Eastern Cuts Tuition For Massachusetts And Rhode Island Students

WILLIMANTIC — Eastern Connecticut State University will extend a lower tuition rate to undergraduate students from Massachusetts and Rhode Island beginning in fall 2027, the university announced October 27.

The university says annual tuition for those students will fall from $10,498 to $6,998, a reduction of $3,500. Students will remain eligible for merit scholarships and need-based financial aid. Eligibility does not guarantee that an individual student will receive an award.

The announced amount covers tuition. The release does not provide a complete budget including university fees, housing, meals and other expenses, so $6,998 should not be read as the total annual cost of attendance.

The change applies to the fall 2027 semester, rather than the current academic year. The announcement identifies Massachusetts and Rhode Island residents and undergraduate study; it does not announce a similar change for every out-of-state student or for graduate programs.

Eastern also says students who apply for fall 2027 by November 15 will have their application fee waived. The university’s current first-year admissions page separately confirms that application fees are waived through November 15 and links to its application process.

Prospective students and families can visit an open house on Sunday, November 8, according to the release. Readers should use Eastern’s registration page for the event’s schedule and access details; a start time was not provided in the release reviewed for this report.

The university places the tuition change alongside a larger incoming class. It reports more than 1,100 first-year students and 275 transfer students this fall, with approximately 3,850 matriculated students overall. Those enrollment figures are the university’s account, not an independent enrollment audit.

This report was prepared from Eastern’s authenticated public news release, its matching public release page and current first-year application page. The open-house page returned navigation only, so its detailed event schedule was not independently read.

Photo: An aerial campus photograph supplied with Eastern’s October 27 news release. The photograph’s capture date and individual photographer were not identified; it does not depict the November 8 open house.