Tuition vs. fees.
In plain English
Tuition is what a college charges for instruction, the core price of taking classes. Fees are the additional mandatory charges layered on top: technology, activity, health, lab, facility, and similar fees that are required even though they are billed separately from tuition. Because fees are often quoted apart from the tuition sticker, the real price of attending is tuition plus fees, and fees can add up to a meaningful slice of the bill. This is separate again from room, board, books, and living costs, which the broader cost of attendance captures.
01Why it matters
Comparing colleges on tuition alone understates the price when required fees differ, so adding tuition and fees together, and then the rest of cost of attendance, is how you see what a year actually costs.
02The math, step by step
Two colleges quote similar tuition, but one piles on higher technology, activity, and facility fees. Once you add tuition and fees together, that school's real charge for enrolling is meaningfully higher, even before room, board, and books enter the picture.
03What this is NOT
It is not the whole cost. Tuition and fees are the charges to enroll and take classes. Cost of attendance is broader, adding room, board, books, transportation, and personal expenses on top.
04Receipts
Every figure on this page is sourced to a primary document. Tap to open the original.