About two-thirds of college students receive some form of scholarship or grant aid for college, meaning roughly 60–70% get money that does not need to be repaid.

Key Number: Scholarships vs. Any Aid

  • The College Board has reported that about 2/3 of college students receive scholarships or grants , i.e., roughly 66%.
  • Broader financial aid data show that around 71.4% of undergraduates receive some aid (federal or nonfederal), much of which is grants and scholarships rather than loans.

So if you phrase it as “what percent receive scholarships or grants for college,” a safe current estimate is around two-thirds of students.

Why Numbers Sometimes Differ

Different sources define “scholarship” and “grant” differently, which changes the percentage.

  • Some reports count only competitive scholarships from private or institutional sources and find that roughly 7–12% of students get a scholarship in that narrower sense.
  • When federal and state grants (like Pell Grants) are included along with institutional scholarships, the share rises to around 60–70% of students receiving at least one grant or scholarship.

Trends and Context (2020s)

  • Recent analyses show over 1.7–1.8 million scholarships awarded annually from private sources alone, plus tens of billions of dollars in federal and state grant money.
  • With college costs still rising, more families rely on “free money” aid , and an estimated 58% of American families use scholarships to help pay tuition , even if the amounts vary a lot.

What This Means If You’re Planning for College

If you are asking “what percent of students receive scholarships or grants for college?” because you are planning ahead, the odds that you will receive some kind of grant or scholarship aid are fairly high—around two-thirds.

  • However, the odds of getting a large, highly competitive scholarship are much lower (closer to 1 in 8 or less, depending on the definition).
  • Most students patch together aid from federal grants, institutional discounts, small private scholarships, and family contributions , rather than one big award.

TL;DR: In current data, about 60–70% of college students receive scholarships or grants , but only a much smaller share receive large, competitive scholarships; most aid comes from a mix of grants, institutional aid, and smaller awards.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.