The annual cost of a Penn education for the 2015-16 academic year will rise by 3.9 percent, to $63,526. The University’s financial aid budget will increase by 5.1 percent, to $206 million. Both changes are in keeping with the general trend over the last five years.
For the coming academic year, tuition will increase to $43,838 from $42,176; room and board will increase to $13,990 from $13,464; and fees will increase to $5,698 from $5,492. The average financial-aid grant is forecast to be $43,800; Penn began substituting grants for loans in 2009, a policy President Amy Gutmann calls “one of our highest evergreen priorities.”
In the current academic year, 47 percent of undergraduates received need-based grants from Penn. According to the University, the average net cost for aided students is approximately $1,500 less than it was in 2005, in constant 2005 dollars. Tuition and fees cover approximately 69 percent of the direct cost of delivering a Penn education.