The University has announced a new financial aid initiative, called the Quaker Commitment, designed to support middle-income families. Beginning in the 2025–26 academic year, Penn will raise the income threshold for families eligible to receive full-tuition scholarships from $140,000 to $200,000 and will no longer factor a family’s primary home equity into its financial aid eligibility assessment.
These initiatives will affect all aid-eligible undergraduate students, not just entering freshmen. Of Penn’s approximately 10,000 undergraduates, 45.4 percent currently receive financial aid, with an average aid package of $70,552. In February, Penn’s board of trustees approved a total undergraduate financial aid budget of $328 million for 2025–26, a 6.4 percent increase driven largely by the Quaker Commitment.
Tuition and Aid for 2025–26 Academic Year
Undergraduate tuition | $63,204
Housing | $13,132
Dining | $6,744
Fees | $8,032
Total | $91,112 (3.7 percent annual increase)
Total undergraduate financial aid | $328 million (6.4 percent annual increase)
The Quaker Commitment builds on a financial aid program that eliminated loans in 2008 [“Gazetteer,” Mar|Apr 2008] and, more recently in 2023–24, allowed students whose families earned $75,000 or less (up from $65,500 in 2022–23) to have their tuition, fees, housing, and dining fully covered—the total cost of which will surpass $90,000 in 2025–26.
“Access to affordable higher education is part of our national conversations,” Penn President J. Larry Jameson said in a statement, “and the Quaker Commitment offers a compelling model for how higher education institutions can support more families.”
