Financial aid covers tuition and fees for most low-income students, but not the full cost of attendance
Share of students whose financial aid fully covers tuition and fees versus total cost of attendance, within each income group
Source: Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS) Survey, 2020-2022. Created via DataLab, retrieval code dkenys.
Note: BPS calculates tuition and fees minus all grants and total budget (tuition and fees plus sum of dollars budgeted by the institution for books and supplies, room and board, transportation and personal expenses) minus all grants for each respondent, reported for the 2019–20 academic year. Income categories are determined by relative quartile of income within dependency status (separately calculated for dependent and independent students by the Department of Education). For dependent students, the approximate income ranges are less than $30,100 (low), $30,101 to $68,500 (low-middle), $68,501 to 129,800 (high-middle), and more than $129,800 (high). For independent students, the approximate income ranges are less than $9,300 (low), $9,301 to $23,200 (low-middle), $23,201 to $45,800 (high-middle), and more than $45,800 (high). Quartile calculations include students and parents with zero income.