Photo courtesy of Ellie Seberger
The 2025-2026 academic school year at St. Ambrose University is coming with a cost. According to St. Ambrose University’s “Tuition & Fees” page of their website, a student will be paying $37,833 for a full academic year starting the fall semester of 2025. This is a $1,455 dollar difference from last year’s $36,378. This difference has led SAU students to express their varying opinions on the increased cost of furthering their education.
Some students say they understand the tuition increase. Mallory Zeman, a freshman majoring in Psychology explains, “Many of my peers were upset by the change in tuition for next school year. Personally, I understand that it is a change that is most likely necessary due to inflation and changes on campus.”
Other students say their first emotion was shock, followed by an understanding of the decision. “I’m not a huge fan. It’s not 100% easy to make college affordable. However, I do know that with the direction higher education is going, it is something that’s necessary. If this is what’s going to best help us grow, and be able to maintain the resources we have, then I believe it’s good,” says sophomore Accounting and Sales major Jaxson Eisenbarth.
Freshman Elementary Education major, Katie Greer, had a similar reaction to Eisenbarth. “At first when I saw the jump in tuition costs, I was thrown off and worried my scholarships wouldn’t extend to cover it. However, later I realized this was genuinely to keep up with the cost of living all around us, and a pretty standard increase. I’d say definite clarification regarding how this increase correlates to scholarships would be appreciated in the future!”
While some students say they are able to come to terms with the increase, even if it wasn’t their first choice, other students are struggling to wrap their heads around this reality.
SAU freshman and Sports Management major Emily Driftka explains her hard feelings towards this new change, “I personally think it’s unfair to add something like that to students. College is already very expensive and everything else in the world is expensive.
“We do not know the situations of every student and some people cannot afford to come to St. Ambrose now.” Driftka acknowledges the sobering reality that some students are now facing due to this tuition increase: Is another year at St. Ambrose even possible?
Another freshman, who wishes to remain anonymous, agrees with Driftka’s perspective in a very personal way. “It seems like it’s not a lot added on, but it is. Especially when my scholarships for football and track aren’t that much for the time I’m putting in.”
Overall, some St. Ambrose students are coping with this news by coming up with potential solutions, or ways that would make the increase easier to swallow. Sophomore Marketing Major Adriana Diaz says: “As someone who receives a lot of scholarships, if the tuition is increasing then they should offer more scholarships, or more opportunity for scholarships.”
A senior in the Exercise Science program agrees there are better ways for this increase to be handled. “As students, we’re used to seeing our tuition increase annually. It’s frustrating. I think that tuition should be locked for students. I also think being able to present tuition lock to prospective students will aid in our enrollment efforts and may even offset the ‘cost’ of not raising tuition for every student every year.”
Ellie Seberger is a staff writer for The Buzz
