Alabama has 21 private and 14 public 4-year colleges that enroll 29,752 first-year students yearly. The average tuition of public colleges is $25,479 for in-state students and $36,999 for out-of-state and international students.

Private colleges in Alabama charge around $21,359 per year in tuition regardless of residency.

In the 2021-2022 academic year, Alabama provided $3.7 million in financial aid to 2,193 students who enrolled in 4-year colleges for the first time as undergraduates. In addition, the colleges themselves awarded $220.5 million in grants and scholarships to 20,896 students.

Alabama receives less than 1% of the total pell grant the federal government allocates. In the 2021-2022 academic year, 9,150 4-year college first-year undergraduates were awarded a total amount of $47.1 million in pell grant ($4,803 per student on average), and 12,974 students received a total amount of $75.3 million in the form of student loans from the federal government ($5,849 per student on average).