by our College Data Analytics TeamMany students will never be charged the full sticker price of a school. Rather, they are offered a financial aid plan that includes a mix of loans, grants, scholarships, and possibly work-study opportunities. The total price of attendance at Bowdoin College can feel overpowering, but remember that the majority of students receive some sort of financial assistance.
What financing options does Bowdoin offer, and what will you qualify for? Keep scrolling for more information. Keep going to see how much school funding could be available to you.
How much aid you qualify for depends largely on your family’s financial circumstances. Use the information below to understand how much financial assistance you may get from Bowdoin College.
Colleges use loans, grants, scholarships and work-study to minimize what students actually pay out of pocket. Some kinds of aid are clearly preferable to others, and outcomes differ across students.
Looking at the entering class at Bowdoin College, 60% of first-time, full-time freshmen received some form of financial aid approximately 303 freshmen).
| Type of Aid | % of Freshmen Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 55% | $62,872 |
| Institutional grants & scholarships | 55% | $60,229 |
| Federal Pell grants | 19% | $6,018 |
| State/local grants | 2% | $2,500 |
| Federal student loans | 6% | $5,238 |
Grants and scholarships are the most valuable form of aid because, unlike loans, they never have to be repaid. At Bowdoin, some 56% of undergrads got grants or scholarships worth on average $59,125 (among about 1031 awardees).
| Award | % of Undergrads Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 56% | $59,125 |
| Federal Pell grants | 17% | $5,690 |
| Federal student loans | 8% | $6,253 |
For on-campus title-IV students, average grant aid came to $70,702.
How much a family pays depends heavily on income, because most aid is awarded on the basis of financial need.
| Family Income | Average Net Price |
|---|---|
| $0 – $48,000 | $3,352 |
| $30,001 – $75,000 | $5,180 |
| Over $75,000 | $37,777 |
Remember these are net prices — what families pay after gift aid, not before.
Net price is the cost remaining after grant and scholarship aid is subtracted from the sticker price, and it is the most useful single number for estimating real cost.
| Cohort | Average Net Price |
|---|---|
| On-campus title-IV students | $14,398 |
| Off-campus title-IV students | $20,786 |
For a customized cost estimate, visit Bowdoin’s online cost calculator: bowdoin.studentaidcalculator.com/survey.aspx.
The middle student in the debt distribution at Bowdoin owes $12,000 in federal loans.
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Median federal debt (all student-aid borrowers) | $12,000 |
| Median federal debt (graduates only) | $18,500 |
| Typical 10-year monthly payment (graduates) | $196.13/mo |
Spreading the median graduate debt over a standard 10-year repayment schedule works out to roughly the monthly payment shown above.
A single median figure conceals how much debt outcomes differ student to student. The percentiles below describe the cumulative federal debt distribution for borrowers at Bowdoin.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,500 |
| 25th percentile | $8,454 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $31,500 |
Outcomes differ by income bracket, by first-generation status, and by whether a student is financially dependent.
Debt by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $8,250 |
| Middle income | $12,000 |
| High income | $13,000 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $9,778 |
| Continuing-generation students | $13,000 |
These indicators are derived from the underlying debt data and summarize the overall picture at Bowdoin.
The Stafford program is the federal direct-loan vehicle most undergraduates use. Below is the annual Stafford program activity at Bowdoin:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Stafford loan recipients | 1942 |
| Total Stafford loan amount | $21,614,411 |
If you are a veteran or active-duty service member, the GI Bill and DoD Tuition Assistance are the primary federal programs you can use at this school.
Post-9/11 GI Bill activity
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| GI Bill recipients | 9 |
| Total GI Bill amount | $321,585 |
| Average GI Bill amount per recipient | $35,732 |
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.