PROVO — BYU tuition will rise again next year, but the school remains a bargain among private universities.
Tuition will increase 3 percent for all students categories for the 2013-2014 academic year. The increase will help cover rising costs all over the university.
"It will impact the university as a whole; the tuition costs impact many areas of the university," BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said. "This will allow us to continue to provide a superb education for our students."
For undergraduate students, the increase means the tuition rate per semester will go from $2,355 to $2,425, up $70.
Those prices are low compared to most American private colleges and universities, and are competitive with public institutions. In 2011, U.S. News & World Report ranked BYU in the top 20 for "Great Schools, Great Prices."
Tuition in the current school year is up 3.3 percent from last year, which illustrates the consistent percentage the rates are brought up most years — around 3 percent.
Overall, American private institutions raised tuition 3.9 percent this year, the smallest increase in 40 years and substantially lower than public schools, according to the Associated Press.
For a full year, BYU tuition will be $4,850. The average list price at private colleges is $29,230 this fall, the AP reported. The average tuition for a full year at public schools is more than $8,000.
Compared to universities nationwide, this increase is minimal, Jenkins said. And throughout the years many students have expressed appreciation to the university for keeping the overall cost of tuition low.
The low cost of tuition at the university is a positive thing for many students, Krista Keddington, a junior studying psychology at BYU, believes.
"I think it's very beneficial, because then a lot of students who might otherwise not be able to go to college can," Keddington said. "The way the world has changed you need higher and higher education; I think it's beneficial if they can keep (tuition) fairly low."
For Keddington, who has a scholarship to cover tuition, the impact will be on the additional things her excess scholarship money usually covers, like books.
Though Keddington says the increase won't cause costs to be much more than usual, it will effect some students more than others.
"There are a number of people paying for school themselves. It will be more difficult for them," Keddington said. "I think it will have a fairly large impact on a certain population."
BYU has been able to keep tuition costs low through a number of means, one of the biggest being the resource planning program the university implements.
Annually, every college and department at the university reviews the past year's funds — what funds they have used, why they have been used and what is new for the coming year, according to Jenkins.
"That is one way we've been able to keep costs down, through coordination and planning," Jenkins said. "Every college goes through the process every year to go back and evaluate and look at ways to budget; they can look ahead to meet the goals of each college."
The 3 percent increase will raise graduate student tuition by $90, from $2,975 to $3,065, and students in the Law School and Graduate School of Management will have a $165 increase from $5,475 to $5,640.
Rates for students who are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be twice that of those who are, reflecting the same increase for the upcoming academic year.