Affordability
What college actually costs by family income
Across 2,453 institutions in CampusPin's dataset reporting the full federal net-price series, the median institution charges families earning under $30,000 $12,475 and families earning $110,000 or more $22,070. Figures are medians across institutions, not weighted by enrollment.
By CampusPin Research · Published August 12, 2026
Executive summary
Most college websites lead with published tuition. The federal net-price series measures something different and more useful: what students receiving federal aid actually paid after grants and scholarships, broken out by family income. Across the 2,453 institutions in CampusPin's dataset that report the complete five-band series, the median institution charged families earning under $30,000 $12,475, and families earning $110,000 or more $22,070.
The sector an institution belongs to matters as much as the income band. The median private, two-year institution charged the lowest-income families $23,094, roughly 3.8 times the $6,116 at the median public, two-year institution. Note that CampusPin records control only as public or private, and a large share of the private two-year group is for-profit career colleges.
The gradient is not universal at the institution level. While the medians rise with income, only 57% of individual institutions charge more at every step up the income scale, and 46 charge the lowest-income families at least as much as the highest-income ones. Coverage also differs sharply by sector, from 86.1% down to 42.4%, so the sector comparisons rest on unevenly complete data.
Key findings
- 1The median institution charges families under $30,000 $12,475 and families over $110,000 $22,070, a median ratio of 1.68 and a median difference of $7,660 across 2,353 institutions.
- 2Private, two-year institutions charge the lowest-income families the most of any sector (median $23,094), and public, two-year institutions the least ($6,116).
- 3The median private two-year institution charges families under $30,000 $23,094, more than the median private four-year institution charges the same families ($18,365). This is the sector with the weakest reporting coverage (42.4%), and much of it is for-profit career colleges.
- 4Ranking sectors by ratio and by dollars gives different answers. By ratio the gradient is steepest at public, two-year institutions (2.06) and flattest at private, two-year (1.26); by absolute dollars the largest median gap is at public, four-year institutions ($9,206) and the smallest at private, two-year ($5,184).
- 5Only 57% of institutions charge more at every successive income band. At the remainder, at least one higher-income band pays less than a lower-income band.
- 646 institutions (2% of those measured) charge families under $30,000 at least as much as families over $110,000. This count is sensitive to where the line is drawn: 46 at 1.00, 67 at 1.05, 99 at 1.10, 164 at 1.15.
- 72,453 of 3,798 institutions in the dataset (64.6%) report the complete series, and coverage ranges from 86.1% to 42.4% by sector.
- Public, two-year6,116
- Public, four-year9,605
- Private, four-year18,365
- Private, two-year23,094
Median net price by family income band for each sector, with the number of institutions analysed, reporting coverage, the share of institutions whose price rises at every band, and the median absolute gap between the lowest and highest income bands.
| Sector | Institutions analysed | Reporting coverage % | Under $30k | $30k–$48k | $48k–$75k | $75k–$110k | $110k+ | Median gap (lowest to highest band) | % rising at every band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All institutions | 2453 | 64.6 | 12475 | 13195 | 15902 | 19673 | 22070 | 7721 | 57 |
| Public, four-year | 669 | 86.1 | 9605 | 10487 | 13209 | 17323 | 19236 | 9206 | 76.7 |
| Private, four-year | 1015 | 57.3 | 18365 | 18737 | 21345 | 25044 | 28964 | 8901 | 42.4 |
| Public, two-year | 582 | 71.9 | 6116 | 6726 | 8845 | 11389 | 12597 | 6548 | 63.4 |
| Private, two-year | 187 | 42.4 | 23094 | 24074 | 25482 | 27955 | 29136 | 5184 | 45.5 |
Methodology
Source data is the U.S. Department of Education net-price-by-income series (College Scorecard / IPEDS) as carried in the CampusPin institution database, captured as a checksummed snapshot on 2026-08-12.
The snapshot covers 3,798 institutions in CampusPin's dataset. This is not the full federal Title IV universe, and non-reporting institutions include graduate-only schools that have no undergraduate series to report.
Analysis is restricted to the 2,467 institutions reporting all five bands, minus 14 duplicate records sharing an identical five-band tuple, leaving 2,453.
"Net price" is the average paid after grant and scholarship aid by students receiving federal financial aid, in each federal family-income band. Medians are taken ACROSS INSTITUTIONS and are not weighted by enrollment, so a small college counts the same as a large one.
Sector groups combine control (public/private, the only split CampusPin records) with level APPROXIMATED from institution type: university is treated as four-year and community college as two-year. Level is not a recorded field. Cells below 25 institutions would be suppressed; none fell below that floor.
Ratio analysis excludes institutions with any band below $2,500, because the federal series publishes values for very small cells that dominate a ratio without reflecting pricing. The flat-or-inverted count uses a ratio at or below 1.00 so that it matches the claim made about it, and the sensitivity of that count to the threshold is published alongside it.
Every figure here is computed from the committed aggregate file; none is entered by hand.
Limitations
- Net price is an average for students who received federal financial aid. Students who did not apply for or receive federal aid are not represented, and no individual family should read these figures as a quote for themselves.
- Medians are across institutions and unweighted by enrollment. Public institutions are about half of the institutions here but enrol a much larger share of undergraduates, so an enrollment-weighted figure would be lower than the institution median shown.
- Figures reflect a prior entering cohort as reported to federal collections, not the current academic year, and the source does not expose a single cohort year through this interface.
- Coverage is 64.6% overall and uneven by sector (42.4% at the weakest). Non-response is not random, so sector comparisons rest on unevenly complete data.
- CampusPin records control as public or private only; private nonprofit and for-profit are not separated. Degree level is approximated from institution type rather than recorded.
- This is an observational description of published federal data. It shows association between family income, sector, and price, and establishes nothing about what any institutional policy caused.
- This report publishes no ranking and names no institution. Price is one input to a decision that also involves fit, program, completion, and outcomes.
For journalists
Across 2,453 institutions in CampusPin's dataset reporting the full federal net-price series, the median institution charges families earning under $30,000 $12,475 and families earning $110,000 or more $22,070. Sector matters as much as income: the median private, two-year institution charges the lowest-income families $23,094, against $6,116 at the median public, two-year institution. These are medians ACROSS INSTITUTIONS, not weighted by enrollment, and not a figure for any individual family.
Free to cite with attribution to CampusPin and a link to this page. The sector table above is downloadable as CSV, and the underlying per-institution figures are shown on each college's own CampusPin profile page. Three caveats we ask you to carry: (1) net price is the average paid by federal aid recipients for a prior cohort, never a quote for an individual family; (2) every figure is a median ACROSS INSTITUTIONS, unweighted by enrollment, so it describes the typical institution and not the typical student; (3) CampusPin publishes no ranking and names no institution here. Contact: [email protected].
Sources, methodology & citation
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.
U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard
Net price by income band, post-graduation earnings, and federal aid context.
IPEDS / NCES College Navigator
Federal enrollment, admissions, tuition, retention, and program data. Released annually with a 1–2 year lag.
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. (2026). What college actually costs by family income. Retrieved from https://campuspin.com/research/what-college-costs-by-family-income
More in Affordability & price