America’s leading research universities are at the forefront of making high-quality education more affordable and accessible. Last week, multiple AAU universities announced that they’re expanding free tuition programs for students from low- and middle-income families:
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Brandeis University announced that, under the Brandeis Commitment program, starting in fall 2025, students from “families with total incomes of less than $75,000 annually and typical assets will receive total grants and scholarships that cover their full tuition. Students from families earning less than $200,000 a year and typical assets will receive grants and scholarships totaling 50% of their tuition.”
“The Brandeis Commitment aligns with what Brandeis has been about since its founding – enabling talented students from all backgrounds to obtain a top-tier education,” said Interim President Arthur Levine.
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Carnegie Mellon University is launching the CMU Pathway Program in fall 2025 to “provide significant financial relief to undergraduates from low- and middle-income families.” Under the program, “students from families earning less than $75,000 annually will be able to attend CMU tuition-free,” and “those from families earning less than $100,000 annually will have the opportunity to pursue their studies without the burden of federal student loans.”
“Our aspiration for Carnegie Mellon University is simple. We want every student who has earned a spot at CMU to be able to join us and thrive regardless of their family's financial resources or socioeconomic status,” said CMU President Farnam Jahanian.
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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced that “undergraduates with family income below $200,000 can expect to attend MIT tuition-free starting next fall, thanks to newly expanded financial aid.” According to the university, 80% of “American households meet this income threshold.”
The university also noted that families with incomes below $100,000 “can expect to pay nothing at all toward the full cost of their students’ MIT education, which includes tuition as well as housing, dining, fees, and an allowance for books and personal expenses.” MIT is one of only nine colleges in the United States that “does not consider applicants’ ability to pay as part of its admissions process and that meets the full demonstrated financial need for all undergraduates”
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The University of Pennsylvania announced the Quaker Commitment – “a sweeping new financial aid initiative designed to support families from middle-income backgrounds.” Beginning with the 2025-26 academic year, the university “will no longer consider the value of the primary family home among assets in determining the amount of financial aid eligibility and will raise the income threshold for families eligible to receive full tuition scholarships from $140,000 to $200,000 with typical assets.”
According to the university, about 46% of its undergraduate students currently receive aid and the initiative is “expected to impact about 900 currently enrolled students.”
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The University of Texas at Austin will offer free tuition and waive fees for students from families in Texas making less than $100,000 starting fall 2025 as part of an expansion of the University of Texas System’s Promise Plus Program. The program is made possible in part by the Promise Plus endowment established by the University of Texas System Board of Regents in 2019.
AAU colleges and universities provide a world-class education to students at great value. As AAU President Barbara R. Snyder noted in a 2022 blog post, America’s leading research universities provide $6 in grants to students for every $1 the federal government provides in loans and grants. Most graduates at America’s leading research universities do not go into debt to earn their degrees, and those who do “borrow less than their peers at other institutions and are better able to repay their debt after graduation,” she wrote. As the most recent initiatives show, AAU members continue making advances to ensure that Americans from all socioeconomic backgrounds can access the benefits of a college education.
Kritika Agarwal is senior editorial officer at AAU.