West Virginia has 14 private and 13 public 4-year colleges that enroll 10,035 first-year students yearly. The average tuition of public colleges is $21,255 for in-state students and $29,820 for out-of-state and international students.

Private colleges in West Virginia charge around $27,181 per year in tuition regardless of residency.

In the 2021-2022 academic year, West Virginia provided $20.8 million in financial aid to 4,852 students who enrolled in 4-year colleges for the first time as undergraduates. In addition, the colleges themselves awarded $73 million in grants and scholarships to 8,810 students.

West Virginia receives less than 1% of the total pell grant the federal government allocates. In the 2021-2022 academic year, 4,427 4-year college first-year undergraduates were awarded a total amount of $21.6 million in pell grant ($4,912 per student on average), and 6,396 students received a total amount of $35.9 million in the form of student loans from the federal government ($6,625 per student on average).