My initial reaction to hearing LSU raise tuition fees was, “Why do they need more money?” After reading their emails and the available information, I can understand.
While I didn’t crunch any numbers myself, I read other people’s calculations and the information on the prices for the fall 2025 semester, and the increase isn’t insane.
In the email sent from LSU’s Office of Communications, they wrote, “While costs rose over the last seven years, LSU did not increase tuition and mandatory fees during that time.”
With the economy changing and competition with other SEC schools, it makes sense that the university needs to raise the cost of attendance.
One of the tuition updates is tiered tuition. According to the LSU Office of Communications, this will consist of two tiers, with the second tier including “high-cost programs.” I understand students in majors who receive more funding or cost more due to demand or equipment and technology needed will be charged more for attendance.
The first thing that came to my mind regarding tiered tuition was engineering majors. The beautiful Patrick F. Taylor building houses their classes and a Panera Bread. So, LSU’s efforts to have a state-of-the-art engineering program and enforcing its students to pay a higher tuition makes sense to me.
While researching the rise in tuition, I found a Reddit post on the LSU subreddit that calls the tuition rise staggering, though later in the comments, the poster says they forgot the prices included fees. While I expected the comments to have at least some negative comments, instead, relevant ones said the following.
“Actually not terrible compared to other good schools,” one poster said.
Another user wrote, “Nothing staggering about this. People gotta get a grip.”
Though I was shocked to see no negative comments, I know that not every student feels positive about these changes due to not having scholarships, TOPS or financial help and may be scared of any rise in the already high price.
It upsets me to think that this change may mean that some people can no longer afford to attend LSU. According to a FAQ document about LSU’s new differential tuition, students who can’t afford the tuition can apply for a hardship exemption.
While I definitely won’t claim this can help every student who needs it, it’s nice that they thought to include that after raising the tuition. It makes me feel like they’re conscious of how the tuition rise may affect students, but it may be something that they have to do.
While it’s disappointing that attending LSU will cost more when many already can’t afford the tuition, I can understand that a university running with once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, like watching football in Death Valley or visiting Mike’s habitat, may need to raise tuition.
Kate Beske is a 22-year-old journalism senior from Destrehan, La.
