For the 2026-27 academic year, 16 colleges and universities across the United States now carry annual sticker prices exceeding $100,000, according to new data from The Princeton Review. The skyhigh figures include tuition, fees, housing, meals, books, transportation, and other expenses students face during the academic year.
Is College Worth the Cost?
Among the schools topping the six-figure list are Duke University, Georgetown University, New York University, the University of Chicago, Vassar College, and Smith College.
Harvey Mudd College in California currently holds the title of the nation’s most expensive school, with a total annual cost of attendance of $104,512. Duke follows at $103,975, while the University of Chicago comes in third at $103,821.
The milestone highlights a trend that has been building for years as college costs continue to outpace inflation and wage growth.
“We just keep going up and it just never stops,” higher education expert Jeff Selingo told CNBC. “We have been moving toward this six-figure price tag for a long time, and now we are here.”
A student attending one of these institutions for four years could face a sticker price exceeding $400,000 before earning a diploma.
With the costs so fight, more will turn to loans, leaving more Black students in debt. Black college graduates carry significantly higher student loan burdens than their white peers, owing an average of $25,000 more at graduation, according to the Education Data Initiative. Because of longstanding wealth gaps and a greater reliance on borrowing to finance their education, many Black borrowers face ongoing repayment challenges. Studies show that 20 years after entering repayment, the typical Black borrower still owes about 95% of their original student loan balance.
Many students, however, never pay the full sticker price.
In an effort to attract students and meet enrollment goals, colleges are increasingly offering financial aid packages, scholarships, grants, and merit-based awards that significantly reduce actual costs. Some elite universities have expanded aid programs so dramatically that many middle-class and lower-income families pay only a fraction of the advertised price.
Schools such as Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have implemented programs that can cover tuition for families earning up to $200,000 annually.