Is $6,800-a-year tuition at the University of Maryland, College Park, “the best deal in the universe,” as Gov. Robert Ehrlich told The Examiner? And is it really $6,800 a year?
Tuition alone at UMCP is $6,566, but adding mandatory undergraduate fees, the total comes to $7,821 for in-state students. That’s about $600 more than in-state tuition and fees at the University of Virginia, and $500 more than the University of Delaware, but about $2,000 less than at Penn State. “It’s often difficult to compare” tuitions and fees, said Cassandra Robinson, a College Park spokeswoman.
College Park students pay both more and less than those at some of U.Md’s “aspirational peers,” public research universities to which it compares itself: North Carolina, $4,613; UC-Berkeley and UCLA, $6,512 and $6,504; Illinois, $8,634; and Michigan, $10,523.
The Maryland legislature this year came up with enough money to freeze tuition at the universities, and it also increased the aid formula for community colleges, lowering pressure for tuition increases.
Del. Frank Turner, D-Howard, said that for eight years under Gov. Parris Glendening, tuition went up 32 percent, and for three years under Ehrlich, it went up 40 percent. “It shows me that [Ehrlich] does not have real commitment to higher education,” he said.
Average Tuition in 2004
Pennsylvania $7,631
New Jersey $7,345
Maryland $6,242
Delaware $6,177
Michigan $5,997
Illinois $5,662
Virginia $5,073
California $3,797
N. Carolina $3,251
W. Virginia $3,176
