Trends in Student Aid: Highlights

Review highlights from the Trends in Student Aid 2024 report. You can find the full report, Excel data, and PowerPoint presentation in the Resources section at the bottom of this page.

How Much Aid Are Students Getting?

$256.7 billion: The total amount of aid that undergraduate and graduate students received in 2023-24 from all grants, federal loans, tax credits, and federal work-study.

Average aid per full-time equivalent (FTE) student in 2023-24 was:

• $16,360 per undergraduate student
• $28,420 per graduate student

Grant Aid

$160.2 billion: The total amount of grant aid received by undergraduate and graduate students in 2023-24.

Federal grant aid: In 2023-24, total federal grant aid was $44.3 billion including $31.4 billion in Pell Grants. Total Pell Grant expenditures reached its peak in 2010-11 at $49.9 billion (in 2023 dollars) and declined to $31.4 billion in 2023-24 (37% decline).

State grants: Between 2012-13 and 2022-23, average state grant aid per FTE undergraduate student increased from $870 to $1,180 in 2022 dollars. In 2022-23, average state grant aid per FTE undergraduate student ranged from under $200 in seven states to over $2,000 in eight states.

Institutional grant aid: Between 2003-04 and 2013-14, institutional grant aid increased by 92% (in 2023 dollars), reaching a total of $63.2 billion in 2013-14. Over the last decade, institutional grant aid grew by an additional 31% to $82.8 billion in 2023-24.

Loans

$99.0 billion: The total amount that parents and students borrowed in federal and nonfederal loans to pay for postsecondary education in 2023-24.

• This was the 13th consecutive year that annual borrowing declined.

Student Debt

$29,300: The average amount borrowed by 2022-23 bachelor’s degree recipients who took out loans to pay for college. It was $34,800 in 2012-13 and $35,200 in 2017-18.

As of March 2024, 32% of borrowers owed less than $10,000 and 21% owed between $10,000 and $20,000 in federal loan debt. These borrowers held 4% and 8% of the outstanding federal debt, respectively.