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Johnson & Wales latest school to offer free tuition for some students
Other universities, including UMass, MIT, and Brandeis, have made similar pledges.
Johnson & Wales University (JWU) in Providence, R.I., announced Monday that it will offer free tuition for qualifying undergraduate students starting this fall.
Free Tuition
Up to 100 percent of tuition will be covered for students from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or Connecticut whose families earn less than $80,000, and at least 60 percent of tuition will be covered for those from households with income below $200,000.
JWU joins a series of other universities that have made similar commitments, including the University of Massachusetts system, which will offer free tuition for Massachusetts resident students from families with an adjusted gross income of $75,000 or less. In November, MIT announced it will fully cover tuition for students from families with annual incomes below $200,000, and Brandeis University said it will do the same for students from families earning less than $75,000 annually.
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To be eligible for the JWU Pledge program, students must have a high school GPA of 3.2 or higher, complete the FAFSA form and all requisite forms, and live on campus. Students seeking 100 percent tuition coverage must be eligible for a Pell Grant.
The policy also applies to North Carolina residents who are attending Johnson & Wales’ Charlotte Campus.
It’s JWU’s second recent initiative aimed at reducing tuition costs to make education accessible to a wider range of students. In October, the university announced it would launch three-year bachelor’s programs in computer science, criminal justice graphic design, and hospitality management. It is the first university in the country to offer three-year bachelor’s degrees.
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These programs, designed for students who want to enter the workforce faster and with less financial burden, will be available starting next fall.
“We created those in an effort to reduce the cost of tuition for our students, and then we began to explore what other opportunities we could provide to help lower the cost of an education,” said JWU Chancellor Mim Runey.
Runey said she believes students and their families are “afraid of the sticker price” of university, whose total costs of attendance can top $90,000, especially at elite institutions.
“The higher ed landscape is becoming more challenging, and we want students and their families to know they can come and talk to us,” Runey said. “We do have resources, and we do want to work with them to develop a plan within their budget to be able to come to college.”
Runey emphasized Johnson & Wales’ support for all students, even ones who don’t reach the threshold for free tuition through the JWU Pledge.
“We think of this as a good opportunity to make all students aware that we are an institution that wants to work with them,” Runey said. “We will really explore what opportunities they have for state and federal grants, and we have both need-based and merit-based institutional grants to support students.”
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Tuition at Johnson & Wales currently costs $41,782 per year. On-campus housing options range from $6,000 to $15,500, and meal plans start at $3,000 and go up to $6,800.
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