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To help ease the financial burden on students and their parents, the Thomas Aquinas College Board of Governors voted at its recent annual corporate retreat to freeze the cost of tuition and room & board for the 2017-2018 academic year. This is the fifth year in a row that the College’s governors have kept the cost of the school’s classical liberal education at the same level.

Tuition will remain at $24,500, and room & board at $7,950, bringing the total cost of attendance — including all books and fees — to $32,450. That amount is well below the average of $43,921 for private, non-profit, four-year Bachelor’s colleges in the United States, according to The College Board’s Annual Survey of Colleges (2015).

“We are determined to make attendance at Thomas Aquinas College as affordable for students as we can,” says President Michael F. McLean. “And we are grateful to the benefactors who supply what is needed for the 70 percent of students for whom our relatively low cost of attendance is beyond reach.”

In order to keep its unique program of Catholic liberal education available to all motivated students and their families, regardless of means, the College maintains a vigorous financial aid program. No student is ever turned away on the basis of financial need, and the College asks its students to take on no more than $18,000 in debt over the course of their four years’ study. According to an August study from the student-loan clearing house LendEDU, the average student debt per borrower among Thomas Aquinas College’s 2015 graduates was $16,901 — nearly half of the national average of $31,710 for graduates of private colleges and universities, and also significantly below the national average of $26,872 for graduates of public institutions.

The Princeton Review recently ranked Thomas Aquinas College as one of only 10 colleges in the country on its 2017 Financial Aid Honor Roll, giving it its highest rating (99) in that category. In addition, U.S. News & World Report lists the College as No. 24 among the Top 40 national liberal arts colleges on its 2017 Best Values list. Similarly, Kiplinger’s 2016 rankings place the College at No. 12 on its list of the country’s “Best Values in Liberal Arts Colleges” nationwide and at No. 22 among all colleges and universities in the country.