Even for a school ranked eighth in the nation by U.S. News and World Report magazine, this year's $25,720 price tag seems a little hefty.
But the College's cost places it in a more modest position than in 1987, when Dartmouth stood alongside Yale as the most expensive school in the Ivy League.
Currently, the College sits in the middle of the Ivy League in terms of cost.
Next year the total cost for tuition, fees, room and board will be $27,039. Tuition alone will stand at $20,805, which represents more than a tenfold increase since 1965, when tuition was a mere $1,800.
Dartmouth's current position in the middle of the Ivy League in terms of cost stems from the Board of Trustees' decision in 1989 to slow down the rate of tuition increases.
"At that time the Trustees said you ought to decrease the rate of increase. The rate increase for each year had to go down," College Treasurer and Vice President Lyn Hutton said.
The Trustees' decision regulated tuition increases until just last year, when the rate of tuition rose by 0.94 percent.
"Last year, facing significant budget issues caused the Trustees to provide for a bigger increase than they would have liked," Assistant College Treasurer Win Johnson said.
Hutton said the Treasurer's office asked the Trustees to get rid of their policy.
"What's the rationale for being at the bottom given what we offer?" she said.
The Board's decision came at the end of a decade when tuition went from $6,075 in 1980 to $14,445 in 1989. Between 1980 and 1985, tuition rises averaged 12.2 percent each year.
Dartmouth's higher tuition increases were not unique. During the early 1980s, most highly-selective colleges also showed double-digit increases in tuition.
College Spokesman Alex Huppe said the rapid and high tuition hikes during the 1980s were due in large part to the College's need to adapt to changing needs in higher education.
"Colleges and universities were playing catch-up," Huppe said.
For instance, Dartmouth had to accommodate for such changes as coeducation, which began in 1972.
"You had to accommodate a different student population," Huppe said.
Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenberg said the quick increase in costs in the 1980s did not cause any drop in the number of applicants to the College.
"The reason it didn't affect it much was that Dartmouth was not alone in those double-digit increases," Furstenberg said.
Huppe said the Trustees' decision was not made for the sake of selling the College to prospective applicants.
"I think this is a matter of principle at the College. It's not a marketing decision," Huppe said.
The Trustees' mandate succeeded in holding down costs.
For the next four years the percentage rise in tuition went down each year.
The academic year 1994-95 marks the first time the College accrued a rise in percentage tuition increase since that time.
Since the majority of the money the College receives is from tuition, the Trustees' decision forced the College to demonstrate considerable budgetary restraint, which at times meant cutbacks to the College's operations, Huppe said.
"They wanted the increase brought down," he said.
"Dartmouth took it very seriously and in fact brought the increase down. To do that we had to cut down our staff."
Money donated by alumni allowed the College to maintain its balanced budget despite the restrictions on tuition, he said.
"We have been increasing our funds. The Alumni Fund did very well last year. The Alumni Fund helps balance the budget but one of the only things that gives you some elbow room is tuition."
At the same time, College President James Freedman tabbed five areas of the College's budget as untouchable: core academic programs, tenure-track faculty positions, need-blind admissions, competitive salary compensations for faculty and overdue development of the College's buildings and grounds.
"Every year, all administration had to justify any requests in their budget. Under Lyn Hutton, we're under a strict regimen," he said.
"Dartmouth has been on a diet for the last five years," Huppe said.
Furstenberg said the difference in costs between Dartmouth and its peer institutions does not greatly influence an applicant's choice of which school he or she will eventually attend.
"The price differential doesn't make a whole lot of difference to people until it gets to about $2,000-$3,000 a year," Furstenberg said.
"Let's say if Dartmouth were $4,000 less than a main competitor, like Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. I think that would convince some more students to come here," he said.
"But that's not going to happen."
Furstenberg said students generally are more concerned about the general costs of elite colleges instead of their comparative differences.
"The first issue that I think all the Ivies deal with is that a $25,000 [college education] is a pretty foreign idea to most people in the country," Furstenberg said.
"I think there is a fundamental question of what is the value of education and is it worth it," Furstenberg said.
Furstenberg said the economy has far greater impact on the number of applicants.
"I think that if you were to do some sort of map of applications to elite, select colleges and track it compared to the economy," he said. "We tend to do well when the economy is better."
"When people are more people are more nervous about there personal finances, they're more apprehensive about applying for a $25,000 a year education," he said.
