UCLA Tuition 1999-2000
UC systemwide tuition for California residents was $3,429 for the 1999-2000 academic year. Non-residents paid $13,603 including Nonresident Supplemental Tuition. Campus-based fees averaged $474 across UC.
Resident Tuition
$3,429
Non-Resident Tuition
$13,603
Campus Fees (UC average)
$474
Year-over-year change: Resident tuition changed by -5%. Non-resident tuition changed by +3.19%.
What changed in 1999-2000
A second 5% cut, and the last one UC would see
For the second year running, resident undergraduate fees were reduced 5 percent, falling from $3,609 to $3,429. The Legislative Analyst's Office later summarised the pair plainly: in both 1998-99 and 1999-00 the state reduced student fees by 5 percent, a total reduction of 10 percent, with the state reimbursing UC and CSU for the revenue they gave up. It is the last time UC resident fees fell by design. The only later decrease, in 2018-19, was the technical removal of a $60 legal-settlement surcharge.
As in the prior year, nonresidents saw the opposite. Their mandatory charges stayed at $3,799 and Nonresident Supplemental Tuition climbed to $9,804, up 4.5 percent. Campus-based fees also drifted upward across the system, from an average of $428 to $474, which quietly offset part of the systemwide cut on a real student's bill. Documenting this year is unusually hard: the Daily Bruin's own archive has a gap running from April 1999 to April 2000, so the reduction is confirmed here through state and UC records rather than campus reporting.
1999-2000 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 $3,429 a California resident paid in 1999-2000 is equivalent to $6,626 in 2025 dollars. Non-resident tuition of $13,603 works out to $26,287 in 2025 dollars.
Resident tuition in 2025 dollars
$6,626
Non-resident tuition in 2025 dollars
$26,287
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 $229/class (assuming 15 classes per year).
At California's $5.75/hr minimum wage back then, covering tuition alone would take 596 hours of work (~15 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 1999-2000 are drawn from the following sources.
- LAO: Analysis of the 2002-03 Budget, Intersegmental(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)