Starting next fall, the University of Pennsylvania will expand its financial aid program in a move intended to make the college more affordable for students from middle-income families.
There will be two changes to how Penn determines students' financial aid packages, school officials announced this week. The university will no longer consider the value of a family's primary home when calculating a student's financial aid eligibility, and Penn will raise the household income threshold for students eligible to receive full-tuition scholarships to $200,000, up from $140,000. Students qualifying for tuition scholarships will still need to pay for housing, dining and other expenses.
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The effort to make college more affordable follows a national trend as colleges throughout the United States are recognizing the financial burden that high tuition costs puts on middle class families. Other schools that also announced new affordability initiatives this week include Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, University of Texas, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brandeis University in Massachusetts and St. John's College, which has campuses in Maryland and New Mexico.
An article NPR published about the plans at those schools noted that while college acceptance rates have risen, the sizes of incoming freshman classes have declined. It also cited a Pew Research study from last year that found only one-quarter of adults feel a four-year college degree is important to getting a well paying job.
Penn calls its new initiative the Quaker Commitment. The financial aid changes will apply to incoming students in the fall and all of the university's current undergraduate students who are enrolled next fall. Penn has nearly 10,000 undergrads, of which 46% receive financial aid.
School officials said approximately 900 students will benefit from excluding families' home values from aid calculations, increasing grant packages by about $4,000 each. Another 180 students will get an additional $10,000 in tuition assistance as a result of the higher income threshold.
"This bold new initiative expands financial aid for more families in alignment with our commitment to have Penn's financial aid package meet 100% of families' demonstrated need with no loans," Penn Interim President J. Larry Jameson said.
Penn expects this will cost about $6 million each year and plans to seek donations to fund it. In 2023, the university made students from families earning less than $75,000 – up from $65,000 – eligible to receive aid covering the full cost of tuition, housing and dining, plus an option for work-study. About 200 students got an average of $16,000 more assistance as a result of this change.
On average, Penn financial aid packages offer $70,579 per student, covering 76% of total costs. According to the university, this is a significant increase from its packages in 2008, which offset 57% of the sticker price.
MIT is making the same change to its income thresholds as Penn, the college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced Wednesday, waiving tuitions for students from families making less than $200,000, up from $140,000.