by our College Data Analytics TeamA lot of students will not be asked to pay 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 Santa Clara University can sound overpowering, but remember that the majority of students get some type of financial assistance.
Just what financial aid solutions can SCU provide, and just what are you going to be eligible for? Keep reading for answers. Keep scrolling to learn what amount of financial assistance will be accessible 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 Santa Clara University.
Financial assistance, available as scholarships, loans, and work-study, is a way schools lower the price of attendance so many students can enroll. Bear in mind that not all aid is equal, and the amount any one student receives can vary widely.
Looking at the entering class at Santa Clara University, 76% of first-year full-time students received aid of some kind (about 1181 new students).
| Type of Aid | % of Freshmen Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 71% | $28,368 |
| Institutional grants & scholarships | 71% | $25,696 |
| Federal Pell grants | 12% | $6,082 |
| State/local grants | 11% | $9,331 |
| Federal student loans | 47% | $10,097 |
The best aid is gift aid: grants and scholarships that carry no repayment obligation. At this school, roughly 72% of undergraduates were awarded grant or scholarship aid averaging $27,294 (for some 4520 awardees).
| Award | % of Undergrads Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 72% | $27,294 |
| Federal Pell grants | 11% | $5,772 |
| Federal student loans | 37% | $11,927 |
Among title-IV aid recipients living on campus, grant and scholarship aid averaged $31,964.
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 | $42,162 |
| $30,001 – $75,000 | $46,303 |
| Over $75,000 | $56,187 |
The numbers above are post-aid net prices, so they already account for grants and scholarships.
The net price represents the average annual cost a title-IV-receiving student pays after grant aid is subtracted from the full cost of attendance.
| Cohort | Average Net Price |
|---|---|
| On-campus title-IV students | $50,062 |
| Off-campus title-IV students | $50,959 |
To get a personalized net price estimate, try SCU’s net price tool: www.scu.edu/financialaid/Net-Price-Calculator.cfm.
The middle student in the debt distribution at SCU owes $16,845 in federal loans.
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Median federal debt (all student-aid borrowers) | $16,845 |
| Median federal debt (graduates only) | $19,162 |
| Typical 10-year monthly payment (graduates) | $203.15/mo |
At a typical 10-year repayment schedule, the median graduate would pay about the monthly figure above.
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 SCU.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,793 |
| 25th percentile | $10,167 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $31,500 |
Debt outcomes are not uniform — they shift with income, first-generation status, and dependency.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $14,472 |
| Middle income | $17,900 |
| High income | $17,000 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $16,001 |
| Continuing-generation students | $17,000 |
Dependent vs Independent Students
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $17,175 |
| Independent students | $12,500 |
The Department of Education computes summary indicators that describe debt outcomes at a glance. SCU.
Stafford loans make up the bulk of federal direct lending to undergraduates. Below is the annual Stafford program activity at SCU:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Stafford loan recipients | 13747 |
| Total Stafford loan amount | $379,501,098 |
The GI Bill and DoD Tuition Assistance are the main federal aid routes for veterans and service members.
Post-9/11 GI Bill activity
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| GI Bill recipients | 37 |
| Total GI Bill amount | $1,101,929 |
| Average GI Bill amount per recipient | $29,782 |
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.