Net price by family income
What college costs in Washington, by family income
Published tuition is not what most families pay. Across the 58 Washington colleges reporting the complete federal net-price series, families earning under $30,000 paid a median of $8,664 a year after grants, and families earning over $110,000 paid $18,643. These are averages for a prior cohort of federal aid recipients, not a quote for your family.
Median net price at Washington colleges, by family income
| Family income | Median net price per year |
|---|---|
| Under $30,000 | $8,664 |
| $30,000 to $48,000 | $9,341 |
| $48,000 to $75,000 | $12,169 |
| $75,000 to $110,000 | $15,300 |
| $110,000 or more | $18,643 |
Median across 58 colleges, unweighted by enrolment, so a small college counts the same as a large one. Net price is the full cost of attendance minus grant and scholarship aid, and is not comparable to a tuition figure.
Washington colleges, for families earning $48,000 to $75,000
Lowest net price first for this one income band, showing 50 of 58 colleges. A different income band produces a different order, which is the whole point: use the tool below to see any band. This is a sort of one reported figure, not a ranking.
| College | Under $30k | $48k to $75k | $110k or more |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clover Park Technical CollegeLakewood, WA · Public four-year | $3,264 | $3,365 | $13,974 |
| Grays Harbor CollegeAberdeen, WA · Public four-year | $1,557 | $4,969 | $9,110 |
| Skagit Valley CollegeMount Vernon, WA · Public four-year | $4,672 | $5,980 | $12,437 |
| Bates Technical CollegeTacoma, WA · Public two-year | $3,340 | $6,006 | $13,718 |
| Peninsula CollegePort Angeles, WA · Public four-year | $3,080 | $6,829 | $12,892 |
| Bellingham Technical CollegeBellingham, WA · Public four-year | $2,121 | $7,399 | $14,885 |
| Pacific Northwest Christian CollegeKennewick, WA · Private two-year | $5,088 | $7,505 | $10,489 |
| Spokane Community CollegeSpokane, WA · Public four-year | $3,951 | $7,773 | $13,615 |
| University of Washington-Seattle CampusSeattle, WA · Public four-year | $6,398 | $7,817 | $28,383 |
| University of Washington-Tacoma CampusTacoma, WA · Public four-year | $4,709 | $7,900 | $22,095 |
| University of Washington-Bothell CampusBothell, WA · Public four-year | $5,081 | $8,059 | $23,389 |
| Renton Technical CollegeRenton, WA · Public four-year | $4,050 | $8,250 | $13,962 |
| Spokane Falls Community CollegeSpokane, WA · Public four-year | $5,315 | $8,661 | $13,726 |
| Walla Walla Community CollegeWalla Walla, WA · Public four-year | $6,527 | $8,869 | $15,953 |
| Columbia Basin CollegePasco, WA · Public four-year | $7,480 | $8,973 | $16,108 |
| Lake Washington Institute of TechnologyKirkland, WA · Public four-year | $4,219 | $8,977 | $15,351 |
| Seattle Central CollegeSeattle, WA · Public four-year | $5,808 | $9,070 | $10,224 |
| Lower Columbia CollegeLongview, WA · Public four-year | $6,427 | $9,265 | $15,683 |
| South Puget Sound Community CollegeOlympia, WA · Public two-year | $8,414 | $9,415 | $16,913 |
| Olympic CollegeBremerton, WA · Public four-year | $5,352 | $9,655 | $13,478 |
| North Seattle CollegeSeattle, WA · Public four-year | $7,776 | $9,872 | $16,377 |
| Tacoma Community CollegeTacoma, WA · Public four-year | $7,917 | $9,903 | $15,824 |
| Centralia CollegeCentralia, WA · Public four-year | $7,196 | $10,081 | $8,039 |
| Pierce College DistrictLakewood, WA · Public four-year | $8,248 | $10,579 | $16,315 |
| Clark CollegeVancouver, WA · Public four-year | $8,031 | $10,892 | $16,036 |
| Yakima Valley CollegeYakima, WA · Public four-year | $9,106 | $11,646 | $17,344 |
| Whatcom Community CollegeBellingham, WA · Public four-year | $8,666 | $11,745 | $15,888 |
| Eastern Washington UniversityCheney, WA · Public four-year | $8,578 | $12,004 | $20,564 |
| Big Bend Community CollegeMoses Lake, WA · Public four-year | $9,385 | $12,029 | $18,407 |
| Washington State UniversityPullman, WA · Public four-year | $7,147 | $12,308 | $24,472 |
| Everett Community CollegeEverett, WA · Public two-year | $9,104 | $12,332 | $17,603 |
| Heritage UniversityToppenish, WA · Private four-year | $10,713 | $12,511 | $18,198 |
| Wenatchee Valley CollegeWenatchee, WA · Public four-year | $8,791 | $12,650 | $17,815 |
| Shoreline Community CollegeShoreline, WA · Public two-year | $8,661 | $12,972 | $18,258 |
| Cascadia CollegeBothell, WA · Public four-year | $11,810 | $13,083 | $19,000 |
| Bellevue CollegeBellevue, WA · Public four-year | $9,806 | $13,100 | $19,621 |
| Green River CollegeAuburn, WA · Public four-year | $10,534 | $13,329 | $19,968 |
| Highline CollegeDes Moines, WA · Public four-year | $9,875 | $14,012 | $19,642 |
| Edmonds CollegeLynnwood, WA · Public four-year | $12,686 | $14,089 | $18,878 |
| Central Washington UniversityEllensburg, WA · Public four-year | $7,978 | $15,182 | $22,366 |
| Western Washington UniversityBellingham, WA · Public four-year | $11,416 | $16,177 | $25,698 |
| Pacific Lutheran UniversityTacoma, WA · Private four-year | $13,847 | $18,653 | $29,289 |
| Saint Martin's UniversityLacey, WA · Private four-year | $15,233 | $19,090 | $29,720 |
| Northwest UniversityKirkland, WA · Private four-year | $14,935 | $19,757 | $31,535 |
| Whitworth UniversitySpokane, WA · Private four-year | $16,492 | $20,336 | $33,339 |
| Northwest College of Art & DesignTacoma, WA · Private four-year | $14,817 | $21,306 | $29,127 |
| Perry Technical InstituteYakima, WA · Private two-year | $21,804 | $21,551 | $27,638 |
| Walla Walla UniversityCollege Place, WA · Private four-year | $17,833 | $21,728 | $28,840 |
| Seattle Pacific UniversitySeattle, WA · Private four-year | $19,348 | $23,893 | $32,524 |
| The Evergreen State CollegeOlympia, WA · Public four-year | $19,969 | $24,430 | $25,934 |
What the Washington net-price data shows
- Across the 58 Washington colleges reporting the complete series, the median net price rises from $8,664 for families under $30,000 to $18,643 for families over $110,000. Net price is what students who received federal aid actually paid after grants and scholarships, not the sticker price.
- That is a $9,979 spread across the income range, or 2.15x. Aid is why: the same college charges a lower-income family less because more of its price is covered by grants. It does NOT mean every college in Washington follows this pattern, only that the median does.
- For families under $30,000, the median net price is $7,628 at the public colleges here and $19,328 at the private ones. Compare net price rather than sticker price before ruling either sector out.
How these figures were built
Every figure comes from the U.S. Department of Education net-price-by-income series (College Scorecard / IPEDS), as carried in CampusPin’s committed snapshot of 2026-08-12. Nothing is recomputed, modelled, or imputed.
Net price is the average paid by students who received federal aid, in each family-income band, after grant and scholarship aid is subtracted from the full cost of attendance. It is not tuition and must never be compared with a tuition figure. It is an average for a prior entering cohort, so it describes the college, not your family.
A college is published only if it reports the complete five-band series, so no row here has a hole in it. Colleges whose five-band series is byte-identical to another institution’s are excluded entirely rather than deduplicated: that pattern means one record’s series was attached to several schools upstream, and a page that prints a figure beside a college name must not guess which one owns it.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does college actually cost in Washington?
- It depends on family income, which is the point of this page. Across the 58 Washington colleges reporting the full federal series, the median net price is $8,664 a year for families earning under $30,000 and $18,643 for families earning over $110,000. Net price counts the full cost of attendance minus grant and scholarship aid, so it is a larger, more realistic number than tuition alone.
- Is net price the same as tuition?
- No, and they should never be compared directly. Published tuition covers instruction only. Net price is the total cost of attendance, including housing, food, books and fees, minus grants and scholarships that do not have to be repaid. A college can have higher tuition and a lower net price than another.
- Will my family pay these amounts?
- Almost certainly not exactly. Each figure is an average across federal aid recipients in that income band at that college, for a prior entering cohort. Your own price depends on your specific circumstances, the aid the college offers you, and the year you enrol. Use these to compare Washington colleges against each other, then run each college's own Net Price Calculator and confirm with its financial aid office.
- Why are some Washington colleges missing?
- A college appears here only if it reports the COMPLETE five-band series, so every income band is answerable for every college listed rather than leaving holes in the table. Colleges reporting a partial series are excluded, as are colleges whose series is byte-identical to another institution's, because that pattern means one record was attached to several schools upstream and the figure cannot be attributed to one of them.
Limitations of this data
- Net price is the average paid by FEDERAL AID RECIPIENTS in each income band after grant and scholarship aid; it is not a quote for any individual family.
- Bands are the federal series: $0-30k, $30-48k, $48-75k, $75-110k, $110k+ of family income.
- Reflects institutions in CampusPin's dataset, NOT the full federal IPEDS universe.
- CampusPin records control as public/private only; private nonprofit vs. for-profit is not split, and much of the private two-year group is for-profit career colleges.
- Degree level is APPROXIMATED by CampusPin institution type (university ~ four-year, community college ~ two-year); it is not a recorded field.
- Coverage is 65% overall and differs sharply by sector (see bySector.coveragePercent); non-response is not random, and some non-reporters are graduate-only institutions with no undergraduate series to report.
- Medians are across institutions and unweighted by enrollment, so a small college counts the same as a large one.
- Figures reflect a prior entering cohort, not the current academic year; the source does not expose a single cohort year through this API.
- Cells with fewer than 25 institutions would be suppressed; no cell in this release fell below that floor.
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Federal reporting is updated annually. Report a data issue.
Data sources & methodology
Net price by family income for Washington colleges is compiled from federal collections reported by each institution.
Sources used across this page
Not every source informs every figure. Each data point draws on the source appropriate to it see the relevant section and the data dictionary for field-level provenance.
IPEDS / NCES College Navigator
Federal enrollment, admissions, tuition, retention, and program data. Released annually with a 1–2 year lag.
U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard
Net price by income band, post-graduation earnings, and federal aid context.
Institutional websites
Each school's official admissions, registrar, and financial-aid pages are the authoritative source for current details.
Where a value is unavailable it is shown as unavailable, never as 0, free, or a negative judgment. Always confirm final details with the institution before applying.
Suggested citation
CampusPin. What College Costs in Washington, by Family Income. Retrieved from https://campuspin.com/college-costs-by-income/washington