Smart Spending

Camry College Cost Comparison – New England Universities

How much would you give up to attend college in New England?  The Camry College Cost Comparison measures how many brand new Toyota Camry’s you could buy with the money that it takes to attend for a year in some of the more popular New England Universities.

The Camry College Cost Comparison is a way to compare schools without resorting to a number in the thousands of dollars, which may become arbitrary after a while.  To see a lot of universities’ tuition, room, and board rising to the tens of thousands of dollars, it is easy to suddenly rationalize the money spent as an investment.  However, without being able to compare the prices to something else that could be bought, the true impact in what you could spend with that amount of money is muted.  So, the Camry College Cost Comparison is an easy way to measure what you would give up for a year in some of the more popular New England Universities.  It becomes clear how many Toyota Camry Ls (priced at $22,235) could be bought with a year’s worth of tuition, room, and board.

To determine what New England Universities would be selected, we included each state’s flagship state university, the elite universities in each state (Ivies, little Ivies, MIT, etc), and the regional powerhouses (BC, Providence, etc).  The list of schools that will be compared is:

University of Maine; University of New Hampshire; University of Vermont; University of Connecticut; University of Rhode Island; University of Massachusetts – Amherst; Harvard University; Yale University; Brown University; Dartmouth University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Wellesley College; Williams College; Amherst College; Middlebury College, Bowdoin College; Wesleyan University; Colby College; Smith College; Connecticut College; Boston College; Providence College; Boston University; Tufts University;

These New England Universities have been distinguished by their academic achievement and most of them have garnered national recognition.

Looking at the large public New England Universities, it become very clear that it is far cheaper to attend instate.  However, there is a special program that is not listed here which allows a New England resident to attend a public school out of her state provided that the school offers a program that they’re studying that isn’t offered at their home state university.  This New England Regional costs falls right in between instate and out of state costs.  Otherwise, most of these state universities charge slightly more than 50% more for out of state student, except for the University of Vermont.

Looking at the elite private universities and colleges in New England, it becomes clear that many of the smaller schools, such as Amherst, Williams, and others, charge far more than their Ivy League counter parts.  Of all the schools on this sublist, MIT offers the cheapest combination of tuition, room, and board of these schools when paying full tuition.  Of course, the trick is to be accepted to MIT to enjoy these benefits.  Furthermore, the average of the Ivy League schools plus MIT is less than the average of the other elite universities in the area.

In short, if you are from New England and are likely to pay full tuition, it is probably best to stay at your state university to save costs because the difference between those public New England Universities and the private ones is significant (at least 1 Camry L difference in price).  However, then again, many of these elite private schools give excellent financial aid, so you might be able to attend at a price similar to in-state tuition to your state flagship university.