by our College Data Analytics TeamA large number of 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 Wisconsin-Madison can seem overwhelming, but bear in mind that many students are given some form of financial aid.
Just what financial aid solutions can UW - Madison 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. Read on to get a sense of the financial assistance available at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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 freshmen starting at University of Wisconsin-Madison, 60% of new full-time first-years were awarded at least some aid roughly 4777 freshmen).
| Type of Aid | % of Freshmen Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 35% | $17,741 |
| Institutional grants & scholarships | 32% | $15,169 |
| Federal Pell grants | 17% | $5,553 |
| State/local grants | 17% | $2,755 |
| Federal student loans | 23% | $5,165 |
Grants and scholarships are the most valuable form of aid because, unlike loans, they never have to be repaid. At this school, some 43% of undergraduates were awarded an average grant or scholarship of $15,223 (for some 15974 students).
| Award | % of Undergrads Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 43% | $15,223 |
| Federal Pell grants | 16% | $5,490 |
| Federal student loans | 20% | $6,248 |
Title-IV recipients living on campus saw average grant aid of $11,325.
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 | $4,837 |
| $30,001 – $75,000 | $7,806 |
| Over $75,000 | $24,975 |
The numbers above are post-aid net prices, so they already account for grants and scholarships.
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 | $17,354 |
| Off-campus title-IV students | $16,928 |
For an estimate tailored to your family circumstances, see UW - Madison’s net price tool: financialaid.wisc.edu/net-price-calculator/.
Graduating students at UW - Madison carry a median federal student debt of $18,058 in federal loans.
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Median federal debt (all student-aid borrowers) | $18,058 |
| Median federal debt (graduates only) | $20,484 |
| Typical 10-year monthly payment (graduates) | $217.16/mo |
Spreading the median graduate debt over a standard 10-year repayment schedule works out to roughly the monthly payment shown above.
Looking only at the median can be misleading because it hides the spread. These percentiles trace how cumulative federal debt is spread among borrowers at UW - Madison.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,500 |
| 25th percentile | $9,960 |
| 75th percentile | $27,717 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $33,800 |
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 | $13,750 |
| Middle income | $16,850 |
| High income | $19,058 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Median Debt
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $18,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $17,575 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $18,500 |
| Independent students | $12,956 |
The figure below distills the debt data into a single burden category for UW - Madison.
The Stafford loan program is the largest source of federal direct loans to undergraduates. The aggregate figures below show how active the program is at UW - Madison:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Stafford loan recipients | 65007 |
| Total Stafford loan amount | $1,784,101,391 |
GI Bill and DoD Tuition Assistance are the two federal aid programs targeted at military-affiliated students.
Post-9/11 GI Bill activity
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| GI Bill recipients | 270 |
| Total GI Bill amount | $3,671,628 |
| Average GI Bill amount per recipient | $13,599 |
Active-duty Tuition Assistance recipients
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| DoD Tuition Assistance recipients | 9 |
| Total DoD amount | $22,250 |
| Average DoD amount per recipient | $2,472 |
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.