by our College Data Analytics TeamMost students will not be asked to pay the complete price tag of a school. Rather, they are presented a financial aid deal that includes a mix of loans, grants, scholarships, and possibly work-study opportunities. The total cost of going to University of Kentucky can seem overpowering, but remember that the majority of students are given some form of financial assistance.
Just what financial aid solutions can UK provide, and just what are you going to be eligible for? Keep reading for answers. Keep going to learn what amount of financial assistance will be accessible to you.
The amount of financial aid and scholarships you are eligible for will vary depending on your family’s income. Use the information below to understand how much financial assistance you may get from University of Kentucky.
Financial assistance, available as scholarships, loans, and work-study, is a way schools lower the price of attendance so many students can enroll. Some kinds of aid are clearly preferable to others, and outcomes differ across students.
For incoming first-year students at University of Kentucky, 97% of first-time, full-time freshmen received some form of financial aid approximately 6152 incoming students).
| Type of Aid | % of Freshmen Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 95% | $12,898 |
| Institutional grants & scholarships | 87% | $9,939 |
| Federal Pell grants | 25% | $5,577 |
| State/local grants | 57% | $3,777 |
| Federal student loans | 38% | $5,243 |
Unlike loans, grants and scholarships are gift aid that does not need to be paid back, making them the most desirable form of assistance. At UK, some 88% of the undergraduate population received grant aid that averaged $12,449 (for some 21038 students).
| Award | % of Undergrads Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 88% | $12,449 |
| Federal Pell grants | 23% | $5,427 |
| Federal student loans | 34% | $6,182 |
Title-IV recipients living on campus saw average grant aid of $15,540.
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 | $10,684 |
| $30,001 – $75,000 | $13,085 |
| Over $75,000 | $23,412 |
Remember these are net prices — what families pay after gift aid, not before.
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 | $18,851 |
| Off-campus title-IV students | $17,218 |
To get a personalized net price estimate, try UK’s official net price calculator: uky.studentaidcalculator.com/survey.aspx.
Graduating students at UK carry a median federal student debt of $16,750 of federal student loans.
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Median federal debt (all student-aid borrowers) | $16,750 |
| Median federal debt (graduates only) | $22,500 |
| Typical 10-year monthly payment (graduates) | $238.54/mo |
The 10-year payment estimate assumes a standard federal repayment plan and the median graduate debt amount.
The median alone does not show how widely outcomes vary across the student body. These percentiles trace how cumulative federal debt is spread among borrowers at UK.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,500 |
| 25th percentile | $5,898 |
| 75th percentile | $26,885 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $32,400 |
Median debt varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
Debt by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $17,007 |
| Middle income | $17,471 |
| High income | $15,946 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $17,250 |
| Continuing-generation students | $15,750 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $16,500 |
| Independent students | $18,000 |
The figure below distills the debt data into a single burden category for UK.
The Stafford loan program is the largest source of federal direct loans to undergraduates. These figures summarize annual Stafford program activity at UK:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Stafford loan recipients | 70278 |
| Total Stafford loan amount | $1,934,970,831 |
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 | 563 |
| Total GI Bill amount | $6,148,231 |
| Average GI Bill amount per recipient | $10,920 |
Active-duty Tuition Assistance recipients
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| DoD Tuition Assistance recipients | 32 |
| Total DoD amount | $78,750 |
| Average DoD amount per recipient | $2,461 |
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.