The amount of money that students and their families have to pay (after financial aid) during a given year to allow the students to enroll is called the "net price." For this analysis, net price was computed as total price minus all financial aid except work-study (i.e., total price minus grants and loans).⁵ Because work-study programs provide wage subsidies to institutions and other employers, they help students obtain jobs. From the perspective of students, however, work-study earnings are still earnings from work and therefore they would have reported them in the telephone interview when asked about work. If work-study earnings were included in aid, they would be double-counted later in this analysis when the relative contributions of aid and work are examined.

Among low-income students, those at public nondoctoral institutions appeared to have the lowest average net price ($4,600). No differences were detected in the average net prices of low-income students at public 2-year, public doctoral, and private not-for-profit nondoctoral institutions ($5,400 to $6,000). Because there were differences in the average prices paid at these types of institutions (as discussed earlier), more financial aid compensated for the higher prices. Low-income students at private not-for-profit doctoral and liberal arts institutions had the highest average net price ($9,100).

Among middle-income students, those at public 2-year and public 4-year nondoctoral institutions had the lowest net prices ($7,700 and $7,500, respectively). Their counterparts at public doctoral and private not-for-profit nondoctoral institutions had the next highest net prices ($8,700 and $9,400, respectively). Middle-income students at private not-for-profit doctoral and liberal arts institutions had the highest average net price ($14,600).