What does California Institute of Technology cost after financial aid?

What California Institute of Technology costs by family income

Net price is the whole cost of attendance minus every grant and scholarship, so it is what a family was left to find. These are averages over students who received federal aid at California Institute of Technology, split by total household income, exactly as the college reported them.

In 2 of these bands the federal file records a figure at or below zero. That is not a typing error and it is not a refund: grant aid covered the entire cost of attendance, housing and food included, and at California Institute of Technology those students were left with nothing to find. This page prints that in words rather than as a negative amount, which would read as a bill.

Across every income band together the average was $16,075. Of the 1,513 four-year colleges in this set that report an average net price, 1,033 report a higher one than California Institute of Technology and 479 report a lower one. The middle college in that set reports $19,858. That is a count, not a rating: a lower net price is not a better college and this page makes no claim that it is.

The federal file carries no median debt at graduation for California Institute of Technology.

The published price, and who actually pays it

California Institute of Technology publishes tuition and fees of $65,898 a year, the same figure for every student regardless of state. Adding housing, food, books and supplies, the total cost of attendance is $86,886. That is the sticker price. The table above is what families were actually left to pay after grant aid, and at most colleges the two are a long way apart.

How far aid reaches

18% of undergraduates at California Institute of Technology received a Pell Grant, the federal grant for students with the highest financial need, and 4% took a federal student loan. Pell share is the closest the federal file comes to saying how many low income students a college enrols. It counts no institutional scholarship, which at many colleges reaches far more students than Pell does.

The federal file carries no median debt at graduation for California Institute of Technology, so this page states none and estimates none.

Writing the California Institute of Technology application

Cost is one half of the decision and the application is the other. The California Institute of Technology essay requirements page carries this cycle’s prompts word for word with their word limits, the deadline rounds and the date each was read on California Institute of Technology’s own admissions site. The California Institute of Technology essay review page sets out what a read does against those particular prompts.

Two lists in this set rank colleges on the same federal figures this page uses: lowest average net price and lowest net price for families under $30,000.

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). This page reads the row the federal file records as California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, IPEDS UNITID 110404, a private nonprofit institution.

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.

The federal file keeps net price in two separate columns, one for public and one for private institutions, and never fills both for the same college. Every figure above is read from whichever column the file filled for California Institute of Technology, which is the private one, rather than from the sector label, because the two disagree for at least one institution in the current file.

Comparisons on this page are made against 1,564 four-year colleges. 144 private for-profit institutions and 236 reporting fewer than 250 undergraduates are excluded, the same pool the rankings computed from federal data use, so the two surfaces describe the same universe. A college that reported nothing is absent rather than counted as a zero.

Nothing on this page is a quote and nothing is an offer. Only California Institute of Technology’s own net price calculator and its financial aid office can tell your family what it would pay. These figures are averages over a past cohort of aided students, and a college can change its aid policy between cycles.

Questions

How much does California Institute of Technology cost after financial aid?

$16,075 a year on average across students who received federal aid, from the College Scorecard file pulled on 2026-09-17. That is the average across every income band together; the table on this page splits it into five. 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.

What does California Institute of Technology cost for a low income family?

Nothing, on average. Students from households earning $0 to $30,000 received grant aid that covered the entire cost of attendance at California Institute of Technology, housing and food included, so the federal file records a net price at or below zero for that band. 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.

What is tuition at California Institute of Technology?

$65,898 in published tuition and fees for the year, the same figure for every student regardless of state. That is the sticker price before any grant or scholarship, and the full cost of attendance including housing, food and books is $86,886. It is not what most families pay: the net price table above is.

How many students at California Institute of Technology get financial aid?

18% of undergraduates received a Pell Grant, the federal grant for students with the highest financial need, and 4% took a federal student loan. Pell share is the closest thing the federal file has to a measure of how many low income students a college enrols. It does not count institutional scholarships, which at many colleges reach far more students.

Where do these numbers come from and how current are they?

From the US Dept of Education College Scorecard, Most Recent Institution-Level Data, pulled on 2026-09-17 from the US Department of Education's bulk download. Every figure is one the college itself reported to the federal government, and every figure on this page is computed from that file when the page is built. NudgeEssay has no relationship with California Institute of Technology and this page is not an offer of aid. California Institute of Technology's own net price calculator is the only thing that can quote your family a figure.

Cost after aid at other colleges in California

• Cal Poly Pomona
• Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly SLO)
• Cal State Fullerton (CSUF)
• Cal State Northridge (CSUN)
• Chapman University
• Claremont McKenna College
• CSU Long Beach (CSULB)
• Fresno State (CSU Fresno)
• Harvey Mudd College
• Occidental College
• Pepperdine University
• Pitzer College

Every college in this set is listed on the cost index.