Same Campus, Very Different Prices: Net Price by Income at Large Colleges

At the University of Maryland-College Park, students in the lowest family-income band paid a net price of $3,603 in the 2023 award year, while students in the highest band paid $26,239. Same campus, same year — a difference of more than $22,000 that no single "net price" figure for the school can show.

That pattern is the reason to read net price by income band rather than as one average. This guide walks through what the federal data says for a dozen of the 100 largest U.S. colleges by undergraduate enrollment, and where the spread is wide or narrow.

What the figures mean

The U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard reports net price by family-income band: what students in that band actually paid after grant aid. The bands are $0–$30k, $30k–$48k, $48k–$75k, $75k–$110k and $110k and above. All figures below are from the 2023 award year, the latest in the data this site holds.

For the underlying definitions, the federal IPEDS Glossary describes institutional net price as "the average yearly price actually charged to first-time, full-time undergraduate students receiving student aid at an institution of higher education after deducting such aid." It defines cost of attendance as "the amount of tuition and fees; food and housing; books, course materials, supplies, and equipment; and other expenses that a full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking student can expect to pay to go to college for an academic year."

So net price starts from cost of attendance, not from tuition alone, and it is an average for aided students, not a quote for any one family.

Where the lowest and highest bands sit far apart

These large public universities report a wide gap between the $0–$30k band and the $110k-and-above band (College Scorecard, award year 2023):

University	Net price, $0–$30k	Net price, $110k and above	Cost of attendance
University of Florida	$2,387	$15,571	$21,719
University of Maryland-College Park	$3,603	$26,239	$28,073
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	$3,883	$28,358	$32,134
University of Wisconsin-Madison	$4,458	$26,427	$27,770
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	$4,926	$26,787	$33,345
Purdue University-Main Campus	$4,927	$21,130	$22,567
University of California-Berkeley	$5,895	$35,154	$42,708

Source: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, award year 2023.

At several of these schools the top-band net price sits close to the cost of attendance itself. Maryland's $26,239 compares with a $28,073 cost of attendance; Wisconsin-Madison's $26,427 compares with $27,770. For those families, the published cost is close to what the data says students in that band paid, while the lowest band paid a fraction of it.

Where the gap is narrower

Not every large school scales aid this steeply. In the same data:

College	Net price, $0–$30k	Net price, $110k and above	Cost of attendance
Texas Tech University (public)	$13,922	$24,903	$27,472
The University of Alabama (public)	$18,592	$25,773	$32,024
Grand Canyon University (private nonprofit)	$18,474	$24,177	$31,493
Liberty University (private nonprofit)	$30,504	$31,028	$41,707
Southern New Hampshire University (private nonprofit)	$33,202	$36,682	$37,524

Source: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, award year 2023.

At Liberty University, the two bands report $30,504 and $31,028. At Southern New Hampshire University, they report $33,202 and $36,682. The difference between bands is far smaller there than at the schools in the first table.

The widest gap among the largest colleges

New York University's 2023 figures show how far apart two bands can sit at one school: $16,816 for the $0–$30k band and $59,931 for the $110k-and-above band, against a cost of attendance of $79,121. That is a range of more than $43,000 between its lowest and highest band, so a single overall net price describes neither group well.

How to use this without over-reading it

• Find your own band. The figure that matters is the one for your family's income, not the school's overall number.
• Read the cost of attendance beside it. The gap between the two shows how much of the cost of attendance was covered by grant aid in that band.
• Treat it as history. Federal cost data runs about two years behind. These are 2023 award-year figures, not an offer of aid for any future year.
• Mind the coverage. Small schools and the extreme income bands can have gaps or thin samples.

The College Cost Explorer shows each college's net price in all five income bands next to its published cost, for any U.S. college in the federal data. To set two schools beside each other, see how to compare two colleges by what they actually cost.

Last reviewed: October 2026. Data: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, award year 2023; definitions: NCES IPEDS Glossary. These figures are informational only — not an offer of aid or a substitute for a college's official net price calculator or professional advice.