I a, pretty sure they are including full pays which would drive the average DOWN because many full pay folks are not having to borrow. There are also a surprising amount of full ride folks at Emory. Your son does not fall into that category though. The people (like 22%) with Pell Grants likely do (some are on EA and some have merit aid). For those that do have to borrow some, those numbers (26k) sound believable to me. There is a solid chunk who do not have to at the bottom and top (lots of these folks at Emory). Keep in mind that Emory is more socioeconomically diverse than most schools in that there are more people at the bottom than many closely ranked peers. Those people in addition to the full pays (at minimum like 16-17% because basically all international students are full pay and there are also many domestic students who are also full pay) will lower the average.