2024-2025 Tuition Letter
March 28, 2024
Dear W&L Parents and Family Members:
At a recent meeting, Washington and Lee University's Board of Trustees approved the following tuition and fees for 2024-25:
Tuition $66,800
Room $9,650
Board $9,035
Student Activity Fee $675
Student Technology Fee $320
Student Health Fee $250
As we look ahead to the coming academic year, we continue to focus on the goals and underlying initiatives outlined in our Strategic Plan and to build on the quality of the student experience through investments in facilities, people, and programs.
Construction of the new Williams School building on Washington Street is well underway with expected completion by the fall of 2025. We are set to break ground on the Lindley Center for Student Wellness this month, with completion also expected by the fall of 2025. We will open the expanded Marketplace dining venue with increased seating capacity to better serve students this coming fall, and this summer we will be completing a full resurfacing of Wilson Field including the installation of a new track. These are in addition to nearly $6.4 million in investments in annual capital projects to ensure that systems, spaces and equipment necessary for operating the campus are kept up to date.
Our investments in people and programs continue to build on the university's excellent educational programs including continued investment in interdisciplinarity as well as expansion of opportunities for students to be able to experience internships, research opportunities, fellowships and experiential learning engagements. This past year, we expanded the Leading Edge program to ensure that all first-year students participated. We have also increased funding to support international experiences whether Study Abroad or Spring Term courses that include travel as a component of the curriculum in an effort to make the full W&L experience available to all students.
As we consider these strategic investments, we remain mindful of how we allocate our resources and routinely benchmark our performance against our top liberal arts college peers. In the most recent year's comparison, W&L spent $5,400 more per student in instructional costs but $8,200 less in total expenses per student than the peer mean. Another measure of efficiency we consider is the ratio of administrative costs to instructional costs. In 2023, W&L had the third lowest ratio within our peer group at .234 versus the peer average of .345.
We recognize that you make a significant commitment and sacrifice to send your child to W&L, and every student comes in with outstanding gifts and potential. Our objective is to ensure that we offer opportunities and challenges to each of them so that they may reach that potential while at W&L and in their endeavors after graduation.
Cordially,
Steven G. McAllister
Treasurer and Vice President for Finance