Ripon College Offers Free Tuition to Wisconsin Residents

A small college in Wisconsin with a shrinking enrollment and a modest endowment has unveiled a plan to offer some in-state students free tuition.

Starting in fall 2025, if you’re a Wisconsin resident from a family earning $75,000 or less, you can attend Ripon College tuition-free.

How can Ripon afford to do this? And will it pay off?

Recently introduced, the Ripon Commitment offers “extraordinary support for Wisconsin residents.”

For students from families earning $75,000 or less, tuition will be free. And for those whose family income falls above that threshold, Ripon promises to match what the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the state’s flagship, advertises for tuition and fees.

“The Ripon Commitment opens doors for students in Wisconsin who may have thought higher education at a private school was out of reach,” Ripon President Victoria N. Folse said in a press release.

To qualify for free tuition, residents must be incoming first-year or transfer students. Current students aren’t eligible. The grant covers up to four years of tuition but excludes housing and food costs. What’s more, students must agree to live on campus all four years.

If a student’s family income crests $75,000 in subsequent years, the student still qualifies for free tuition.

For the Wisconsin-Madison match, the same stipulations apply for students from families earning more than $75,000. Ripon says its tuition and fees for those in-state students won’t exceed Wisconsin’s cost of $11,606 for 2025.

This program figures to be a costly venture for Ripon given that nearly 70% of its students hail from Wisconsin.

So what’s driving Ripon’s decision?

Like most private colleges, Ripon (pronounced “Rippen”) charges a significant amount of money for tuition. For the coming academic year, tuition alone will run $51,600, and the college estimates the full cost of attendance at $62,700.

That’s the sticker price, of course, not the actual amount most students pay. According to the College Scorecard, average annual costs for Ripon run $21,825. Students graduate with a median debt of $27,000.

By comparison, students at Wisconsin-Madison pay an average of $16,834 per year and graduate with a median debt of $20,484.

What Ripon students pay varies by family income level. At the low end, students from families earning less than $30,000 pay $13,130 per year, according to College Board data. All told, students whose family income falls under the $75,000 threshold pay an average of $13,765.

Those same families pay an average of $6,098 at Wisconsin-Madison, a stat likely influenced by the university’s “Bucky’s Tuition Promise” program. Announced in 2018, the program covers tuition and fees for in-state students from families earning $65,000 or less.

It’s fair to assume Ripon fears losing students to in-state bargains such as Wisconsin-Madison more than it fears losing them to fellow privates like Beloit College and Kalamazoo College. While some students might prefer a small college over a large university (UW-Madison enrolls about 48,000), Wisconsin offers a much wider range of academic options, not to mention Big Ten sports and a national reputation.

That’s why Ripon is benchmarking Wisconsin-Madison’s tuition costs, arguing that a private college experience, for those who desire it, can be had at a public university price.

It’s also fair to assume Ripon’s move smacks more of desperation than of noblesse oblige. The college has been losing enrollment over the past decade, and it’s down to 754. Fifteen years ago, Ripon had more than 1,000 students.

Some other small colleges offering deep discounts to lower-income students don’t have this problem. Colorado College initiated the “Colorado Pledge” in 2019 to ensure the college “is as affordable for Colorado students as the state’s flagship public university.”

Coloradans from families earning under $60,000 pay no tuition, fees, room, and board. Those in the $60,000-$125,000 bracket pay for room and board only. And those earning $125,000-$150,000 pay an amount equal to the cost of a public flagship.

The difference here, other than the more generous offer, is that Colorado College isn’t hurting for students. Its enrollment is just under 2,400, and its national ranking, according to U.S. News & World Report, is No. 33 among U.S. liberal arts colleges.

The magazine ranks Ripon No. 146.

Colorado College accepts 19% of its applicants and has an endowment of $918 million. Ripon accepts 81% and boasts an endowment of $110 million.

The two colleges atop that rankings list, Williams College and Amherst College, offer even more extreme comparisons. In 2022, Williams became the nation’s first college to eliminate loans, replacing them with additional aid for low- and middle-income families.

In Williams’ case, it helps to have an endowment of almost $3.5 billion to support the roughly 2,000 students in attendance.

Similarly, Amherst promises families with incomes below $141,000 scholarships equal to the college’s tuition, while those below $67,500 won’t pay living costs either. The college’s endowment is $3.34 billion.

Although its public-facing motives might be just as altruistic as those at Colorado, Amherst, and Williams, Ripon didn’t create its scholarship program from a position of financial strength.

Given that the majority of Ripon’s students come from Wisconsin, how can the college afford to waive tuition for so many families?

It’s not like Ripon attracts a wealthy student body. Roughly 41% of its students in a recent year were Pell Grant-eligible, a barometer for low-income status. Nationally, 32% of students fit this classification.

The promise of free tuition might spur even more low-income students to apply.

Using the College Board data suggesting that Ripon students whose family income falls under the $75,000 threshold pay an average of $13,765, we could estimate that this figure approximates the amount of each in-state tuition scholarship.

But that figure represents the total cost of attendance, not just tuition. At Ripon, living on campus next year will run $5,332, and a meal plan will cost $5,500. Those expenses aren’t covered by the Ripon Commitment.

Continuing this exercise in fuzzy math, subtracting the cost of room and board from the total average cost of attendance leaves $2,933 per student, which seems perfectly manageable.

A key stipulation of Ripon’s plan is that all students receiving the grant must live on campus. And all Ripon students living on campus must have a meal plan. That guarantees revenue from every student admitted under this program and eliminates the possibility that some students will move off campus and buy their own food.

That said, over 90% of Ripon students choose to live on campus, so this stipulation theoretically won’t affect too many students or result in a massive windfall for the college.

Where the program might make a significant impact is with retention. Ripon’s first-year retention rate is 74%, meaning a quarter of the students don’t return for their sophomore year. For all colleges, the primary reason students drop out or stop out is money. By alleviating this burden, Ripon will help more students avoid this dilemma.

And if enrolled students pay something, it’s better than no students paying anything, especially if a college isn’t already stretched thin. Ripon’s recent enrollment drop suggests there’s ample room for growth.

No doubt Ripon ran the numbers and figured this scholarship program is financially feasible. It also serves as a powerful marketing tool waving the banner of affordability at a time when many families question the wisdom of investing princely sums in a college education, especially at places that aren’t household names and that offer a liberal arts curriculum.

So why not trot this out and see what happens? Many other small, private colleges might follow suit for similar reasons. For some, the alternative could be extinction, a result unfortunately too common these days.

In Ripon’s case, the announcement constitutes the biggest campus news since actor Harrison Ford turned down an honorary degree from his would-be alma mater that expelled him for plagiarism four days before he was set to graduate. The college is banking on this program offering a new hope.