by our College Data Analytics TeamMany students will never be charged 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 sum total of attendance at San Francisco State University can sound overwhelming, but bear in mind that many students get some type of financial aid.
What financing options does SFSU offer, and what will you qualify for? Keep scrolling for more information. Keep reading to learn 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 information provided on this page can help you determine how much aid you may receive from San Francisco State University.
Colleges use loans, grants, scholarships and work-study to minimize what students actually pay out of pocket. Some kinds of aid are clearly preferable to others, and outcomes differ across students.
Among first-time, full-time freshmen at San Francisco State University, 81% of the incoming full-time class was awarded financial aid roughly 2301 incoming students).
| Type of Aid | % of Freshmen Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 77% | $12,996 |
| Institutional grants & scholarships | 54% | $5,983 |
| Federal Pell grants | 51% | $6,199 |
| State/local grants | 68% | $4,940 |
| Federal student loans | 24% | $4,925 |
Gift aid — grants and scholarships — beats loans every time because none of it has to be repaid. At SFSU, roughly 63% of the undergraduate population received grant aid that averaged $12,110 (for some 13121 undergraduates).
| Award | % of Undergrads Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 63% | $12,110 |
| Federal Pell grants | 42% | $5,747 |
| Federal student loans | 23% | $6,672 |
For on-campus title-IV students, average grant aid came to $14,210.
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 | $9,640 |
| $30,001 – $75,000 | $11,552 |
| Over $75,000 | $20,513 |
Each amount is the average cost remaining once grant aid is subtracted, by income band.
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 | $12,278 |
| Off-campus title-IV students | $12,882 |
To get a personalized net price estimate, try SFSU’s online cost calculator: financialaid.sfsu.edu/cost-attendance.
The median federal debt load at SFSU comes to $12,923 of federal student loans.
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Median federal debt (all student-aid borrowers) | $12,923 |
| Median federal debt (graduates only) | $15,371 |
| Typical 10-year monthly payment (graduates) | $162.96/mo |
Spreading the median graduate debt over a standard 10-year repayment schedule works out to roughly the monthly payment shown above.
Percentiles reveal the spread — half of all borrowers fall between the 25th and 75th percentiles. Use the percentiles below to see the debt range at SFSU.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,500 |
| 25th percentile | $6,000 |
| 75th percentile | $23,500 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $31,000 |
The figures below break down median federal debt by income tier, first-generation status, and dependency.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $13,145 |
| Middle income | $12,500 |
| High income | $13,000 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $12,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $13,311 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $12,000 |
| Independent students | $15,250 |
The figure below distills the debt data into a single burden category for SFSU.
The Stafford program is the federal direct-loan vehicle most undergraduates use. The aggregate figures below show how active the program is at SFSU:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Stafford loan recipients | 72130 |
| Total Stafford loan amount | $1,467,114,968 |
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 activity
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| GI Bill recipients | 849 |
| Total GI Bill amount | $3,818,802 |
| Average GI Bill amount per recipient | $4,498 |
DoD Tuition Assistance activity
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| DoD Tuition Assistance recipients | 5 |
| Total DoD amount | $10,871 |
| Average DoD amount per recipient | $2,174 |
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.