The Waubonsee Community College Board of Trustees has approved tuition rates for the 2023-2024 academic year. Beginning with the fall 2023 semester, the college’s in-district and online tuition rate will increase from $132 to $135 per credit hour, which represents a 2.27 percent increase. The student fee will remain the same at $8 per credit hour.
This marks the first time in three years that the college has raised tuition rates. Even with the change, Waubonsee’s total tuition and fee rate of $143 per credit hour will remain well below the $153.46 average across the state’s 39 community colleges. By comparison, local four-year colleges and universities typically have per-credit-hour rates of more than $400.
“Having an appropriate and competitive tuition rate helps our local students afford higher education, while also allowing the college to continue to improve its programs and services,” said Doug Minter, Waubonsee’s Vice President of Finance and Administration.
In addition to its low tuition rate, Waubonsee also offers a variety of financial resources to help keep college affordable. According to the latest data from The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, in 2020-2021, 95% of Waubonsee’s full-time beginning students received some form of aid. That ranges from standard federal and state aid to Waubonsee Foundation scholarships made possible by generous donors.
For the upcoming 2023-2024 academic year, the maximum Federal Pell Grant amount will be $7,395 — well above Waubonsee’s $3,432 tuition and fee cost for two semesters of full-time enrollment (24 credit hours).
The college has also helped students realize more than $500,000 in textbook cost savings through its online access initiative, along with distributing more than $10 million in Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds (HEERF) to more than 4,400 students to help them continue their education during the pandemic.
Waubonsee’s full tuition rates for the upcoming fall 2023 semester, including in-district/online, out-of-district, out-of-state, and international are now online at waubonsee.edu/tuition.
