Since 2019, more than 5,500 students have been financially served through the UTSA Bold Promise program.
SAN ANTONIO — Starting next year, the University of Texas System will waive tuition costs for students whose families make $100,000 and less following a Thursday vote by the Board of Regents. This will apply for eligible students beginning in fall 2025.
“To be in a position to make sure our students can attend a UT institution without accruing more debt is very important to all of us, and as long as we are here, we will continue our work to provide an affordable, accessible education to all who choose to attend a UT institution,” said Kevin Eltife, chairman of the UT System Board of Regents.
In 2019, the Regents established a $167 million endowment at UT Austin to cover tuition and fees for undergraduate students from families earning less than $65,000.
Then in 2022, the Regents expanded the program to all UT academic institutions through the “Promise Plus Program” with the aid of a $300 million endowment.
According to the UT System, the percentage of UT graduates with debt declined from nearly 54% in 2019 to almost 48% in 2023.
“This is really going to have a big impact on our student body and our community at large. It really opens up the doors of access to higher education a little more broadly and certainly helps address what I say is top of mind issues and that is affordability and how to make college a reality so this is going to be a big win for our students,” said Lynn Barnes, UTSA’s senior vice provost of strategic enrollment.
More than 3,000 students are currently enrolled in the UTSA Bold Promise Program through four years.
Since 2019, more than 5,500 students have been served as part of the program.
Bold Promise requirements for fall 2025 call for candidates to be a Texas resident, ranking in the top 25% of high school class and completing financial aid applications by the February 15 deadline.
Addition requirements can be found by visiting the link here.
The San Antonio Education Partnership’s College Café program serves as a one-stop shop for prospective and current college students.
Last year, the Café College program helped 4,500 individuals along their higher-education journeys, providing one-on-one guidance for goal and career setting, financial aid applications and much more.
“Even where they had the levels before at either $65,000 or $70,000 as a cap, they realized there’s a lot of students that are still not meeting that threshold and there’s a lot more potential students that they can be serving with that increased cap,” said Ana Acevedo, CEO of the San Antonio Education Partnership.
Acevedo stressed the importance of completing FAFSA or TASFA applications, as the financial aid component is a key requirement for qualifying for the UT Systems tuition programs.
“Sometimes with these programs, they talk about tuition and fees being covered but there might be other costs associated with attending that particular institution and we want to make sure we explore all of that and that our families and our students have all the information and are able to make the best decision for them,” Acevedo said.
To learn more about the free resources offered at Café College, go here.