Net price by family income
What college actually costs a family at your income
Published tuition is not what most families pay. The federal net-price series records what students who received federal aid actually paid after grants and scholarships, split into five family-income bands. This page reads that series across 2,441 U.S. colleges that report the complete series, so you can see the real range before you talk to anyone.
Families earning $48,000 to $75,000, at colleges nationwide
Typical net price
$15,844
median of 2,441 institutions
Middle half of schools
$10,547 to $22,008
25th to 75th percentile
Full range
$44 to $57,116
lowest to highest reported
Half of these institutions charged a family in this income band less than $15,844 per year after grants and scholarships. These are averages across aid recipients at each school, not a quote for any one family.
How the same schools price other incomes
- Under $30k$12,472
- $30k to $48k$13,159
- $48k to $75k$15,844
- $75k to $110k$19,660
- $110k or more$22,026
Across colleges nationwide, the median institution charges the highest income band $9,554 more than the lowest, a ratio of 1.77 to 1. The gradient is not universal: it describes the medians, not every school.
What specific schools charged this income band
Sorted by reported net price for families earning $48,000 to $75,000, lowest first. This is a sort of one reported figure, not a ranking, and not a judgment about which school is better. Showing 50 of 2,441.
| Institution | Where | Type | Net price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oxnard College | Oxnard, CA | Public two-year | $44 |
| Coahoma Community College | Clarksdale, MS | Public two-year | $400 |
| Rockingham Community College | Wentworth, NC | Public two-year | $628 |
| Rice University | Houston, TX | Private four-year | $1,348 |
| Lamar State College-Orange | Orange, TX | Public two-year | $1,424 |
| Florence-Darlington Technical College | Florence, SC | Public two-year | $1,508 |
| Washington University in St Louis | Saint Louis, MO | Private four-year | $1,863 |
| Harvard University | Cambridge, MA | Private four-year | $2,167 |
| Moorpark College | Moorpark, CA | Public two-year | $2,243 |
| Colby College | Waterville, ME | Private four-year | $2,247 |
| New College of Florida | Sarasota, FL | Public four-year | $2,632 |
| Texas A & M International University | Laredo, TX | Public four-year | $2,791 |
| Ventura College | Ventura, CA | Public two-year | $2,939 |
| Middlesex Community College | Bedford, MA | Public two-year | $3,006 |
| Washington County Community College | Calais, ME | Public two-year | $3,081 |
| University of Minnesota-Rochester | Rochester, MN | Public four-year | $3,168 |
| South Texas College | McAllen, TX | Public four-year | $3,261 |
| College of the Canyons | Santa Clarita, CA | Public two-year | $3,334 |
| Clover Park Technical College | Lakewood, WA | Public four-year | $3,365 |
| Northeast Alabama Community College | Rainsville, AL | Public two-year | $3,441 |
| Fresno City College | Fresno, CA | Public two-year | $3,594 |
| Moreno Valley College | Moreno Valley, CA | Public two-year | $3,634 |
| Gulf Coast State College | Panama City, FL | Public four-year | $3,860 |
| College of San Mateo | San Mateo, CA | Public two-year | $3,951 |
| Ohio University-Eastern Campus | Saint Clairsville, OH | Public four-year | $3,973 |
| Gavilan College | Gilroy, CA | Public two-year | $3,999 |
| Frederick Community College | Frederick, MD | Public two-year | $4,062 |
| Georgia Northwestern Technical College | Rome, GA | Public two-year | $4,076 |
| West Georgia Technical College | Waco, GA | Public two-year | $4,125 |
| Kalamazoo Valley Community College | Kalamazoo, MI | Public two-year | $4,214 |
| Hopkinsville Community College | Hopkinsville, KY | Public two-year | $4,277 |
| Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College | Cumberland, KY | Public two-year | $4,346 |
| Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College | Bowling Green, KY | Public two-year | $4,415 |
| Johns Hopkins University | Baltimore, MD | Private four-year | $4,431 |
| Hinds Community College | Raymond, MS | Public two-year | $4,453 |
| Metropolitan Community College Area | Omaha, NE | Public two-year | $4,471 |
| Irvine Valley College | Irvine, CA | Public two-year | $4,518 |
| West Virginia University at Parkersburg | Parkersburg, WV | Public four-year | $4,538 |
| Kellogg Community College | Battle Creek, MI | Public two-year | $4,557 |
| Warren County Community College | Washington, NJ | Public two-year | $4,560 |
| Pima Community College | Tucson, AZ | Public two-year | $4,578 |
| Carroll Community College | Westminster, MD | Public two-year | $4,615 |
| Northern Essex Community College | Haverhill, MA | Public two-year | $4,619 |
| Ohio University-Lancaster Campus | Lancaster, OH | Public four-year | $4,674 |
| Hazard Community and Technical College | Hazard, KY | Public two-year | $4,697 |
| City Colleges of Chicago-Wilbur Wright College | Chicago, IL | Public two-year | $4,708 |
| Pillar College | Newark, NJ | Private four-year | $4,754 |
| Horry-Georgetown Technical College | Conway, SC | Public two-year | $4,770 |
| Clackamas Community College | Oregon City, OR | Public two-year | $4,815 |
| Vance-Granville Community College | Henderson, NC | Public two-year | $4,860 |
Want to filter on more than cost? Search all 3,798 institutions by location, size, programs, and admissions, or compare shortlisted schools side by side.
What “net price” means here
- The definition
- Net price is the total cost of attendance, tuition plus fees, housing, food, books and other expenses, minus grants and scholarships that never have to be repaid. It is not tuition, and it is not tuition minus loans. Loans are borrowed money and are still part of what a family pays.
- Who it describes
- Students who received federal financial aid, in a prior entering cohort. A family that receives no federal aid will usually pay more than these figures. A student with an unusual merit award may pay far less. International students are generally not eligible for U.S. federal aid, so these figures do not describe what an international student would pay. See studying in the U.S. as an international student instead.
- Why it is not a quote
- Aid depends on assets, family size, the number of siblings in college, state residency, and program. Two families reporting the same income can be offered very different packages. For a figure specific to you, run the school's own Net Price Calculator, which every U.S. college is federally required to publish, and file the FAFSA (plus the CSS Profile at some selective private colleges).
Source, method, and limits
Source: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, as carried by the CampusPin institution database. Snapshot taken 2026-08-12. Of 3,798 institutions in the CampusPin dataset, 2,441 report the complete five-band series and appear here. Reporting is not random, so the schools missing from this page are not a random sample of American colleges.
Figures here can differ by a few dollars from the national analysis, and the difference is deliberate. A small number of institutions share a byte-identical five-band series with another institution, which means the series was attached to the wrong record upstream and its true owner cannot be determined. The analysis keeps one copy, which is harmless for a median. This page prints figures next to institution names, so it excludes all 26 of those records rather than risk attributing a number to the wrong school.
Limitations
- 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.
Or read it state by state
Each state page shows all five income bands for the colleges in that state, plus a per-college table. 48 states report enough to publish.
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- District of Columbia
Cite this page
Journalists, counselors, and researchers are welcome to use these figures with attribution. The underlying federal data is public domain; the compilation is CampusPin's.
CampusPin Research. “Net price by family income.” CampusPin, snapshot 2026-08-12. https://campuspin.com/tools/net-price-estimator