UCLA Tuition 1998-1999
UC systemwide tuition for California residents was $3,609 for the 1998-1999 academic year. Non-residents paid $13,183 including Nonresident Supplemental Tuition. Campus-based fees averaged $428 across UC.
Resident Tuition
$3,609
Non-Resident Tuition
$13,183
Campus Fees (UC average)
$428
Year-over-year change: Resident tuition changed by -5%. Non-resident tuition changed by 0%.
What changed in 1998-1999
Fees fall 5% — the first UC cut since 1984
UC fees went down. Mandatory systemwide charges for a resident undergraduate dropped 5 percent, from $3,799 to $3,609 — the University's first fee reduction since 1984. The cut came out of Sacramento rather than the Regents: AB 1318, the College Affordability Act of 1997, passed during a period of large state budget surpluses and reduced undergraduate fees at both UC and CSU while promising a freeze the following year. Community college fees fell from $13 to $12 per unit in the same package.
Nonresidents were left out of the reduction entirely. Their mandatory charges held at $3,799 while Nonresident Supplemental Tuition rose to $9,384, so an out-of-state undergraduate's bill went up in the same year a Californian's went down. The reduction also has to be read against the decade that preceded it: systemwide fees had risen roughly 134 percent in the early 1990s, from $951 in 1990-91 to $3,086 by 1994-95, so the cut returned only a small part of what students had absorbed.
1998-1999 tuition in 2025 dollars
Comparing tuition across decades only works once inflation is stripped out. Adjusted with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index, the $3,609 a California resident paid in 1998-1999 is equivalent to $7,128 in 2025 dollars. Non-resident tuition of $13,183 works out to $26,038 in 2025 dollars.
Resident tuition in 2025 dollars
$7,128
Non-resident tuition in 2025 dollars
$26,038
Inflation adjustment uses CPI-U annual average, U.S. city average, all items (1982-84=100). The 2025 annual average is computed from eleven months because the October 2025 index was never collected during the federal funding lapse.
What does that mean? UCLA tuition worked out to roughly $13/day of instruction, or $241/class (assuming 15 classes per year).
At California's $5.75/hr minimum wage back then, covering tuition alone would take 628 hours of work (~16 full-time weeks) — before housing and food.
Looking for Current UCLA Costs?
UCLA tuition for 2026-2027 is now $16,430 for California residents. Use our interactive Cost Calculator to estimate your total cost of attendance — including housing, meal plans, books, and more.
Sources
Figures and historical context for 1998-1999 are drawn from the following sources.
- Daily Bruin: UC undergraduate fees decrease by 5 percent (Sept. 27, 1998)(opens in a new tab)
- Daily Bruin: Legislature considers cutting student fees (May 20, 1998)(opens in a new tab)
- LAO: Analysis of the 2002-03 Budget, Intersegmental (confirms the two 5% reductions)(opens in a new tab)
- UCOP Historical Fee Levels, Tables 1-3(opens in a new tab)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U annual averages (CUUR0000SA0)(opens in a new tab)
- California Department of Industrial Relations, History of California Minimum Wage(opens in a new tab)