Princeton is raising undergraduate tuition, room and board and some fees 3.3 percent, the university announced on Monday. In its press release, Princeton called it “one of the lowest percentage increases in undergraduate tuition and fees since 1966″ and said that the trustees had also endorsed a 9.6 percent increase in the financial aid budget.

Nonetheless, Business Week pointed out that the increase was higher than the rate of inflation and came as the nation was still struggling with the worst recession in 70 years. And it was higher than last year’s increase of 2.9 percent.

Princeton is the first of the Ivy League schools to announce its tuition for the coming year, Business Week said. The total cost for tuition, room, board and health insurance is $50,030, but some fees and charges have yet to be set, Business Week reported.

In its announcement, Princeton pointed out that it has replaced all required loans with grants that do not need to be paid back and that the average grant this year for a student receiving financial aid was $36,000.

The 60 percent of this year’s freshman class on financial aid is a striking change from the class of 2001 — the last class admitted before the enhancements to the aid program — when 38 percent of the freshmen were on aid.