10 Most Expensive Private Colleges

When many think of the most expensive schools in the nation, top ranked institutions such as Harvard University and Williams College likely first come to mind. While tuition and required fees cost about $40,000 annually at each school, neither is amongst the top 10 most expensive private universities.

Connecticut College, ranked 41st in U.S. News's rankings of national liberal arts colleges--schools that award the majority of their degrees in the liberal arts and emphasize undergraduate education--reported the highest tuition and required fee costs in the nation among private colleges for the 2010-11 school year. In all, tuition and required fees at Connecticut cost $43,990, and the total cost of attending the school is even more, as that figure does not take into account books, housing, and living expenses.

[See the 10 private colleges with the lowest tuition and fees.]

Of the top 10 most expensive private schools, seven were liberal arts colleges, while two--Columbia University and Carnegie Mellon University--are national universities (schools that offer degrees of every level and emphasize research). Bard College at Simon's Rock in Barrington, Mass., which costs $41,990 annually, is ninth on the list and falls under the regional college category because it focuses on undergraduate education but grants fewer than 50 percent of its degrees in the liberal arts.

The average combined total for tuition and required fees in the 2010-11 school year was $42,604 among the 10 most expensive private schools, compared to an average of $26,079 among the 817 private schools that reported the data to U.S. News.

Below is the complete list of the most expensive private schools in terms of the combined cost of tuition and required fees (figures do not include room and board, books, and other miscellaneous costs):

School Name	Tuition & Fees (2010-11)	U.S. News Rank & Category
Connecticut College	$43,990	41, National Liberal Arts Colleges
Columbia University	$43,304	4, National Universities
Vassar College	$43,190	12, National Liberal Arts Colleges
St. John's College (MD)	$42,592	166, National Liberal Arts Colleges
Trinity College	$42,420	36, National Liberal Arts Colleges
Bucknell University	$42,342	30, National Liberal Arts Colleges
St. John's College (NM)	$42,192	187, National Liberal Arts Colleges
Wesleyan University	$42,084	12, National Liberal Arts Colleges
Bard College at Simon's Rock	$41,990	20, Regional Colleges (North)
Carnegie Mellon University	$41,940	23, National Universities

Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find tuition data, complete rankings, and much more.

U.S. News surveyed more than 1,700 colleges and universities for our 2010 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported a myriad of data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News's data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data comes from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News's rankings of Best Colleges or Best Graduate Schools.