by our College Data Analytics TeamThe majority of students will never be charged 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 sum total of attendance at Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics can sound overwhelming, but bear in mind that many students get some type of financial aid.
Just what financial aid solutions can PIA provide, and just what are you going to be eligible for? Keep reading for answers. Read on to see just how much financial aid could be open to you.
The amount of financial aid you can receive varies from person to person and will depend on your family’s economic situation. Continue reading to find information to help you understand just how much assistance you can expect to receive from Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics.
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 Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics, 86% of entering full-time freshmen got some type of financial assistance around 168 students).
| Type of Aid | % of Freshmen Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 54% | $7,080 |
| Institutional grants & scholarships | 11% | $1,445 |
| Federal Pell grants | 41% | $6,705 |
| State/local grants | 18% | $5,288 |
| Federal student loans | 72% | $6,571 |
Unlike loans, grants and scholarships are gift aid that does not need to be paid back, making them the most desirable form of assistance. Across the undergraduate body at PIA, some 55% of the undergraduate population received grant aid that averaged $7,108 (across approximately 323 students).
| Award | % of Undergrads Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 55% | $7,108 |
| Federal Pell grants | 38% | $5,797 |
| Federal student loans | 66% | $7,388 |
Among title-IV aid recipients living on campus, grant and scholarship aid averaged $4,732.
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 | $28,227 |
| $30,001 – $75,000 | $29,815 |
| Over $75,000 | $34,984 |
Each figure is the net price after grants and scholarships, not the published sticker price.
The net price strips out grant and scholarship aid from the sticker price to show roughly what families really pay.
| Cohort | Average Net Price |
|---|---|
| On-campus title-IV students | $32,618 |
| Off-campus title-IV students | $31,389 |
To get a personalized net price estimate, try PIA’s net price tool: www.pia.edu/net-price-calculators/.
The middle student in the debt distribution at PIA owes $12,000 in federal student debt.
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Median federal debt (all student-aid borrowers) | $12,000 |
| Median federal debt (graduates only) | $12,230 |
| Typical 10-year monthly payment (graduates) | $129.66/mo |
Under a standard ten-year plan, the median graduate’s monthly payment lands near the figure above.
The numbers below show the full range, not just the middle of the distribution. These percentiles trace how cumulative federal debt is spread among borrowers at PIA.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,159 |
| 25th percentile | $8,750 |
| 75th percentile | $17,005 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $20,000 |
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 | $12,000 |
| Middle income | $12,000 |
| High income | $12,000 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $12,000 |
| Continuing-generation students | $12,000 |
Dependent vs Independent Students
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $11,754 |
| Independent students | $18,874 |
A handful of calculated indicators summarize the debt outlook at PIA.
Stafford loans are the federal government’s primary direct undergraduate lending program. These figures summarize annual Stafford program activity at PIA:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Stafford loan recipients | 2690 |
| Total Stafford loan amount | $32,210,691 |
If you are a veteran or active-duty service member, the GI Bill and DoD Tuition Assistance are the primary federal programs you can use at this school.
Post-9/11 GI Bill recipients
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| GI Bill recipients | 41 |
| Total GI Bill amount | $672,396 |
| Average GI Bill amount per recipient | $16,400 |
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.