<p>I was hoping someone could help clarify some data that I've been looking at on IPEDS.</p>
<p>For each college, they give information about net price and family income level. For example, for one college they give the following table:</p>
<p>Full-time beginning undergraduate students who received Title IV aid by income
Income Average net price
$0 $30,000 $20,158
$30,001 $48,000 $16,696
$48,001 $75,000 $18,954
$75,001 $110,000 $26,197
$110,001 and more $31,799 </p>
<p>Now, I'm curious about the net price, which they define as follows: "average net price is generated by subtracting the average amount of federal, state/local government, or institutional grant or scholarship aid from the total cost of attendance."</p>
<p>Now, I can't understand how it is possible for a family with 30K or under can attend a college for 20K. How is that possible?</p>
<p>It's not this particular example alone--for others, I see for that income 13K or higher sometimes.</p>
<p>There’s only a $11K difference between the highest and lowest income levels. Pell, state grants, work study, SEOG, Perkins etc. could easily add to up that.</p>
<p>^^^^
Actually, now I’m unclear about what they mean by net price. They classify students by those who receive Title IV aid, which includes work study and loans in addition to grants. </p>
<p>Here’s what they say:</p>
<p>■Title IV aid to students includes grant aid, work study aid, and loan aid. These include: Federal Pell Grant, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG), Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG), National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (National SMART Grant), Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant, Federal Work-Study, Federal Perkins Loan, Subsidized Direct or FFEL Stafford Loan, and Unsubsidized Direct or FFEL Stafford Loan. For those Title IV recipients, net price is reported by income category and includes students who received federal aid even if none of that aid was provided in the form of grants. While Title IV status defines the cohort of student for which the data are reported, the definition of net price remains the same total cost of attendance minus grant aid.</p>
<p>Given the last sentence, are they computing net price only in terms of total cost of attendance minus grant aid (which I assume is money that need not be paid back)?</p>
<p>Or are they defining grant aid to include the whole financial aid package, including work study, loans, etc.?</p>
<p>I would interpret that as total cost minus grant aid, but not loans. I’m not sure if work study would be included in grant aid as it is a federal grant even though it has to be earned.</p>
<p>OK–thanks. As I reread it, it do think it means that it’s COA minus grants (but not loans). They define the group as those who have grants and loans, but the net price does not consider loans. I would hope the net price would also not include work study. In the example I gave, 5K in loans and 5K in work study would give you 1/2 of the net price for that lowest income bracket. I still can’t see how that’s possible,and it’s strange that net price goes down for the next higher income bracket, so there must be something skewing the data.</p>
<p>The data on net price per income level is extremely useful. It also shows me that for most colleges and universities, there’s not a whole lot of grant money given. It’s only at the tippy-top places that you start to see something reasonable.</p>
<p>Federal and state grants are included in the “average aid” figure, as are institutional grants and merit scholarships. This is NOT useful for an OOS student at a public U (except perhaps for UVA and UNC-Chapel Hill, which meet need for OOS students). I say this because OOS students would not get the state grants & the school often will not offer aid that will add up to OOS tuition. Unless OOS students are separated out, the net price can be misleading for these students.</p>