Peer and Pricing Committee Outcomes  

Dear Members of the Seton Hall Community,

In November 2019, President Nyre announced the formation of a Peer and Pricing Committee, including student, faculty, priest and administrator representatives, to identify Seton Hall’s peer institutions and carry out an undergraduate tuition-pricing analysis. The results would be used for peer comparisons related to tuition and for other purposes, such as faculty compensation studies.

To assist with this endeavor and ensure an independent and neutral evaluation, Seton Hall contracted with the Educational Advisory Board (EAB), a well-known Washington D.C.-based higher education consulting firm to lead the analysis.

The Peer and Pricing Committee identified key institutional variables, which were used by EAB to build the peer school set. These variables included — but were not limited to — institutions that are Catholic, private, urban, in our cross-applicant pool, Division I, in our Carnegie classification, and featured comparable endowments, student-faculty ratios, enrollment, selectivity and number of faculty.

Key Findings:
While the study yielded several findings that are important to the strategic planning process and helpful to the Strategic Planning Committee’s efforts, the key findings specific to tuition pricing are:

1. Among the 13 peer institutions, Seton Hall has the second-lowest tuition.
2. When tuition is combined with fees, Seton Hall continues to offer competitive pricing, remaining among the lowest third in the peer set.
3. Seton Hall’s net tuition is the lowest among these peers, as a result of its generous financial aid.

We are grateful to members of the Peer and Pricing Committee for their time and effort in identifying a peer set of institutions that will allow us to provide consistent benchmarking, and for helping us gain a context for our tuition pricing.

Sincerely,

Alyssa McCloud, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President for Enrollment Management, Co-Chair

Stephen Graham
Chief Financial Officer, Co-Chair

Results of 2020 Peer and Pricing Analysis

The Peer and Pricing Committee was formed with student membership recommended by the SGA president and faculty membership recommended by the chair of the Faculty Senate:

• Alyssa McCloud, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Enrollment Management, Co-Chair
• Stephen Graham, Chief Financial Officer, Co-Chair
• Jennifer Itzkowitz, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Finance
• David Rosenthal, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Computing and Decision Sciences
• Elise Kerim, Student
• Velu Krishnan, Student
• Reverend Colin A. Kay, Director of Campus Ministry
• Bonnie Burkhardt, Director of Business Intelligence
• Robin L. Cunningham, Ed.S., Associate Vice President and Dean of Freshman Studies
• Gary Thomas, Associate Director of Financial Aid

This study yielded the following list of peer institutions:

• Catholic University of America (Washington, DC..)
• Creighton University (Omaha, NE)
• Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA)
• Fordham University (Bronx, NY)
• Gonzaga University (Spokane, WA)
• Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles, CA)
• Marquette University (Milwaukee, WI)
• Quinnipiac University (Hamden, CT)
• Sacred Heart University (Fairfield, CT)
• Santa Clara University (Santa Clara, CA)
• Seattle University (Seattle, WA)
• St. John’s University (Queens, NY)
• University of San Francisco (San Francisco, CA) 

Finding #1: An analysis of pricing among these peers found that Seton Hall has the second-lowest tuition, as shown below.
 

Finding #2: When tuition is combined with fees, Seton Hall continues to offer a very competitive price, remaining among the lowest third in this peer set.
 

Finding #3: Seton Hall’s net tuition is the lowest among these peers, as a result of its generous financial aid.
 

Analysis and data above completed in March, 2020

Categories: Research