by our College Data Analytics TeamA large number of students will not be asked to pay 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 Florida Atlantic University can feel overwhelming, but bear in mind that many students receive some sort of financial aid.
What financial assistance options will FAU offer, and what will you qualify for? Read on for more information. Keep reading 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 Florida Atlantic University.
Colleges use loans, grants, scholarships and work-study to minimize what students actually pay out of pocket. Note that some aid is more valuable than the rest, and individual awards are far from uniform.
For incoming first-year students at Florida Atlantic University, 91% of entering full-time freshmen got some type of financial assistance (about 3249 incoming students).
| Type of Aid | % of Freshmen Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 86% | $10,857 |
| Institutional grants & scholarships | 79% | $3,625 |
| Federal Pell grants | 33% | $7,590 |
| State/local grants | 52% | $7,530 |
| Federal student loans | 32% | $5,133 |
The best aid is gift aid: grants and scholarships that carry no repayment obligation. At FAU, about 65% of undergraduates were awarded an average grant or scholarship of $9,749 (among about 15988 undergraduates).
| Award | % of Undergrads Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 65% | $9,749 |
| Federal Pell grants | 34% | $7,305 |
| Federal student loans | 26% | $6,376 |
On-campus students receiving title-IV aid were awarded grants averaging $12,770.
The figures below show the average net price — cost after all grant and scholarship aid — broken out by family income.
| Family Income | Average Net Price |
|---|---|
| $0 – $48,000 | $3,768 |
| $30,001 – $75,000 | $6,649 |
| Over $75,000 | $15,650 |
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 | $8,752 |
| Off-campus title-IV students | $8,001 |
To get a personalized net price estimate, try FAU’s net price calculator: www.fau.edu/finaid/other/cost-of-attendance/.
A typical borrower at FAU leaves with $12,500 in federal loans.
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Median federal debt (all student-aid borrowers) | $12,500 |
| Median federal debt (graduates only) | $17,236 |
| Typical 10-year monthly payment (graduates) | $182.73/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 percentiles below describe the cumulative federal debt distribution for borrowers at FAU.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $2,750 |
| 25th percentile | $5,500 |
| 75th percentile | $22,750 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $31,250 |
Debt outcomes are not uniform — they shift with income, first-generation status, and dependency.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $12,500 |
| Middle income | $12,000 |
| High income | $12,618 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $12,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $12,077 |
Dependent vs Independent Students
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $11,250 |
| Independent students | $15,000 |
The figure below distills the debt data into a single burden category for FAU.
Most undergraduate borrowing runs through the federal Stafford loan program. Below is the annual Stafford program activity at FAU:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Stafford loan recipients | 73220 |
| Total Stafford loan amount | $1,616,453,812 |
Veterans and active-duty service members may qualify for the Post-9/11 GI Bill or DoD Tuition Assistance.
Post-9/11 GI Bill recipients
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| GI Bill recipients | 398 |
| Total GI Bill amount | $2,419,967 |
| Average GI Bill amount per recipient | $6,080 |
Active-duty Tuition Assistance recipients
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| DoD Tuition Assistance recipients | 43 |
| Total DoD amount | $62,936 |
| Average DoD amount per recipient | $1,464 |
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.