Financially speaking: A guide to financial aid at Penn

Basics

Average Aid and Cost of Attendance

The tuition in the graph reflects the cost for the 2016-17 year, except for Princeton, whose available data was the estimate for the 2017-18 year. The average financial aid data reflect the most recent year available. On average, out of the Ivy League, Harvard offers the highest financial aid per students, while Cornell offers the least. The cost of attendance is the highest for Columbia. Penn reported that for the 2016 fiscal year, the undergraduate financial aid budget increased by $7.9 million, or four percent.

Percentage of Students Receiving Financial Aid

Close to 50 percent of students or more receive financial aid in the Ivy League. Yale has the highest percentage of students receiving financial aid, while Penn, Cornell and Brown have the lowest. Although Penn claims that the University commits to meeting full demonstrated need, many students report that their financial aid packages are not sufficient and find it difficult to lobby for more aid.

Graduate Student Financial Aid by School

Academic Year 2015-16

Policy Differences

Penn is currently need-blind for students and permanent residents of the United States, Canada and Mexico, which means the ability of these students to pay tuition does not affect admissions decisions. However, this policy does not extend beyond these countries since Penn is need-aware for international students. International students must be able to pay full-tuition or compete for the approximately $8 million of financial aid available for the applicant pool. Many international students at Penn apply to outside scholarships but report that they continue to feel financially stressed. Columbia, Harvard, Princeton and Yale are currently the only schools in the Ivy League that have a need-blind policy for both domestic and international students. All of the schools in the Ivy League practice a no-loan policy except for Brown, Dartmouth and Cornell. However, despite a "no-loan" policy, 32 percent of Penn’s 2015 graduates took out a student loan to finance their education. Penn rebranded its financial aid policy from “no-loan” to “all-grant” in 2015.

School	Admissions		Loans in Financial Aid Packages
Brown	NEED-BLIND for only US citizens and permanent residents	NEED-AWARE for international students	PART OF PACKAGE
Cornell	NEED-BLIND for only US citizens and permanent residents	NEED-AWARE for international students	NO LOAN for students with household incomes less than $60k
Columbia	NEED-BLIND for only US citizens and permanent residents	NEED-AWARE for international students	NO LOAN
Dartmouth	NEED-BLIND for only US citizens and permanent residents	NEED-AWARE for international students	PART OF PACKAGE
Harvard	NEED-BLIND for all students		NO LOAN
Penn	NEED-BLIND for students from US, Canada, and Mexico	NEED-AWARE for international students	NO LOAN
Princeton	NEED-BLIND for all students		NO LOAN
Yale	NEED-BLIND for all students		NO LOAN

Grant Money Awarded by Penn

$40,000

average need-based grant in 2016

$190,683,989

total Penn grant awarded

4,760

Penn grant recipients

Median Annual Aid Package by Income Bracket

2015-16 School Year

Income Bracket ($)

Median Aid Package ($)

220,000 +

$15,935

190,000 - 219,999

$30,220

160,000 - 189,999

$37,075

130,000 - 159,999

$41,220

100,000 - 129,999

$49,550

70,000 - 99,999

$56,770

40,000 - 69,999

$63,500

0 - 39,999

$63,790

Cost of attendance: $66,800

Penn’s Office of Student Financial Services determines financial aid packages based on student and parent tax returns. Family size, students’ income and assets, parents’ income and assets, the number of children enrolled in college and extenuating family circumstances are also considered.

Penn Cost of Attendance

$1,250

Books

$2,024

Personal
expenses

$9,060

Housing

$4,930

Meals

$49,536

Tuition & fees

$66,800

Total cost of attendance (2015-16)

The total cost of attendance includes tuition and fees, housing, meals, books and personal expenses. Tuition and fees are fixed each year and include the general fee, recreation fee, a student health clinical fee and an educational technology fee. The housing allowance is based on the median room rate in the University College Houses regardless of whether students live on or off-campus. The cost of attendance also includes meals—calculated based on the approximate cost of a dining plan—the average cost of books and personal expenses, which includes allowances for clothing, laundry and recreation.

2016 SRFS Student Survey Feedback

In 2016, SRFS had

9,122

visits, and

606

respondents to their survey.

There were no significant changes within the past five years, and overall the ratings have been favorable.

Meeting expectations (reflected in the "expectations" column) is the one area where the percentage ratings are lower than the others.

SRFS Survey Feedback
Create column charts

Geographic Data

Financial Aid by State

In 2015-16, students from every state but Alaska and North Dakota received financial aid, although Penn students most commonly come from the Northeast. With 939 students receiving $43,570,552 in grants and work, Pennsylvania was the state with both the most students receiving aid and the greatest amount of aid granted. The highest average total aid was given to the three students from Arkansas, who received an average of $69,174 in grants and work. Arkansas was the only U.S. state or territory with an average total over $60,000 besides the U.S. Virgin Islands, where three students received $66,376 on average. Students from Massachusetts received the least aid on average; the 155 students from Massachusetts received an average of $37,318 in grants and work. Nine states had an average total between $50,000 and $60,000, while most states had an average between $40,000 and $50,000.

Financial Aid by Geographic Region

Most students from outside North America who received aid are from Asia, Europe or Africa, and there were only two students from Oceania who received aid. The average total grant for the 9 students from the Middle East ($62,998) was almost twice that of the average total grant for the 14 students from South America ($34,216). The average total aid figures for students from Central America, the Caribbean, Asia and Europe all cluster around $50,000. Total aid averages for students from Oceania and South America were closer to $40,000, while these averages for students from Africa and the Middle East were above $60,000.

South America

Total Grant: $34,216
Restricted Penn Grant: $13,246.43
Unrestricted Penn Grant: $20,969.57
Penn Grant: $34,216
Outside Grant: --
Work: $2,964.29
Total: $37,180.29
Students Receiving Aid: 14

Oceania

Total Grant: $43,200
Restricted Penn Grant: $15,525
Unrestricted Penn Grant: $27,675
Penn Grant: $43,200
Outside Grant: --
Work: $1,750
Total: $44,950
Students Receiving Aid: 2

Middle East

Total Grant: $62,998
Restricted Penn Grant: $23,050
Unrestricted Penn Grant: $39,948
Penn Grant: $62,998
Outside Grant: --
Work: $3,200
Total: $66,198
Students Receiving Aid: 9

Europe

Total Grant: $51,163
Restricted Penn Grant: $20,937
Unrestricted Penn Grant: $30,058
Penn Grant: $50,995
Outside Grant: $168
Work: $3,227
Total: $54,390.63
Students Receiving Aid: 46

Central America

Total Grant: $48,766
Restricted Penn Grant: $19,058
Unrestricted Penn Grant: $29,708
Penn Grant: $48,766
Outside Grant: --
Work: $3,350
Total: $52,116.00
Students Receiving Aid: 6

Caribbean

Total Grant: $53,442
Restricted Penn Grant: $5,512.50
Unrestricted Penn Grant: $47,537.25
Penn Grant: $53,049.75
Outside Grant: $392
Work: $3,195.13
Total: $56,637.14
Students Receiving Aid: 8

Asia

Total Grant: $47,985
Restricted Penn Grant: $17,224
Unrestricted Penn Grant: $30,760
Penn Grant: $47,985
Outside Grant: --
Work: $3,051
Total: $51,035.98
Students Receiving Aid: 41

Africa

Total Grant: $59,904.07
Restricted Penn Grant: $15,338.72
Unrestricted Penn Grant: $43,569.09
Penn Grant: $58,907.81
Outside Grant: $996.27
Work: $2,620.15
Total: $62,524.22
Students Receiving Aid: 67

Over the Years

Percentage of Financial Aid Applicants Who Received Aid

From the 2007-08 academic year to the 2016-17 academic year, the percentage of students who applied for aid and received it rose 3.4 percentage points from 88.5 percent to 91.9 percent. This change is a 3.88 percent increase. The lowest percentage of students received aid during the 2008-09 academic year, when only 86.1 percent of students who applied for aid received it. The highest success rate for aid applicants occurred during the 2015-16 academic year, when 92.3 percent of students who applied for aid received it.

Number of Financial Aid Applicants and Recipients

The numbers of students applying for aid and the number of students granted aid have both risen since the 2007-08 academic year. The number of students applying for aid rose from 4,473 for the 2007-08 academic year to 5,165 for the 2016-17 academic year. This 692 student increase represents a 15.47 percent change. The number of students who received aid rose from 3,959 for the 2007-08 academic year to 4,749 for the 2016-17 academic year. This 790 student increase represents a 19.95 percent change.

Work Study

4,357

students awarded

$3,066

average amount awarded per student

2,446

students employed at a work study job

$7,499,436

total potential FWS earnings based on the number of employed students

$4,347,580

total FWS earnings

$13,053,451

total FWS awarded to Penn students

What determines the amount of federal work study (FWS) award that a student receives?

A maximum of 75 percent of students’ FWS earnings are federally subsidized, and employers must pay the remainder. FWS amounts also vary based on each student’s financial aid award. According to SRFS, Penn has adjusted both the federal and university shares of work study payments to maximize the total eligible dollars available to students. During the 2015-16 academic year, 56 percent of students awarded work study were employed at a work study job, and they earned 58 percent of the total FWS awarded. Students may only work a maximum of 20 hours per week when classes are in session, and it is each student’s responsibility to conduct a job search, apply for jobs, interview and be hired.

Credits

Graphics

Lucy Ferry, Design Associate
Megan Paik, Online Graphics Associate
Camille Rapay, Design Editor
Shun Sakai, Online Graphics Associate
Rong Xiang, Design Editor

Project Management

Alex Graves, Digital Director
Kate Jeon, Online Graphics Editor-emeritus

Web Development

Andrew Fischer, Director of Web Development

Text

Ally Johnson, Assignments Editor
Vibha Kannan, Enterprise Editor
Sydney Schaedel, Senior News Editor

Copy Editing

Harry Trustman, Copy Editor

Sources

Student Financial Services

Data was requested and acquired through Student Financial Services. Data present is from the following documents provided by SRFS.

Customer Service Survey: Overview of Student Survey Feedback 2016-2012 Student Financial Services
Financial Aid by U.S. State and Territory - 2015-16
Foreign Student - 2015-16
Counts of Aid Applicants and Recipients - 2007-08 - 2016-17 - 11-30-16
Graduate Financial Aid by School - 2015-16

Additional Sources

“Your Dreams,” Financial Aid Information 2015-16, University of Pennsylvania
Data for the graphs comparing aid across the Ivy League is from the respective schools' financial aid pages: Brown (2), Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth (2, 3), Harvard (2), Penn (2, 3), Princeton (2), Yale (2)

Notes

Customer Service Survey has incomplete data during FY 2015.
For the graphs comparing aid across the Ivy League, cost of attendance reflects the cost for 2016-17 (except for Princeton, whose available data was the 2017-18 estimate), while aid reflects the most recent year available.
Correction: A previous version of this page listed Columbia University as being need-blind for all students. However, Columbia is need-aware for international students. The DP regrets the error.
Correction: As a result of a typo in the data provided by SRFS, a previous version of this page stated that only two students from the Middle East received aid, when the number was in fact nine.