GW freshmen and transfer students will pay $270 more than continuing students for tuition this year – a change that evoked mixed reaction from parents who moved their children into residence halls this weekend.

When GW’s Board of Trustees announced the tuition increase six months ago, it instituted two different increases – continuing students would pay 4.7 percent more, and new students would face a 5.9 percent increase.

That put tuition at $21,590 for new students, and $21,320 for their continuing counterparts.

Terry Greiner, a GW parent, expressed a common sentiment among the parents of new students.

“Tuition is already so much that (the raise) was just a blip,” Greiner said.

“At $32,000 dollars a year, I really don’t have a severe problem with it,” said parent Kay Fletcher. “Another $300 is another drop in the bucket.”

But some parents were not as accepting of the University’s decision.

“For them maybe it’s a drop in the bucket, but not for me,” said Bernadette Izzo-Yasinowsky, mother of an incoming freshman. “I have three children in college and I’m a single mother.”

Izzo-Yasinowsky said she did not know about the tuition increase when her daughter applied.

“The school was really good about (financial aid), though,” she said. “I think there are a lot of ways to offset the costs.”

New GW dad Robert Doherty echoed Izzo-Yasinowsky’s sentiments and questioned the necessity of the raise.

“Where does that money go?” Doherty said. “They’re still getting us for the extra stuff.”

“Every year’s an increase,” said parent Dennis Yeselski. “I don’t understand the high cost of education, but that’s the way it is.”

Freshman Kai Bailey said she thinks proper use of the money would justify the increase.

“I think it depends on what the funds are going toward,” Bailey said. “If it’s for things that this class will need and get to use . and if we get our money’s worth, then I think it’s OK.”

Some students were upset about the inequity in tuition rates.

“It doesn’t seem very fair,” said freshman Andrea Eliber. “I don’t see any reasoning behind the (difference between the increases). It’s not so much the money as it is the principle of it.”

But freshman April Taylor said she was not too concerned about paying a higher tuition rate than continuing students.

“Hey, as long as I get to pay less than next year’s freshmen when they raise tuition again next year,” Taylor said.