by our College Data Analytics TeamMany students are not billed 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 cost of going to Columbia Basin College can seem overpowering, but remember that the majority of students are given some form of financial assistance.
What financial aid options can CBC offer, and what will you qualify for? Keep reading for more information. Read on to discover how much school funding could be available 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 Columbia Basin College.
Financial assistance, available as scholarships, loans, and work-study, is a way schools lower the price of attendance so many students can enroll. Note that some aid is more valuable than the rest, and individual awards are far from uniform.
Looking at the entering class at Columbia Basin College, 79% of first-year full-time students received aid of some kind (about 762 incoming students).
| Type of Aid | % of Freshmen Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 76% | $7,367 |
| Institutional grants & scholarships | 43% | $1,430 |
| Federal Pell grants | 48% | $5,287 |
| State/local grants | 60% | $3,918 |
| Federal student loans | 4% | $5,352 |
Unlike loans, grants and scholarships are gift aid that does not need to be paid back, making them the most desirable form of assistance. At CBC, some 46% of undergraduates were awarded an average grant or scholarship of $6,815 (covering around 3079 students).
| Award | % of Undergrads Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 46% | $6,815 |
| Federal Pell grants | 26% | $4,856 |
| Federal student loans | 4% | $7,094 |
For students living on campus and receiving title-IV aid, grants averaged $9,944.
Because need-based aid scales with family income, what students actually pay differs sharply across income brackets.
| Family Income | Average Net Price |
|---|---|
| $0 – $48,000 | $7,657 |
| $30,001 – $75,000 | $8,472 |
| Over $75,000 | $11,963 |
Each figure is the net price after grants and scholarships, not the published sticker price.
After grants and scholarships come off the published price, what remains is the net price — the best estimate of true out-of-pocket cost.
| Cohort | Average Net Price |
|---|---|
| On-campus title-IV students | $8,317 |
| Off-campus title-IV students | $8,302 |
To project your own net price, use CBC’s net price tool: apps.columbiabasin.edu/npcalc/.
The median student at CBC graduates with $7,506 in federal loans.
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Median federal debt (all student-aid borrowers) | $7,506 |
| Median federal debt (graduates only) | $14,829 |
| Typical 10-year monthly payment (graduates) | $157.21/mo |
The 10-year payment estimate assumes a standard federal repayment plan and the median graduate debt amount.
Looking only at the median can be misleading because it hides the spread. The figures below chart the debt distribution at CBC.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,503 |
| 25th percentile | $2,757 |
| 75th percentile | $11,638 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $20,060 |
How much a student borrows depends heavily on family income, first-gen status, and dependency.
Debt by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $8,426 |
| Middle income | $7,506 |
| High income | $5,500 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $7,888 |
| Continuing-generation students | $6,875 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $5,500 |
| Independent students | $9,500 |
The figure below distills the debt data into a single burden category for CBC.
Most undergraduate borrowing runs through the federal Stafford loan program. These figures summarize annual Stafford program activity at CBC:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Stafford loan recipients | 5379 |
| Total Stafford loan amount | $57,183,584 |
Military-affiliated students can tap the Post-9/11 GI Bill and DoD Tuition Assistance.
Post-9/11 GI Bill activity
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| GI Bill recipients | 112 |
| Total GI Bill amount | $550,638 |
| Average GI Bill amount per recipient | $4,916 |
DoD program volume
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| DoD Tuition Assistance recipients | 13 |
| Total DoD amount | $25,130 |
| Average DoD amount per recipient | $1,933 |
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.