Net Price by Family Income: How Aid Changes the Bill

The same college can cost very different amounts for different families. The College Scorecard shows this by splitting the average net price into five family-income ranges, from $0 to $30,000 up to more than $110,000. If you only look at a school’s overall average, you may be reading a number that does not describe your family at all. This guide explains how the bands work, why the gaps between them vary so much from school to school, and how to use them without over-reading them.

Key takeaways

• The Scorecard’s five income ranges are $0–$30,000, $30,001–$48,000, $48,001–$75,000, $75,001–$110,000 and over $110,000.
• Income here means family income as reported on the federal aid application, not necessarily what you consider your household income.
• At many schools net price rises with income, because grants shrink as a family’s ability to pay grows. How steeply it rises differs enormously by school.
• Bands are averages for students who received federal aid, so a small band at a small school can be noisy or missing.
• Use the band as a starting estimate, then confirm with the school’s own net price calculator and, finally, your actual award letter.

What the bands are

For each college, the Scorecard publishes the average net price for first-time, full-time undergraduates who received federal Title IV aid, grouped by family income. The grouping follows the way schools report data to the federal IPEDS survey. In the Scorecard documentation, the five ranges are $0–$30,000; $30,001–$48,000; $48,001–$75,000; $75,001–$110,000; and $110,001 and above.

As with the overall figure, net price in each band is cost of attendance minus grants and scholarships. Loans and work-study are not subtracted. For public colleges the number reflects in-state students. For the underlying definition, read net price vs. sticker price.

Two features of the data are easy to miss:

• Only aid recipients are included. Because the group is limited to students who received federal aid, the top band can contain a different mix of students than the lower bands. Families with high incomes who did not apply for aid are not in the data at all.
• Small groups. If very few students at a school fall into a band, the number can be unstable or withheld. When a band is missing on a college page, that is a sign of a small group, not a price of zero.

Why the shape differs by school

Families in the lowest bands often have the lowest net prices at colleges that have large grant budgets, because federal, state and institutional grants can add up to most of the cost of attendance. The federal Pell Grant is a big part of that for low-income students; see Pell Grant basics. But three school types tend to have very different shapes:

Well-funded private colleges. These schools often discount heavily for lower-income families but charge close to the full sticker price to families at the top. The result is a steep slope from the lowest to the highest band.

Public colleges. Public sticker prices are lower to begin with, so the dollar gap between bands is usually smaller. The net price for the lowest band may be low because of Pell and state grants, while the higher bands are close to the in-state sticker price.

Schools that rely mainly on tuition revenue. Some private colleges use scholarships mostly as a recruiting tool for everyone, which can flatten the slope. The net price in low-income bands may be higher than you would expect.

An illustrative example

The numbers below are illustrative, not real schools. Imagine two colleges with the same $55,000 cost of attendance.

Family income band	College X net price	College Y net price
$0–$30,000	$9,000	$21,000
$30,001–$48,000	$12,000	$23,000
$48,001–$75,000	$21,000	$27,000
$75,001–$110,000	$33,000	$33,000
Over $110,000	$48,000	$38,000

A family in the first band would find College X far cheaper. A family in the top band would do better at College Y. The two schools have the same sticker price and nearly the same average net price across all students, but they are very different choices depending on where you sit. This is why the overall average on a college page is just the start.

How to find your band

1. Use your family’s adjusted gross income. On the FAFSA, federal tax information is pulled from your tax return for the “prior-prior” year, meaning the tax year two years before the school year you are applying for. That is the income schools use. Our FAFSA guide explains the process.
2. Remember who counts as “family.” For a dependent student, the family generally means the student and the parents who must report on the FAFSA. Rules for divorced or separated parents and for independent students differ, and the form’s instructions cover them.
3. Look at the band above and below yours as well. If your income sits near the edge of a band, the neighboring band shows how sensitive the school’s aid is to a small change.

How to use the bands without over-reading them

Treat them as a screening tool. They are good for answering “Is this school even in range for a family like mine?” and for building a shortlist. They are not good for making a final decision, for three reasons:

• They are averages. Half of students in a band may pay more than the figure.
• They describe past students. Aid policies change, and a school’s budget in a given year is not guaranteed.
• They do not include your assets or number of children in college, which can change aid, and they cannot reflect a scholarship you earn on merit.

To get closer to your own number, use the school’s net price calculator or our net price calculator, and compare across schools using the rankings, which include lists such as lowest net price for specific income ranges.

Common mistakes

• Using the overall average instead of your band. The average is dominated by whichever income groups are largest at that school.
• Assuming the lowest band is always the cheapest everywhere. Net price in the lowest band can still be a real burden. Always compare the dollar amount to what your family can pay, not only to other bands.
• Comparing bands across public and private schools without noting residency. The public figure is for in-state students.
• Forgetting that a low net price may rest on loans. The Scorecard’s net price excludes loans, but a school’s offer might close the gap with them. See federal student loans explained.
• Skipping the FAFSA because “we make too much.” Many schools use FAFSA data to award merit and need-based grants. Not applying can close doors you did not know were open.

What to do next

1. Find your income band using your most recent federal tax return, or estimate it for the tax year the FAFSA will ask about.
2. Open the college pages for the schools on your list and compare the net price for your band.
3. Run each school’s own net price calculator and note any difference.
4. File the FAFSA, and compare the real offers using how to compare financial aid offers.
5. Read our methodology to see how the income-band figures are sourced and displayed.

This guide is general education. Your own aid offer and each school’s current policies determine what you will actually pay.