San Diego

Tuition at University of San Diego Surpasses $50K for First Time Ever

For the first time ever, tuition at the University of San Diego has crossed the $50,000 mark for undergraduate students.

Tuition for the 2019-20 school year will cost $50,450, and for students living on campus with a meal plan and health insurance, that number jumps up by about a third.

The price breakdown is listed below:

  • Tuition: $50,450
  • Fees: $736
  • Health Insurance: $2,651
  • Housing: $9,622
  • Meal Plan: $3,752
  • Total: $67,211

“USD is not subsidized by the state as it’s a private institution,” said Pamela Gray, Assistant Vice President of Media Communications at USD. This is partially why the cost is higher than other public universities in the area who receive government funding.

Looking at data over the past decade, USD’s tuition has increased by an average of 3.52 percent every year. When the university’s tuition crossed the $50,000 mark, the price hike was a 3.49 percent increase -- from $48,750 the previous year.

Though the percentage was below average, it marked the largest price jump in the last 10 years with $1,700, beating out the 2015-16 and 2018-19 school years by $30 and $50, respectively.

In the fall of 2018, 9,073 full-time students attended USD. Of those, roughly 30 percent lived on campus, Gray said. All residential students are required to purchase a meal plan in addition to paying for housing, totaling about $13,400 on top of tuition.

All USD undergraduate students are required to have health insurance. In the 2018-19 school year, the university’s insurance premium for 12 months was $2,651, Gray told NBC 7.

On average, full-time students receive $38,000 in financial assistance each year, Gray said. This includes scholarships, grants, work, student loans, and Parent PLUS Loans.

Gray told NBC 7 three-quarters of students receive some form of financial assistance.

When students graduate USD, they leave with an average student debt of $31,000, Gray said.

Listed below are other tuition costs of major undergraduate universities in San Diego and the surrounding area for the 2018-19 school year.

The University of California, San Diego; San Diego State University; California State University, San Marcos; and the University of California, Los Angeles are public schools, while Point Loma Nazarene University and University of Southern California, located near downtown Los Angeles, are private institutions.

With USD’s new tuition cost, it inches closer to USC's, though it's still a few thousand dollars away from the Los Angeles-based university’s $55,000 price tag.

Because USD’s tuition and fees are not impacted by if a student is a California resident or not, its rate stays similar to UCSD and UCLA’s out-of-state tuition, within $5,000 and $500, respectively.

Gray provided all USD data to NBC 7. Data on the other universities were found on their websites.

Recently, USD was one of the schools named in an alleged far-reaching bribery scheme that involved 50 people, including college athletic coaches, college entrance exam administrators, and Hollywood actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.

Sunday's options include SD Pride's second-day events, and a special acoustic set by SoCal punk legends X at the Belly Up.

Gray released the following statement to NBC 7 about these allegations:

The University of San Diego has been cooperating with the United States Department of Justice’s investigation involving an alleged criminal conspiracy to facilitate cheating on college entrance exams and admission into colleges and universities.

We have no reason to believe that any members of our admissions team, our administration or staff, or our current coaching staff were aware of or involved in the alleged wrongdoing. We believe the federal government agrees with this assessment.

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