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Yale University is going tuition-free for undergraduates from US families with incomes of less than $200,000, following recent moves by peers including Harvard University to broaden access.
Enhanced financial aid will ensure that students from such families will "receive need-based scholarships that meet or exceed the cost of tuition,” Yale said in a statement Tuesday.
The changes, which take effect in the 2026-2027 academic year, will also eliminate all expected costs for families with typical assets and incomes below $100,000.
"With this announcement, we reiterate and reinforce Yale’s commitment to ensuring that cost will never be a barrier between promising students and a Yale College education,” Jeremiah Quinlan, dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid, said in the statement.
Yale’s decision came on the heels of similar moves by colleges including Harvard and Princeton University, which recently expanded financial-aid programmes.
Wealthy colleges have been racing to keep up with each other to show they are responsive to families who can’t pay their tuition prices. The cost to attend the most elite American universities continues to climb - approaching $100,000 each year in many cases - with tuition, dorms, books and other expenses squeezing families trying to make ends meet.
A 2025 Bloomberg analysis of financial aid data from 50 selective colleges shows that in many cases, middle-class families, defined by some metrics as making between $100,000 and $300,000, earn too much to qualify for meaningful aid but too little to afford college out of pocket.
In response, schools have adopted a "high-cost, high-aid” model in an attempt to counter the sharp tuition increases of the past two decades, which have made college punitively expensive for even well-to-do families.
Tuition is often the largest factor in the cost of college. Families also pay for room and board, as well as other expenses like transportation and laundry.
"Under the new policy for families with incomes under $200,000, more than 80% of American households would be eligible for a Yale scholarship covering at least the cost of tuition,” the New Haven, Connecticut-based school said.
