When will the first college or university charge six figures per year? A 2024 update

When will the first American college or university charge $100,000 or more to attend? What might that mean for higher education?

I first posed this question, a little wryly, back in 2018. My intent six years ago was to scope out a symbolic marker, a milestone in higher education finance. It was an extreme idea, given that the overwhelming majority of campuses wouldn’t charge anything like that amount, and because the widespread practice of tuition discounting meant a lot of students at those most pricy institutions wouldn’t pay that amount. Besides, there’s nothing objectively different about charging $100K over 99K over 98; these are increments, margins. Yet the eye-popping six figure amount has the virtue of drawing a bead on the economics of elite campuses. Considering it might also reveal something of how our culture responds to them.

I blogged this idea, like I said, back in 2018, and have followed it up fairly regularly ever since, as in 2021, 2022, and 2023. I roughly forecast the most expensive universities crossing over the $100,000/annum barrier around the 2026–2027 academic year. Last year’s inflation adjusted my speculation a bit, nudging the crossover to 2025–26 for at least one university.

How do things stand now?