The Franklin Building is home to Penn’s Financial Aid department, recently recognized by MagnifyMoney for the quality of its student loans.
Credit: Julio SosaDespite student criticisms of Penn’s financial aid system, Penn has been ranked the No. 10 best university for student loan borrowers by MagnifyMoney.
The ranking conducted by MagnifyMoney is based on two major aspects: the average income of working students 10 years after beginning their college career and the amount of student loan debt they have at that time. MagnifyMoney founder Brian Karimzad said that “the Penn story is driven more by high income rather than low debt.”
Enrollment at Penn comes with a large sticker price, and about 33 percent of students in the Class of 2015 used loans to finance their education, according to Director of Communications for Student Financial Services Marlene Bruno. The median debt of Penn students 10 years after starting college is approximately $20,000. However, data from the Internal Revenue Service states that the median income of students around the same time is about $80,000.
Compared to schools in the “Bottom 20,” on average, Penn student loan borrowers are in a good position to repay their student loans in a reasonable amount of time. For “Bottom 20” graduates, median income is as low as around $15,000, and median loan balances are as high as about $43,000 10 years after starting college.
MagnifyMoney attributes these statistics to Penn’s large endowment, prestigious reputation and strong alumni network, all of which bring higher earning potential to students. Penn’s resources also allow for a need-blind admissions process that gives talented students the opportunity to study regardless of their socioeconomic background.
Founded by Brian Karimzad and Nick Clements one year ago, MagnifyMoney is a company that seeks to offer comparisons between products and other investments for clients, helping to bring transparency to decisions which are not necessarily intuitive due to the large abundance of products that are available in the marketplace.
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