Colorado Mesa University has the lowest student fees per credit hour of any four-year institution in the state of Colorado, according to the Tuition and Fees Report from the Department of Higher Education. A student at CMU taking 15 credit hours per semester paid $436 per semester, or $872 a year during 2017-2018.
The cost is a slight increase from 2016-2017, when students paid $411.50 for 15 credit hours, and $823 for 30.
According to the report, on average, tuititon and fees rose 6.2 percent at four-year universities from 2016-2017 to 2017-2018.
CMU is the only four-year institution to have student fees lower than $1000 per year. Even with the proposed 92 cents per credit hour increase, CMU students who take a full class load will pay approximately $900 a year.
“We continue to focus on keeping tuition and fees as affordable as possible, while still delivering a quality education to our students,” CMU President Tim Foster said in an official statement. “We are proud that our student fees are so low and are spent on facilities students want and use as well as to support student clubs and organizations, including student media. Those are the kinds of things we believe are the most appropriate use of student fees.”
In comparison to CMU, the next lowest four-year institution was Metropolitan State University of Denver, whose fees were $1290 in 2017-2018.
The highest four-year institutional fees were from Western State Colorado University, with $3178 per year, and Adams State University, with $3704 per year. Though these universities boast some of the lowest tuition ($6624 and $5736 respectively, for 30 credit hours), their student fees are the highest.
The average four-year institutional student fees for 2017-2018 is $2086, a number that is more than double CMU’s current fees.
Though the average two-year institutional fee is $460, two-year institutions such as community colleges do not offer all of the student services that a larger four-year school like CMU does.
Out-of-state students, although they pay higher tuition, pay the same student fees as a Colorado resident.
