DePaul University’s Lincoln Park Campus. With more than 22,000 students, DePaul is the nation’s largest Catholic university. In fall 2019, DePaul welcomed a freshman class of 2,627 — its largest incoming class yet. (DePaul University/Jon Cecero)CHICAGO — In recognition of the economic uncertainty that the COVID-19 pandemic has introduced into families’ lives, DePaul University today announced it will not increase tuition for 2020-21 for new and continuing students and will offer support from a $266 million financial aid pool.
Earlier this year, the university announced plans for tuition pricing increases for new undergraduates, with lower increases for continuing and graduate students. The university’s board of trustees unanimously voted at a virtual meeting on April 1 to keep tuition at all 10 of the university’s schools and colleges at current rates.
“Mission-guided decision-making has never been more important. At the heart of our decision to freeze tuition is a commitment to provide a world class education to a diverse community of learners,” said A. Gabriel Esteban, Ph.D., DePaul’s president. “Our community includes those with great financial need and many who are the first in their families to attend college.
“We understand that for some families, even a modest tuition increase — especially amidst the uncertainty caused by this pandemic — could mean a disruption to their student’s progress toward earning a DePaul degree,” he noted.
The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic will not be fully understood for some time, but the present impact on the lives and livelihood of so many of our DePaul families required the university take the extraordinary step of holding tuition steady — something that has not been done for more than 20 years.
Current DePaul students will soon receive official notice of the 2020-21 tuition rates. More information about DePaul’s tuition can be found on the Student Financial Accounts website at
http://bit.ly/DPU_2020-21_tuitionrates.
Some 80% of DePaul students currently receive some form of financial aid. For 2020-21, the university’s financial aid pool will increase nearly 5.1% over the previous year’s budget to $266.4 million.
DePaul also offers scholarship programs to make a of high-quality education even more affordable for young people in Illinois. In 2018, the university established the Chicago Promise Scholarship and Catholic Heritage Scholarship; each provides a $20,000 scholarship to any Chicago Public Schools graduate or graduate of one of Illinois’ Catholic high schools, respectively, who has a high school grade point average of 3.7 or higher and is admitted to DePaul as a full-time freshman.
With more than 22,000 students, DePaul is the nation’s largest Catholic university. In the fall, DePaul welcomed a freshman class of 2,627 — its largest incoming class yet.
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