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What 266 colleges cost after financial aid

One page per college showing what families at five different income levels were actually left to pay, not the published tuition. Every figure is computed from the US Dept of Education College Scorecard, Most Recent Institution-Level Data, pulled on 2026-09-17, and every one is a number the college itself reported to the US Department of Education. Across the 1,513 four-year colleges in this set that report one, the middle average net price is $19,858 a year.

A cheaper college is not a better college and nothing here says it is. Nothing on these pages is a quote or an offer of aid: they are averages over past cohorts, and only a college’s own net price calculator can tell your family what it would pay.

Updated . Written and maintained by NudgeEssay; how facts on this site are sourced and corrected is on the about page.

The ten lowest average net prices in this set

Average net price across all aided students, lowest first, among the 266 colleges here. Ranked on the federal figure and nothing else.

Lowest average net price among the colleges in this set
#CollegeAverage net price
1CUNY Hunter College$2,984
2CUNY Baruch College$3,033
3University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV)$4,831
4Princeton University$6,128
5University of Florida$6,541
6Cal State Fullerton (CSUF)$6,555
7Fresno State (CSU Fresno)$7,000
8Cal State Northridge (CSUN)$7,021
9Oakland University$9,120
10Florida International University$9,288

Ordered over these 266 colleges only. The same measure across all 1,513 four-year colleges that report one is on the lowest net price ranking, and the lowest net price for families under $30,000 orders the same set on the band that changes the most minds.

What each page carries

Net price for each of the five federal income bands ($0 to $30,000, $30,001 to $48,000, $48,001 to $75,000, $75,001 to $110,000, $110,001 and above), the average across all aided students, that college’s standing against every four-year college that reports one, published tuition in and out of state, the total cost of attendance, the share of undergraduates on a Pell Grant, the share taking a federal loan, and the median federal loan debt of students who finished a degree.

Coverage across the 266 pages, counted rather than claimed: 0 carry no average net price, 0 carry no figure for the $0 to $30,000 band, 0 carry no published tuition, 0 carry no total cost of attendance, 0 carry no Pell share and 1 carry no median debt at graduation. Each of those pages says the federal file holds no record rather than showing a zero or an estimate.

Each page links that college’s essay requirements and its essay review page at the same slug, so the three pages about one college are one set.

Alabama

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

District of Columbia

Florida

Georgia

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Method

Source: the US Dept of Education College Scorecard, Most Recent Institution-Level Data, pulled on 2026-09-17 from the bulk download. The file carries 1,944 institutions under the filter PREDDEG=3 (bachelor-predominant) AND CURROPER=1 (operating).

Net price in the College Scorecard is the full cost of attendance, which is tuition, fees, housing, food, books and supplies together, minus every grant and scholarship the student received. It is what a family was actually left to find, from savings, earnings or loans. It is an average over students who received federal aid at that college, not a quote, and your own figure depends on your family finances and on what that college offers you.

The income bands are the federal file’s own brackets of total household income: $0 to $30,000, $30,001 to $48,000, $48,001 to $75,000, $75,001 to $110,000, and $110,001 and above. Each figure is the average net price paid by aided students in that bracket.

Comparisons are made against 1,564 four-year colleges. 144 private for-profit institutions and 236 reporting fewer than 250 undergraduates are excluded, matching the pool behind the rankings and the free college finder, so every surface here describes the same universe.

The federal file keeps net price in two separate columns, one for public and one for private institutions, and never fills both for one college. Every figure is read from whichever column the file filled, not from the sector label, because the two disagree for at least one institution in the current file.

No figure is estimated, interpolated from a sibling campus or filled with an average. A college the file carries nothing for gets a sentence saying so.

Questions

What does net price mean?
Net price in the College Scorecard is the full cost of attendance, which is tuition, fees, housing, food, books and supplies together, minus every grant and scholarship the student received. It is what a family was actually left to find, from savings, earnings or loans. It is an average over students who received federal aid at that college, not a quote, and your own figure depends on your family finances and on what that college offers you.
Why does this site lead with net price instead of tuition?
Because almost nobody pays tuition in full, and the gap is large. Across the 1,513 four-year colleges in this set that report one, the middle average net price is $19,858 a year, and for families earning under $30,000 the middle figure is $14,650. A tuition figure answers a question nobody asked. The income bands are the federal file’s own brackets of total household income: $0 to $30,000, $30,001 to $48,000, $48,001 to $75,000, $75,001 to $110,000, and $110,001 and above. Each figure is the average net price paid by aided students in that bracket.
Why can a net price be reported as nothing at all?
Because the federal definition subtracts grant aid from the whole cost of attendance, housing, food and books included, not from tuition alone. At 10 colleges in this set, in 14 income bands between them, grant aid met or exceeded that whole cost, so the file records a figure at or below zero. Those pages say in words that aid covered the full cost. No negative dollar amount is printed anywhere in this family, because a minus sign in front of a price reads as a bill.
How many colleges are here, and why not more?
266. The federal file carries 1,944 institutions, and a cost page is published only where NudgeEssay already publishes that college's essay requirements and its essay review page, so every cost page sits beside two other pages about the same college. One entry in our essay dataset gets no cost page, because the federal file reports no institution row for it: university-of-california-system. The University of California System entry is a shared-essay row covering nine campuses rather than a single institution, and each of those nine campuses has its own page here. Widening the family to every institution in the federal file is a separate decision.
Is a cheaper college a better college?
No, and nothing in this family says so. These pages report one set of numbers a college gave the federal government. They say nothing about teaching, outcomes or fit, they carry no survey and no weighting, and no college paid to appear.
Can this tell me what my family would pay?
No. Every figure here is an average over a past cohort of students who received federal aid, and your own figure depends on your family finances and on what each college offers you. A college’s own net price calculator and its financial aid office are the only things that can quote you. These pages are for comparing colleges before you get that far.
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