Northeastern University has announced the largest financial-aid investment in its 115-year history. The university will provide an unprecedented $204 million in institutional grant aid for 2013-2014, which does not include loans or government funds. The 9 percent increase from the previous academic year demonstrates a deliberate strategy to increase financial aid at double the rate of tuition and fees, a goal it has consistently met for the past six years.

Tuition for the 2013-2014 academic year will be $40,780, a 3.7 percent increase and the lowest increase in more than three decades. Factoring in the record level of financial aid, the “net increase” in tuition will be 2.9 percent.

“In recent years, Northeastern has embarked on a tuition and financial strategy designed to support our students in achieving their degree, balance access and affordability, and align with our university goals,” said Jane Brown, Northeastern’s vice president for enrollment management. “This approach yields an outstanding student body from all walks of life and with diverse academic interests.”

In addition to the unprecedented investment in financial aid, the university also commits to the “Northeastern Promise,” a unique compact made to ensure that students and families are equipped to anticipate the costs of a Northeastern education and to prevent unexpected circumstances from impacting a student’s progress toward a degree. The Promise guarantees eight semesters of level funding to students who receive need-based Northeastern grant assistance and automatically increases the aid at the same rate of any future tuition increase.

Northeastern continues to attract and retain students from around the world. The university’s integration of rigorous academics and meaningful career-aligned experiential-learning opportunities offer students an outstanding return on investment. It also provides Northeastern graduates with distinct advantages in the competitive job market and in pursuing graduate education.

More than 90 percent of graduates from 2006 to 2011 were employed or enrolled in graduate school nine months after graduation. Eighty-seven percent of full-time employed graduates are doing work that is related to their major. Within that group, 50 percent received a job offer from a previous co-op employer.

Northeastern received 47,322 applications for 2,800 seats in the fall 2013 freshman class. The applicant pool has exceeded all prior benchmarks in terms of quality, total applicants, and geographic diversity. The average GPA in this year’s applicant pool increased from 3.7 last year to 3.8. Nearly 50 percent of 2013 applicants had a two-part SAT score above 1300, compared to 20 percent of applicants in 2006.