by our College Data Analytics TeamMost 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 California State University-Bakersfield can feel overwhelming, but bear in mind that many students receive some sort of financial aid.
Just what financing solutions does CSUB deliver, and just what are you going to be eligible for? Keep scrolling for answers. Keep scrolling to see what amount of financial assistance could be accessible to you.
Eligibility for aid and scholarships is driven mostly by your household’s income and need. Read on to get a sense of the financial assistance available at California State University-Bakersfield.
Through a mix of loans, grants, work-study and scholarships, schools bring down the effective cost so more students can attend. Bear in mind that not all aid is equal, and the amount any one student receives can vary widely.
Among first-time, full-time freshmen at California State University-Bakersfield, 93% of first-time, full-time freshmen received some form of financial aid around 1086 incoming students).
| Type of Aid | % of Freshmen Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 91% | $12,966 |
| Institutional grants & scholarships | 69% | $5,829 |
| Federal Pell grants | 68% | $6,235 |
| State/local grants | 86% | $3,919 |
| Federal student loans | 15% | $4,292 |
Gift aid — grants and scholarships — beats loans every time because none of it has to be repaid. Here, about 81% of the undergraduate population received grant aid that averaged $12,092 (among about 6725 recipients).
| Award | % of Undergrads Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 81% | $12,092 |
| Federal Pell grants | 61% | $5,578 |
| Federal student loans | 23% | $6,773 |
For on-campus title-IV students, average grant aid came to $13,870.
Need-based aid means lower-income families typically pay far less than the sticker price suggests.
| Family Income | Average Net Price |
|---|---|
| $0 – $48,000 | $3,478 |
| $30,001 – $75,000 | $4,989 |
| Over $75,000 | $13,656 |
Each amount is the average cost remaining once grant aid is subtracted, by income band.
Net price is the average annual cost after grants and scholarships are subtracted from the published cost of attendance — the figure closest to what a typical aid-receiving student actually pays.
| Cohort | Average Net Price |
|---|---|
| On-campus title-IV students | $5,652 |
| Off-campus title-IV students | $5,825 |
To project your own net price, use CSUB’s net price calculator: www2.calstate.edu/attend/paying-for-college/Pages/csu-costs.aspx.
The middle student in the debt distribution at CSUB owes $11,270 of cumulative federal debt.
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Median federal debt (all student-aid borrowers) | $11,270 |
| Median federal debt (graduates only) | $16,600 |
| Typical 10-year monthly payment (graduates) | $175.99/mo |
That monthly figure reflects the median graduate debt repaid on a standard 10-year federal schedule.
Looking only at the median can be misleading because it hides the spread. These percentiles trace how cumulative federal debt is spread among borrowers at CSUB.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $2,333 |
| 25th percentile | $4,500 |
| 75th percentile | $20,835 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $31,000 |
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 | $11,000 |
| Middle income | $11,000 |
| High income | $13,000 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Median Debt
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $11,000 |
| Continuing-generation students | $12,767 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $10,193 |
| Independent students | $12,500 |
A handful of calculated indicators summarize the debt outlook at CSUB.
Most undergraduate borrowing runs through the federal Stafford loan program. These figures summarize annual Stafford program activity at CSUB:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Stafford loan recipients | 24820 |
| Total Stafford loan amount | $465,942,897 |
The GI Bill and DoD Tuition Assistance are the main federal aid routes for veterans and service members.
Post-9/11 GI Bill activity
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| GI Bill recipients | 102 |
| Total GI Bill amount | $390,682 |
| Average GI Bill amount per recipient | $3,830 |
DoD program volume
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| DoD Tuition Assistance recipients | 4 |
| Total DoD amount | $10,250 |
| Average DoD amount per recipient | $2,563 |
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.