That’s a good question. The College Scorecard website isn’t entirely clear on definitions, but I believe the way the U.S. Department of Education looks at it, loans and work earnings (including work/study, typically federally funded and awarded by colleges as part of the typical FA package) are considered forms of “self-help,” not true “aid.” That is consistent with what they say in describing the average net cost by income bracket: “Depending on the federal, state, or institutional grant aid available, students in your income bracket may pay more or less than the overall average costs.” This implies they’re looking only at grant aid in calculating net cost. If that’s correct, then net cost wouldn’t include loans or work-study, and low-income students would be able to meet some or all of their net cost with loans and term-time and/or summer earnings. By the way, I agree with that way of looking at it; if you borrow or work to pay for school, that’s money that’s coming out of your pocket, not the school’s.
I don’t think the averages are entirely meaningless. An average $11K net cost to low-income students means most low-income students at UNL are paying a pretty high price to be there. Sure, some may do better with merit aid, but that’s already figured into the average, so if some are paying less than $11K, it means that others in that same income bracket are paying more than $11K. I agree that ultimately you need to see the individual FA + merit offer to decide whether it makes financial sense to attend, but I think comparing the averages from one school to the next can be a useful guide to temper expectations early on in the process. Seeing that the average net cost of Northwestern for a low-income student is almost $16K, I would advise any low-income student who came to me for advice that it’s probably not a good idea to count on Northwestern to beat their state flagship on net cost; it might happen in a few cases, but mostly not. Sure, go ahead and run the net price calculator to see if the result is different in your individual case, and go ahead and apply and wait for the actual FA offer if you like. But in the meantime, that student is probably better off shopping for private schools that are more likely to match or beat what they’re likely to get from their state flagship. And if even the state flagship is too expensive, then they should see if there are even less expensive options, like CC for the first two years.