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 total cost of going to Dickinson College can seem overpowering, but remember that the majority of students are given some form of financial assistance.
What financial assistance options will Dickinson offer, and what will you qualify for? Read on for more information. Keep scrolling to learn how much school funding will be available to you.
Eligibility for aid and scholarships is driven mostly by your household’s income and need. The figures below will help you estimate the aid you might receive from Dickinson College.
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 Dickinson College, 97% of first-time, full-time freshmen received some form of financial aid approximately 508 first-years).
| Type of Aid | % of Freshmen Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 96% | $44,479 |
| Institutional grants & scholarships | 96% | $43,595 |
| Federal Pell grants | 13% | $5,314 |
| State/local grants | 7% | $3,844 |
| Federal student loans | 34% | $4,928 |
Gift aid — grants and scholarships — beats loans every time because none of it has to be repaid. Here, about 93% of undergraduates were awarded an average grant or scholarship of $43,964 (across approximately 2042 awardees).
| Award | % of Undergrads Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 93% | $43,964 |
| Federal Pell grants | 13% | $5,313 |
| Federal student loans | 39% | $6,135 |
Title-IV recipients living on campus saw average grant aid of $45,295.
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 | $16,270 |
| $30,001 – $75,000 | $15,762 |
| Over $75,000 | $38,628 |
These figures reflect what title-IV aid recipients pay after grant and scholarship aid is applied.
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 | $37,607 |
| Off-campus title-IV students | $32,191 |
For a customized cost estimate, visit Dickinson’s NPC: npc.collegeboard.org/student/app/dickinson.
The middle student in the debt distribution at Dickinson owes $17,294 of cumulative federal debt.
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Median federal debt (all student-aid borrowers) | $17,294 |
| Median federal debt (graduates only) | $19,000 |
| Typical 10-year monthly payment (graduates) | $201.43/mo |
Spreading the median graduate debt over a standard 10-year repayment schedule works out to roughly the monthly payment shown above.
The median alone does not show how widely outcomes vary across the student body. These percentiles trace how cumulative federal debt is spread among borrowers at Dickinson.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,500 |
| 25th percentile | $12,000 |
| 75th percentile | $25,760 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $30,500 |
Median debt varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $13,186 |
| Middle income | $16,250 |
| High income | $19,000 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Median Debt
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $16,802 |
| Continuing-generation students | $18,250 |
The figure below distills the debt data into a single burden category for Dickinson.
The Stafford loan program is the largest source of federal direct loans to undergraduates. The aggregate figures below show how active the program is at Dickinson:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Stafford loan recipients | 4729 |
| Total Stafford loan amount | $61,556,432 |
Veterans and active-duty service members may qualify for the Post-9/11 GI Bill or DoD Tuition Assistance.
GI Bill volume
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| GI Bill recipients | 26 |
| Total GI Bill amount | $636,335 |
| Average GI Bill amount per recipient | $24,474 |
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.