District of Columbia has 16 private and 1 public 4-year colleges that enroll 10,359 first-year students yearly. The average tuition of public colleges is $7,432 for in-state students and $14,284 for out-of-state and international students.

Private colleges in District of Columbia charge around $34,152 per year in tuition regardless of residency.

In the 2021-2022 academic year, District of Columbia provided $845,663 in financial aid to 254 students who enrolled in 4-year colleges for the first time as undergraduates. In addition, the colleges themselves awarded $159.7 million in grants and scholarships to 6,324 students.

District of Columbia receives less than 1% of the total pell grant the federal government allocates. In the 2021-2022 academic year, 2,228 4-year college first-year undergraduates were awarded a total amount of $11.4 million in pell grant ($4,390 per student on average), and 3,148 students received a total amount of $15.1 million in the form of student loans from the federal government ($3,734 per student on average).