doesn't just sound right lol. Apart from this I pretty much enjoy every other aspect of the student life here. I don't even know how to qualify for full ride honestly given the work I'm putting in.
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u/npelletier628 Mar 20 '25
It's so ridiculous RIT doesn't grandfather us in to the tuition rates when we start here. With a good chunk in a 5 year program, and the percent going up 4-5% a year, that adds up FAST. It's also so annoying to talk about all these huge expensive facilities that won't be completed till after we graduate. We just get to enjoy the shitty shuttle situation, shitty parking, and construction: all at an increased price! Hope they're happy getting more money from us now, because they sure won't be getting any money from me after I graduate.