Bowdoin is the 16th most expensive college in the U.S., according to a report released Monday by CampusGrotto.com. The list compares total costs of American colleges for the 2009-2010 school year. In their report, the college news Web site defined "total cost" as tuition plus room and board, not including any other fees.
Bowdoin's total costs for 2009-2010 equal $50,485. With the inclusion of the $415 activities fee, the College's price totals $50,900. Sarah Lawrence College, a private liberal arts college with 1,367 undergraduate students, topped the list with a total cost of $54,410.
In the Web site's list of highest college tuitions for the 2009-2010 year, Bowdoin's $39,605 tuition was the 18th most expensive. Middlebury College's $43,690 tuition ranked highest.
For the 2008-2009 school year, Bowdoin ranked 28th on the list of highest total costs. On the 2007-2008 list, the earliest report the Orient was able to locate, Bowdoin ranked ninth.
This year, total costs for the top 25 colleges on the CampusGrotto list ranged from $54,410 to $50,320. Thirty-four of the top 100 most expensive colleges' total costs exceed $50,000. The 100th most-expensive college, Northeastern University, charges $46,860 in total costs. Last year, only three colleges—Sarah Lawrence College, George Washington University (GWU) and New York University—had total costs surpassing $50,000. For the 2007-2008 school year, only GWU's total cost was higher than $50,000.
According to the College Board's "Trends in College Pricing" report released on Tuesday, "Published tuition and fees at private not-for-profit four-year colleges and universities average $26,273 in 2009-10." At public colleges and universities, the average tuition and fees for in-state students equal $7,020, while out-of-state students pay an average of $18,548.
Among the 25 most expensive colleges on CampusGrotto's list of colleges with the highest total costs for 2009-2010, 15 of the colleges rank within the top 50 on U.S. News and World Report's 2010 list of best liberal arts colleges. Bowdoin, ranked sixth best by U.S. News and World Report, is the most expensive of top-ranked liberal arts colleges. Middlebury College, ranked fourth in the U.S. News and World Report list, ranks immediately after Bowdoin on CampusGrotto's list with a total cost of $50,485.