What do free tuition policies do?
After a post-pandemic decline, inflation-adjusted college sticker prices are once again rising , with some colleges now advertising annual costs exceeding $100,000.
在经历了疫情后的下降之后，经通货膨胀调整后的大学标价再次上涨，一些大学现在公布的年度费用超过 10 万美元。
These figures receive considerable public attention , reinforcing the widespread perception that college is unaffordable.
这些数字受到了公众的广泛关注，强化了人们普遍认为上不起大学。
Yet the advertised price is often very different from what students actually pay because it does not account for financial aid.
然而，广告上的价格往往与学生实际支付的价格有很大不同，因为它没有考虑经济援助。
However, the complexity of the financial aid system can make it difficult for colleges to effectively communicate that reality.
然而，经济援助系统的复杂性可能使大学难以有效地传达这一现实。
Free tuition policies are one increasingly common strategy designed to overcome that communication problem.
免费学费政策是一种越来越常见的策略，旨在克服这一沟通问题。
These programs typically eliminate tuition charges for students with incomes below specified income thresholds.
这些计划通常会免除收入低于特定收入门槛的学生的学费。
In recent years, institutions across the country have announced such programs with considerable publicity , and the Washington Post now identifies more than 900 colleges and universities offering free tuition to some set of students.
近年来，全国各地的机构都大张旗鼓地宣布了此类计划，《华盛顿邮报》现在确定有 900 多所学院和大学向某些学生提供免费学费。
At first glance, free tuition policies appear to represent a major expansion of financial aid that will make college more affordable for eligible students.
乍一看，免费学费政策似乎代表了财政援助的重大扩大，这将使符合条件的学生更负担得起大学费用。
However, free tuition may not provide as much assistance as it seems for two reasons.
然而，由于两个原因，免费学费可能不会提供看起来那么多的帮助。
First, tuition is not the only cost of going to college; students also have to pay for housing, food, books, supplies, travel, and other personal expenses.
首先，学费并不是上大学的唯一费用；学生还必须支付住宿、食物、书籍、用品、旅行和其他个人费用。
For some families, covering those costs will still be difficult even without a tuition bill.
对于一些家庭来说，即使没有学费，支付这些费用仍然很困难。
Second, many lower-income students would have received enough financial aid to cover tuition even before the “free tuition” policy existed.
其次，即使在“免学费”政策出台之前，许多低收入学生就已经获得了足够的经济援助来支付学费。
In some cases, students were receiving enough financial aid to cover some of those other expenses in addition to tuition, especially at well-resourced institutions.
在某些情况下，学生可以获得足够的经济援助来支付学费之外的其他一些费用，尤其是在资源充足的院校。
Often, the financial aid package included enough grant-based financial aid (which does not need to be repaid) to cover tuition even if it was not labeled as “free tuition.” That is, for many students, free tuition policies may function less as new aid than as a repackaging of existing aid into a more salient form.
通常，经济援助计划包括足够的基于赠款的经济援助（不需要偿还）来支付学费，即使它没有被贴上“免费学费”的标签。也就是说，对于许多学生来说，免费学费政策的作用可能不是新的援助，而是将现有援助重新包装成更突出的形式。
While free tuition may not correspond to additional aid, these policies can help communicate to eligible students that they will not need to pay the full sticker price.
虽然免费学费可能并不相当于额外的援助，但这些政策可以帮助向符合条件的学生传达他们不需要支付全额标价的信息。
This research brief uses the Washington Post database of free tuition policies and other sources to describe which colleges are using these policies and how they affect the prices students ultimately pay.
本研究简介使用华盛顿邮报的免费学费政策数据库和其他来源来描述哪些大学正在使用这些政策以及它们如何影响学生最终支付的价格。
I document how common these policies have become, how income thresholds vary across institutions that have income-based free tuition policies and the extent to which those policies reduce college costs beyond existing financial aid.
我记录了这些政策变得多么普遍，收入门槛在实行基于收入的免费学费政策的机构之间有何不同，以及这些政策在现有财政援助之外降低大学成本的程度。
The evidence suggests that these policies are widespread across public colleges and highly endowed private universities.
证据表明，这些政策在公立大学和资金雄厚的私立大学中普遍存在。
They are less common among private institutions with smaller endowments that rely heavily on tuition revenue to pay their bills (“tuition dependent”).
在捐赠规模较小、严重依赖学费收入来支付账单（“学费依赖”）的私立机构中，这种情况不太常见。
The analysis also suggests that free tuition policies do not coincide with a large expansion of grant aid but instead mostly represent a relabeling of existing aid.
分析还表明，免费学费政策与大幅扩大赠款援助并不相符，而主要代表了对现有援助的重新标记。
Their main benefit may be communicating affordability in a way that is easier for prospective students and their families to understand, a worthy goal.
他们的主要好处可能是以一种更容易让未来的学生及其家人理解的方式传达负担能力，这是一个有价值的目标。
The Washington Post database includes a range of free tuition policies with details that differ across institutions.
华盛顿邮报数据库包含一系列免费学费政策，其详细信息因机构而异。
Most have income thresholds for eligibility.
大多数人都有收入门槛。
Some include academic requirements that students must also satisfy.
其中一些包括学生还必须满足的学术要求。
At private colleges and universities, free tuition policies are set by individual institutions, and eligibility generally is based only on income thresholds.
在私立学院和大学，免费学费政策由各个机构制定，资格通常仅基于收入门槛。
1 For example, Emory’s Advantage Plus policy offers free tuition to admitted students with incomes below $200,000.
1 例如，埃默里大学的 Advantage Plus 政策为收入低于 20 万美元的录取学生提供免费学费。
Some private institutions go further and cover virtually the full cost of attendance (including most non-tuition expenses) for students with incomes below a lower threshold.
一些私立机构更进一步，为收入低于较低门槛的学生支付几乎全部的入学费用（包括大多数非学费费用）。
For example, the Rice Investment offers free tuition to admitted students with incomes below $200,000 and free tuition, housing and food to admitted students with incomes below $100,000.
例如，莱斯投资为收入低于20万美元的录取学生提供免费学费，为收入低于10万美元的录取学生提供免费学费、住宿和食物。
The most highly endowed of these colleges have very generous policies: Princeton University covers the full cost of attendance for families with incomes below $150,000 and offers free tuition to those with incomes under $250,000.
这些学院中捐赠最多的学院拥有非常慷慨的政策：普林斯顿大学为收入低于 15 万美元的家庭提供全额学费，并为收入低于 25 万美元的家庭提供免费学费。
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For public institutions, free tuition policies may be implemented at the statewide level (like the New York Excelsior Scholarship ), within a state university system (like University of Minnesota Promise Plus for all university-level campuses) or at a particular campus, such as a flagship university (like University of Virginia’s AccessUVA program ).
对于公立机构，免费学费政策可以在全州范围内实施（如纽约精益奖学金），在州立大学系统内实施（如明尼苏达大学所有大学级别校园的 Promise Plus）或在特定校园实施，如旗舰大学（如弗吉尼亚大学的 AccessUVA 计划）。
Many policies include academic requirements (like Indiana’s 21st Century Scholarship program).
许多政策都包含学术要求（例如印第安纳州的 21 世纪奖学金计划）。
3 Others have examined the specifics of these “Promise” programs in more detail.
3 其他人更详细地研究了这些“承诺”计划的细节。
Some programs offer free tuition without explicit income or academic thresholds but instead rely on other eligibility criteria, like residency requirements.
有些项目提供免费学费，没有明确的收入或学术门槛，而是依赖其他资格标准，例如居住要求。
Such programs are especially common at community colleges, where tuition levels are lower and students tend to come from lower-income families ( MassEducate ).
此类项目在社区大学尤其常见，那里的学费水平较低，而且学生往往来自低收入家庭（MassEducate）。
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Free tuition has become quite common at different types of colleges and universities.
免费学费在不同类型的学院和大学已经相当普遍。
To document this, I rely on the full Washington Post database of institutions that have such policies.
为了记录这一点，我依赖于拥有此类政策的机构的完整《华盛顿邮报》数据库。
Those policies vary in their academic requirements, income thresholds, and other factors.
这些政策的学术要求、收入门槛和其他因素各不相同。
Initially, I ignore these distinctions, and I consider an institution to have a “free tuition” policy if they advertise free tuition for some group of students.
最初，我忽略了这些区别，如果一个机构为某些学生群体宣传免费学费，我认为该机构有“免费学费”政策。
I categorize colleges as in my earlier work on college pricing.
我按照我早期关于大学定价的工作对大学进行分类。
Private 4-year institutions are distinguished by endowment size per student (very large: greater than $500,000, large: between $100,000 and $500,000; and tuition-dependent: less than $100,000).
私立四年制院校按每个学生的捐赠金额来区分（非常大：大于 500,000 美元；大：在 100,000 美元到 500,000 美元之间；依赖学费：小于 100,000 美元）。
Public 4-year institutions are distinguished by their flagship/very high research activity (“R1”) status versus others.
与其他机构相比，公立四年制机构因其旗舰/非常高的研究活动（“R1”）地位而与众不同。
In this analysis, I also include community colleges as a separate category.
在此分析中，我还将社区大学作为一个单独的类别包括在内。
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Overall, 2,994 colleges are included in the analysis, of which 871 offer free tuition, 29% of the total.
总体而言，2994所大学被纳入分析，其中871所提供免费学费，占总数的29%。
6 About 42% of students are enrolled in colleges that have a free tuition policy (though not all students would qualify), indicating that institutions with these policies are larger, on average, than those without such policies.
6 大约 42% 的学生就读于实行免费学费政策的大学（尽管并非所有学生都有资格），这表明实行这些政策的院校平均规模比没有此类政策的院校规模更大。
Figure 1 shows that, for the three categories of public colleges, between about 40% and 65% have a free tuition policy; public flagship/R1 institutions are at the high end of that range.
图1显示，对于三类公立大学来说，大约有40%到65%之间有免费学费政策；公共旗舰/R1 机构处于该范围的高端。
Only 7% of tuition-dependent (low endowment) private institutions offer free tuition, compared to 18% and 33% of those with large and very large endowments, respectively.
只有 7% 的依赖学费（低捐赠）的私立机构提供免费学费，而拥有大量捐赠和巨额捐赠的私立机构中，这一比例分别为 18% 和 33%。
The gaps are even larger when weighting by enrollment.
按入学率加权时，差距甚至更大。
Within the private 4-Year Very Large Endowment category, free tuition policies are more common at institutions with larger enrollments: 33% of institutions in that category offer free tuition for those with incomes below some stated threshold, but more than three-quarters of students in that category are enrolled in such schools.
在私人四年制巨额捐赠基金类别中，免费学费政策在入学人数较多的机构中更为常见：该类别中 33% 的机构为收入低于规定门槛的学生提供免费学费，但该类别中超过四分之三的学生就读于此类学校。
Even if they are eligible for free tuition, students face substantial expenses to attend college.
即使他们有资格获得免费学费，学生也面临着巨额的大学费用。
These costs include food and housing, books, travel and personal items.
这些费用包括食物和住房、书籍、旅行和个人物品。
This analysis focuses on “traditional” college students—recent high school graduates who attend college and live away from their parents.
本分析重点关注“传统”大学生——刚上大学、远离父母居住的高中毕业生。
For those students, non-tuition costs are substantial.
对于这些学生来说，非学费成本是巨大的。
The first three columns of Table 1 show the total cost of attendance, tuition and fees and non-tuition expenses for the same categories of institutions as in Figure 1.
表 1 的前三栏显示了与图 1 相同类别的机构的出勤、学杂费和非学费总成本。
7 Non-tuition expenses are generally similar, averaging $20,000 to $25,000, across these categories.
7 这些类别的非学费支出通常相似，平均为 20,000 美元至 25,000 美元。
8 That is what a student who qualified for free tuition would need to pay if they didn’t receive additional financial aid.
8 这是有资格获得免费学费的学生如果没有获得额外经济援助则需要支付的费用。
For many low-income families, that is not affordable.
对于许多低收入家庭来说，这是负担不起的。
Without additional financial aid, qualifying for a free tuition program still leaves college financially out of reach for many.
如果没有额外的经济援助，获得免费学费计划的资格仍然使许多人在经济上无法负担上大学的费用。
Although non-tuition expenses are similar across the different types of institutions, the income eligibility thresholds that qualify a student for free tuition are not, as shown in the fourth column of Table 1.
尽管不同类型机构的非学费费用相似，但学生获得免费学费的收入资格门槛却不同，如表 1 第四栏所示。
9 At public institutions, the average threshold is about $80,000, which is close to median household income in the U.S. in 2024.
9 在公共机构，平均门槛约为 80,000 美元，接近 2024 年美国家庭收入中位数。
At private 4-year institutions that are tuition dependent or have large endowments, the income threshold to receive free tuition averages about $100,000.
在依赖学费或拥有大量捐赠的私立四年制院校，获得免费学费的收入门槛平均约为 10 万美元。
At private institutions with very large endowments, though, the average income threshold is much higher at $167,000.
然而，在拥有大量捐赠基金的私立机构，平均收入门槛要高得多，为 167,000 美元。
Roughly 80% of all households have incomes below that threshold.
大约 80% 的家庭收入低于该门槛。
10 Eligibility also requires families to have “typical assets” (not explicitly defined), which may reduce the number of students who would be eligible.
10 资格还要求家庭拥有“典型资产”（未明确定义），这可能会减少符合资格的学生数量。
Traditional financial aid systems use detailed information on family income and assets to estimate how much a student and their family can afford to pay for college.
传统的经济援助系统使用家庭收入和资产的详细信息来估计学生及其家庭可以负担大学费用的金额。
If that amount is less than a college’s full cost of attendance, that family is said to have financial need.
如果该金额低于大学的全部就读费用，则该家庭被认为有经济需要。
Colleges then combine aid from federal, state and institutional sources to provide financial aid that covers some or all of that “financial need.”
然后，大学将联邦、州和机构来源的援助结合起来，提供满足部分或全部“财务需求”的财政援助。
Income-based free tuition policies generally rely on much simpler eligibility rules.
基于收入的免费学费政策通常依赖于简单得多的资格规则。
Eligibility is determined primarily in terms of satisfying a family income threshold, often accompanied by a requirement that families have assets typical of their income level.
资格主要取决于是否满足家庭收入门槛，通常还要求家庭拥有与其收入水平相符的典型资产。
If a family meets those eligibility criteria, they are guaranteed enough grant aid to cover tuition.
如果一个家庭符合这些资格标准，他们将获得足够的补助金来支付学费。
11 As discussed above, though, that guarantee leaves considerable additional expenses uncovered.
11 然而，正如上面所讨论的，这种保证留下了大量的额外费用。
At colleges with free tuition policies, families still need to complete financial aid forms so that colleges can calculate financial need.
在实行免费学费政策的大学，家庭仍然需要填写经济援助表格，以便大学能够计算经济需求。
Students receive a single financial aid award that reflects both the college’s traditional need-based aid and its free tuition guarantee.
学生将获得一项经济援助奖，该奖项既体现了学院传统的基于需求的援助，又体现了免费学费保证。
Effectively, the free tuition guarantee specifies a minimum grant award for students with incomes below the free tuition threshold; it means that eligible students receive at least enough grant aid to cover tuition.
实际上，免费学费保证规定了对收入低于免费学费门槛的学生的最低补助金；这意味着符合条件的学生至少可以获得足够的助学金来支付学费。
Students with additional financial need may receive additional grant aid to cover part or all of their non-tuition expenses.
有额外经济需要的学生可能会获得额外的助学金，以支付部分或全部非学费费用。
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This discussion highlights two important implications for free tuition policies.
这次讨论强调了免费学费政策的两个重要含义。
First, how will students who qualify for free tuition finance housing, food, books, transportation, and other living expenses?
首先，有资格获得免费学费的学生将如何支付住房、食物、书籍、交通和其他生活费用？
Do they receive additional financial aid?
他们是否获得额外的经济援助？
Second, free tuition policies do not simplify the financial aid process.
其次，免学费政策并没有简化经济援助流程。
Families with incomes below the relevant income eligibility threshold still need to complete complicated forms each year before learning how much aid they will receive and what they need to pay.
收入低于相关收入资格门槛的家庭每年仍需要填写复杂的表格，才能了解他们将获得多少援助以及需要支付多少费用。
Free tuition policies may simplify the message—you’ll receive at least enough aid to cover tuition—but not the process.
免费学费政策可能会简化信息——你将获得至少足够的援助来支付学费——但不会简化过程。
Because students who qualify for free tuition policies often already received financial aid under the traditional financial aid system, it isn’t clear whether the policy actually changes what those students pay for college.
由于符合免学费政策的学生通常已经在传统的经济援助制度下获得了经济援助，因此尚不清楚该政策是否真正改变了这些学生的大学费用。
They may have received enough financial aid to cover the cost of tuition regardless of the policy, particularly among students from lower-income families who typically receive the most financial aid.
无论政策如何，他们可能都获得了足够的经济援助来支付学费，特别是来自低收入家庭的学生，他们通常获得最多的经济援助。
To investigate this question, I take advantage of net price data I have previously collected at different points of the income distribution from college net price calculators at 200 randomly selected 4-year colleges and universities (community colleges are not included in this analysis).
为了研究这个问题，我利用了我之前从 200 所随机选择的 4 年制学院和大学（社区学院不包括在本次分析中）的大学净价计算器中收集的收入分布不同点的净价数据。
The net price is the amount students pay after all grant-based financial aid is subtracted from the cost of attendance.
净价是从就学费用中减去所有基于助学金的经济援助后学生支付的金额。
I have collected these data in most academic years between 2019-2020 and 2025-2026 13 and calculate the amount of grant-based financial aid awarded by subtracting the net price from the cost of attendance.
我收集了 2019-2020 年和 2025-2026 13 年间大多数学年的这些数据，并通过从就学费用中减去净价来计算授予的基于赠款的经济援助金额。
Initially, I focus on students at the 25th percentile of the household income distribution, which was roughly $45,000 in 2025.
最初，我关注的是家庭收入分布第 25% 的学生，到 2025 年，家庭收入约为 45,000 美元。
I then examine what students at that income level would have paid in 2019-2020 at the 174 colleges that did not have a free tuition policy at the time.
然后，我研究了 2019 年至 2020 年，处于该收入水平的学生在 174 所当时没有免费学费政策的大学中需要支付的费用。
14 I compare the financial aid these students received to the level of tuition and the full cost of attendance institutions charged.
14 我将这些学生获得的经济援助与学费水平以及就读机构收取的全部费用进行了比较。
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The results, reported in Figure 2, indicate that for most categories of institutions, the average amount of grant-based financial aid awarded to students at this income was more than enough to cover tuition.
图 2 中报告的结果表明，对于大多数类别的机构来说，向该收入的学生提供的基于赠款的经济援助的平均金额足以支付学费。
Consider, for instance, public 4-year flagship/R1 institutions.
例如，考虑公共 4 年旗舰/R1 机构。
Students at this income level received an average of $16,900 in grant-based financial aid, compared to average stated tuition of $15,300.
该收入水平的学生平均获得 16,900 美元的助学金资助，而平均学费为 15,300 美元。
The average financial aid package was more than enough to cover tuition, so a “free tuition” policy alone would not have been as generous.
平均经济援助方案足以支付学费，因此仅靠“免学费”政策不会那么慷慨。
Even with a financial aid package covering more than tuition, college would be difficult to afford for many lower-income students: the average sticker price was $36,000, with financial aid bringing the net price to $19,100.
即使财政援助计划涵盖的不仅仅是学费，对于许多低收入学生来说，大学也很难负担得起：平均标价为 36,000 美元，财政援助使净价达到 19,100 美元。
This pattern is true in all sectors other than tuition-dependent private institutions.
除了依赖学费的私立机构之外，这种模式在所有部门都是如此。
Except in that sector, a free tuition policy would not be expected to reduce these students’ net price, on average, because these institutions were already offering a financial aid package (which includes Pell Grants) that covered tuition.
除该领域外，免费学费政策预计不会降低这些学生的平均净价格，因为这些机构已经提供了涵盖学费的经济援助计划（其中包括佩尔助学金）。
16 These are averages, which could mask relevant variation across institutions, but the analysis shows that on average, students with incomes at the 25th percentile of the income distribution already received at least as much aid as they would under a free tuition policy.
16 这些是平均值，可能掩盖了各机构之间的相关差异，但分析显示，平均而言，收入位于收入分布第 25 个百分点的学生已经获得的援助至少与免费学费政策下的援助金额相同。