by our College Data Analytics TeamMost students are not billed the complete price tag of a school. Rather, they are presented a financial aid deal that includes a mix of loans, grants, scholarships, and possibly work-study opportunities. The total price of attendance at Highline College can feel overwhelming, but bear in mind that many students receive some sort of financial aid.
What financial assistance options will Highline offer, and what will you qualify for? Read on for more information. Keep scrolling to discover 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. Continue reading to find information to help you understand just how much assistance you can expect to receive from Highline College.
Financial assistance, available as scholarships, loans, and work-study, is a way schools lower the price of attendance so many students can enroll. Some kinds of aid are clearly preferable to others, and outcomes differ across students.
For incoming first-year students at Highline College, 69% of the incoming full-time class was awarded financial aid roughly 284 new students).
| Type of Aid | % of Freshmen Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 66% | $7,026 |
| Institutional grants & scholarships | 16% | $1,575 |
| Federal Pell grants | 46% | $4,799 |
| State/local grants | 56% | $3,759 |
| Federal student loans | 2% | $4,159 |
Gift aid — grants and scholarships — beats loans every time because none of it has to be repaid. At this school, about 36% of the undergraduate population received grant aid that averaged $6,234 (for some 1843 awardees).
| Award | % of Undergrads Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 36% | $6,234 |
| Federal Pell grants | 19% | $4,615 |
| Federal student loans | 2% | $6,818 |
For students living on campus and receiving title-IV aid, grants averaged $8,933.
Since aid is largely need-based, the real cost of attendance falls steeply for lower-income families.
| Family Income | Average Net Price |
|---|---|
| $0 – $48,000 | $9,923 |
| $30,001 – $75,000 | $11,658 |
| Over $75,000 | $12,327 |
Remember these are net prices — what families pay after gift aid, not before.
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 | $9,879 |
| Off-campus title-IV students | $10,878 |
For an estimate tailored to your family circumstances, see Highline’s net price tool: documents.highline.edu/financialaid/net-price-calc/.
The median student at Highline graduates with $6,113 of federal borrowing.
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Median federal debt (all student-aid borrowers) | $6,113 |
| Median federal debt (graduates only) | $9,500 |
| Typical 10-year monthly payment (graduates) | $100.72/mo |
That monthly figure reflects the median graduate debt repaid on a standard 10-year federal schedule.
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 Highline.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,667 |
| 25th percentile | $3,000 |
| 75th percentile | $11,702 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $18,500 |
Median debt varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
Debt by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $7,529 |
| Middle income | $5,218 |
| High income | $5,500 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $6,093 |
| Continuing-generation students | $6,134 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $4,092 |
| Independent students | $7,737 |
A handful of calculated indicators summarize the debt outlook at Highline.
Stafford loans are the federal government’s primary direct undergraduate lending program. The totals below capture Stafford lending at Highline:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Stafford loan recipients | 5574 |
| Total Stafford loan amount | $60,356,268 |
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 | 79 |
| Total GI Bill amount | $244,385 |
| Average GI Bill amount per recipient | $3,093 |
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.