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 price tag of going to Technical College of the Lowcountry can appear overpowering, but remember that the majority of students obtain some kind of financial assistance.
Just what financial aid solutions can TCL provide, and just what are you going to be eligible for? Keep reading for answers. Keep reading to see what amount of financial assistance could be accessible to you.
How much aid you qualify for depends largely on your family’s financial circumstances. Continue reading to find information to help you understand just how much assistance you can expect to receive from Technical College of the Lowcountry.
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 Technical College of the Lowcountry, 94% of first-time, full-time freshmen received some form of financial aid roughly 178 new students).
| Type of Aid | % of Freshmen Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 94% | $5,033 |
| Institutional grants & scholarships | 0% | — |
| Federal Pell grants | 46% | $4,898 |
| State/local grants | 66% | $3,641 |
| Federal student loans | 8% | $4,246 |
Gift aid — grants and scholarships — beats loans every time because none of it has to be repaid. At TCL, roughly 80% of undergrads got grants or scholarships worth on average $6,561 (covering around 1870 undergraduates).
| Award | % of Undergrads Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 80% | $6,561 |
| Federal Pell grants | 33% | $6,417 |
| Federal student loans | 7% | $6,564 |
Title-IV recipients living on campus saw average grant aid of $9,108.
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 | $5,823 |
| $30,001 – $75,000 | $7,755 |
The numbers above are post-aid net prices, so they already account for grants and scholarships.
Net price is the cost remaining after grant and scholarship aid is subtracted from the sticker price, and it is the most useful single number for estimating real cost.
| Cohort | Average Net Price |
|---|---|
| On-campus title-IV students | $14,724 |
| Off-campus title-IV students | $5,903 |
To project your own net price, use TCL’s net price calculator: sftp.tcl.edu/NetPriceCalculator.html.
Graduating students at TCL carry a median federal student debt of $6,431 in federal loans.
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Median federal debt (all student-aid borrowers) | $6,431 |
| Median federal debt (graduates only) | $10,000 |
| Typical 10-year monthly payment (graduates) | $106.02/mo |
Spreading the median graduate debt over a standard 10-year repayment schedule works out to roughly the monthly payment shown above.
A single median figure conceals how much debt outcomes differ student to student. The four reference points below map the debt distribution at TCL.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,553 |
| 25th percentile | $2,752 |
| 75th percentile | $11,500 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $20,146 |
How much a student borrows depends heavily on family income, first-gen status, and dependency.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $7,500 |
| Middle income | $6,431 |
| High income | $5,348 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $6,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $5,817 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $4,696 |
| Independent students | $7,845 |
The Department of Education computes summary indicators that describe debt outcomes at a glance. TCL.
The Stafford program is the federal direct-loan vehicle most undergraduates use. Below is the annual Stafford program activity at TCL:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Stafford loan recipients | 3109 |
| Total Stafford loan amount | $32,184,695 |
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 | 114 |
| Total GI Bill amount | $428,516 |
| Average GI Bill amount per recipient | $3,759 |
DoD program volume
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| DoD Tuition Assistance recipients | 21 |
| Total DoD amount | $28,890 |
| Average DoD amount per recipient | $1,376 |
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.