by our College Data Analytics TeamThe majority of students will not be asked to pay the advertised price of a school. Instead, they will be provided a financial aid package that will include a combination of scholarships, grants, loans, and work-study. The total cost of going to University of Houston can seem overwhelming, but bear in mind that many students are given some form of financial aid.
Just what financial aid solutions can UH deliver, and just what are you going to be eligible for? Keep reading for answers. Keep scrolling to learn 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 Houston.
Aid such as grants, loans, work-study, and scholarships helps colleges decrease the real cost of attendance for most students. Note that some aid is more valuable than the rest, and individual awards are far from uniform.
Among first-time, full-time freshmen at University of Houston, 83% of new full-time first-years were awarded at least some aid roughly 4339 incoming students).
| Type of Aid | % of Freshmen Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 74% | $12,159 |
| Institutional grants & scholarships | 56% | $5,776 |
| Federal Pell grants | 45% | $6,210 |
| State/local grants | 33% | $8,367 |
| Federal student loans | 34% | $5,012 |
The best aid is gift aid: grants and scholarships that carry no repayment obligation. At UH, about 61% of undergraduates were awarded an average grant or scholarship of $9,638 (among about 23039 students).
| Award | % of Undergrads Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 61% | $9,638 |
| Federal Pell grants | 42% | $5,625 |
| Federal student loans | 32% | $6,427 |
For on-campus title-IV students, average grant aid came to $11,909.
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 | $10,469 |
| $30,001 – $75,000 | $11,567 |
| Over $75,000 | $21,589 |
Each figure is the net price after grants and scholarships, not the published sticker price.
After grants and scholarships come off the published price, what remains is the net price — the best estimate of true out-of-pocket cost.
| Cohort | Average Net Price |
|---|---|
| On-campus title-IV students | $14,276 |
| Off-campus title-IV students | $13,853 |
For a personalized estimate based on your family’s financial situation, use UH’s net price tool: www.uh.edu/financial/net-price-calculator/.
The median federal debt load at UH comes to $14,000 of federal student loans.
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Median federal debt (all student-aid borrowers) | $14,000 |
| Median federal debt (graduates only) | $18,194 |
| Typical 10-year monthly payment (graduates) | $192.89/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 UH.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,500 |
| 25th percentile | $6,000 |
| 75th percentile | $24,038 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $33,500 |
Outcomes differ by income bracket, by first-generation status, and by whether a student is financially dependent.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $14,200 |
| Middle income | $13,687 |
| High income | $14,519 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $14,000 |
| Continuing-generation students | $14,002 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $13,000 |
| Independent students | $18,750 |
Federal data publishes pre-calculated indicators that summarize debt outcomes. UH.
Most undergraduate borrowing runs through the federal Stafford loan program. The totals below capture Stafford lending at UH:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Stafford loan recipients | 103387 |
| Total Stafford loan amount | $2,323,439,243 |
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 | 590 |
| Total GI Bill amount | $6,307,419 |
| Average GI Bill amount per recipient | $10,691 |
DoD program volume
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| DoD Tuition Assistance recipients | 33 |
| Total DoD amount | $99,430 |
| Average DoD amount per recipient | $3,013 |
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.