Small Private College Abandons ‘Prestige’ Tuition Pricing

A private liberal arts college with campuses in New Mexico and Maryland announced Wednesday a $17,000 reduction in its annual tuition, while acknowledging that steady price increases in pursuit of prestige had inadvertently driven away many qualified students from families of moderate or modest economic means.  Tuition for the coming academic year will drop to $35,000 at St. John's College, which serves about 800 students in Santa Fe and Annapolis with a sacrosanct dedication to exploring the formative texts of Western civilization — from Euclid to Jane Austen — in small classroom settings. The Santa Fe campus also offers graduate studies in the Eastern classics.