Tuition is the number on the brochure. Fees are the numbers on the bill. Beyond tuition, graduate students face a layer of mandatory fees that inflate the true cost of attendance. Our dataset includes 22,318 individual fee components across 5,135 programs with itemized fee data, averaging 4.3 fee line items per program. These components were scraped from institutional fee schedules and categorized by type.
Most of these fees are non-negotiable. Health insurance is typically waivable if a student has outside coverage, but the remaining fees are charged to every enrolled student. All are part of the certified cost of attendance, which means they contribute directly to the funding gap.
| Fee Category | Occurrences | Median Amount | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Student Services | ~6,950 | $331 | Registration, activities, transit |
| Non-Resident Surcharge | ~206 | $7,991 | Separate NR fee where listed; most schools fold NR differential into tuition |
| Program-Specific | ~1,930 | $608 | Lab, clinical, malpractice insurance |
| Health Insurance | ~690 | $2,820 | Campus health plan (waivable with outside coverage) |
| Other Mandatory | ~2,290 | $195 | Orientation, records, graduation |
| Supplemental Tuition | ~170 | $2,013 | Differential tuition surcharges |
| Campus & Facility | ~1,030 | $190 | Building, technology, library |
Health insurance alone adds a median of $2,820 per year. Non-resident surcharges add another $7,991 per year at public institutions. Every dollar in fees is a dollar added to the funding gap.