by our College Data Analytics TeamMany students are not billed the full, advertised sticker price of a school. Instead, they will be given a financial aid offer that will include a combination of scholarships, grants, loans, and work-study. The price tag of going to Columbia College can appear overwhelming, but bear in mind that many students obtain some kind of financial aid.
Just what financial aid solutions can Columbia College deliver, and just what are you going to be eligible for? Keep reading for answers. Keep reading to find out how much school funding will be available to you.
The amount of financial aid you can receive varies from person to person and will depend on your family’s economic situation. The figures below will help you estimate the aid you might receive from Columbia College.
Financial aid, in the form of loans, grants, work-study, and scholarships, is one way colleges reduce the cost of attendance so most students can actually afford to attend. Note that some aid is more valuable than the rest, and individual awards are far from uniform.
For incoming first-year students at Columbia College, 40% of first-time, full-time freshmen received some form of financial aid approximately 70 incoming students).
| Type of Aid | % of Freshmen Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 40% | $4,489 |
| Institutional grants & scholarships | 14% | $401 |
| Federal Pell grants | 38% | $3,996 |
| State/local grants | 0% | — |
| Federal student loans | 15% | $5,314 |
The best aid is gift aid: grants and scholarships that carry no repayment obligation. Across the undergraduate body at Columbia College, about 35% of undergrads got grants or scholarships worth on average $4,410 (for some 108 recipients).
| Award | % of Undergrads Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 35% | $4,410 |
| Federal Pell grants | 34% | $4,126 |
| Federal student loans | 16% | $4,591 |
For students living on campus and receiving title-IV aid, grants averaged $3,269.
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 | $9,623 |
| $30,001 – $75,000 | $11,978 |
The numbers above are post-aid net prices, so they already account for grants and scholarships.
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 | $10,171 |
| Off-campus title-IV students | $9,921 |
For a personalized estimate based on your family’s financial situation, use Columbia College’s online cost calculator: www.ccdc.edu/netpricecal/npcalc.htm.
The middle student in the debt distribution at Columbia College owes $6,035 of cumulative federal debt.
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Median federal debt (all student-aid borrowers) | $6,035 |
| Median federal debt (graduates only) | $7,940 |
| Typical 10-year monthly payment (graduates) | $84.18/mo |
Under a standard ten-year plan, the median graduate’s monthly payment lands near the figure 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 Columbia College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 25th percentile | $2,108 |
| 75th percentile | $7,723 |
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 | $7,723 |
These indicators are derived from the underlying debt data and summarize the overall picture at Columbia College.
Stafford loans are the federal government’s primary direct undergraduate lending program. The aggregate figures below show how active the program is at Columbia College:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Stafford loan recipients | 224 |
| Total Stafford loan amount | $1,235,723 |
GI Bill and DoD Tuition Assistance are the two federal aid programs targeted at military-affiliated students.
Post-9/11 GI Bill activity
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| GI Bill recipients | 7 |
| Total GI Bill amount | $74,215 |
| Average GI Bill amount per recipient | $10,602 |
DoD Tuition Assistance activity
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| DoD Tuition Assistance recipients | 0 |
| Total DoD amount | $0 |
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.