Southwestern

Engaging Minds, Transforming Lives

Financial Assistance at Southwestern

The full sticker price of a Southwestern University education—including tuition, fees, room and board, books, and a realistic estimate of personal expenses—is $41,240 for the 2009-10 academic year.

Most of our students receive financial aid; and the average Southwestern student receiving financial aid pays around $18,000 per year. That's still a lot of money—college is expensive, after all— but for a world-class liberal arts education at one of the best schools in the country, it's a great value.

Aid packages can include need- and merit-based scholarships, work-study plans, grants, and loans. To read profiles of some of our aid recipients, and learn how assistance helped these families afford a Southwestern education, click here. For a financial aid calculator, which will give you an estimate of what it might cost for you to attend Southwestern, click here.

Southwestern is Affordable

  • Southwestern is one of 81 colleges identified by The Princeton Review as being "America's Best Value Colleges." They note that Southwestern is "$10,000 to $15,000 lower than what you would expect for a liberal arts college of its academic caliber."
  • More than 80 percent of Southwestern students receive some form of financial assistance from the university.
  • 54 percent of Southwestern students get need-based financial aid, averaging almost $26,000 a year.
  • Another 32 percent of Southwestern students receive merit scholarships averaging $10,341 a year.