by our College Data Analytics TeamThe majority 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 University of California-Berkeley can sound overwhelming, but bear in mind that many students get some type of financial aid.
Just what financial assistance solutions will UC Berkeley provide, and just what are you going to be eligible for? Read on for answers. Scroll down to find out how much school funding will be available to you.
Your financial aid package, which may contain grants and scholarships, will be determined on your financial need. Read on to get a sense of the financial assistance available at University of California-Berkeley.
Colleges use loans, grants, scholarships and work-study to minimize what students actually pay out of pocket. Bear in mind that not all aid is equal, and the amount any one student receives can vary widely.
At University of California-Berkeley, 63% of new full-time first-years were awarded at least some aid roughly 4165 students).
| Type of Aid | % of Freshmen Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 53% | $29,608 |
| Institutional grants & scholarships | 50% | $17,071 |
| Federal Pell grants | 27% | $6,033 |
| State/local grants | 41% | $13,409 |
| Federal student loans | 18% | $4,255 |
Grants and scholarships are the most valuable form of aid because, unlike loans, they never have to be repaid. At UC Berkeley, approximately 60% of the undergraduate population received grant aid that averaged $25,091 (across approximately 19816 awardees).
| Award | % of Undergrads Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 60% | $25,091 |
| Federal Pell grants | 29% | $5,628 |
| Federal student loans | 17% | $5,380 |
For students living on campus and receiving title-IV aid, grants averaged $32,138.
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 | $6,623 |
| $30,001 – $75,000 | $9,508 |
| Over $75,000 | $29,416 |
Each amount is the average cost remaining once grant aid is subtracted, by income band.
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 | $13,481 |
| Off-campus title-IV students | $15,379 |
To project your own net price, use UC Berkeley’s online cost calculator: financialaid.berkeley.edu/how-aid-works/estimate-your-financial-aid/.
The median federal debt load at UC Berkeley comes to $12,000 of federal student loans.
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Median federal debt (all student-aid borrowers) | $12,000 |
| Median federal debt (graduates only) | $13,000 |
| Typical 10-year monthly payment (graduates) | $137.82/mo |
Under a standard ten-year plan, the median graduate’s monthly payment lands near the figure above.
Looking only at the median can be misleading because it hides the spread. The percentiles below describe the cumulative federal debt distribution for borrowers at UC Berkeley.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,869 |
| 25th percentile | $5,500 |
| 75th percentile | $20,218 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $27,000 |
Median debt varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $11,000 |
| Middle income | $11,000 |
| High income | $13,000 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Median Debt
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $11,250 |
| Continuing-generation students | $12,500 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $11,807 |
| Independent students | $12,500 |
The figure below distills the debt data into a single burden category for UC Berkeley.
Stafford loans are the federal government’s primary direct undergraduate lending program. The totals below capture Stafford lending at UC Berkeley:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Stafford loan recipients | 55826 |
| Total Stafford loan amount | $1,121,830,726 |
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.
GI Bill volume
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| GI Bill recipients | 261 |
| Total GI Bill amount | $8,788,819 |
| Average GI Bill amount per recipient | $33,674 |
Active-duty Tuition Assistance recipients
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| DoD Tuition Assistance recipients | 0 |
| Total DoD amount | $0 |
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.