The University Board of Trustees approved a resolution to increase the cost of attendance for the next academic year by 3.9%, raising the total costs of tuition, fees, and room and board to $76,826 for the 2020-2021 academic year.
This is an increase from the $73,960 cost of attendance for the 2019-2020 academic year.
For the next academic year, tuition will increase from $51,156 to $53,166, a 3.9% increase. Fees, which include the general fee, technology fee to cover the cost of technological services, and clinical fee to give students access to Student Health Service, will increase from $6,614 to $6,876. Room and board will increase from $16,190 to $16,784 next year.
The trustees also approved an undergraduate financial aid budget of $256 million for the next academic year, a 3.7% increase from last year’s budget of $247 million. Forty-five percent of Penn’s undergraduate student body received grant-based financial aid in the 2019-2020 academic year, according to the Board of Trustees meeting.
Since the 2008 fiscal year, the aid budget has increased over 160%, an average annual growth rate of 7.6%.
The Board of Trustees also announced that students with household incomes of up to $140,000 a year will receive financial aid packages covering the cost of tuition. Penn Today reported that the announcement is a part of a new initiative to expand aid for middle-income families in 2020-2021.
Total cost of attendance for students has increased by nearly 4% each year for the past 10 years. Cost of attendance exceeded $70,000 for the first time in the 2018-2019 academic year.
Penn President Amy Gutmann said at the Board of Trustees meeting that Penn is currently the Ivy League school with the second highest total cost of attendance. Gutmann added that Columbia University has the highest total cost of attendance among Ivy League schools.
Gutmann said that the increase in Penn's cost of attendance has remained consistent in comparison to other Ivy League institutions, which she said tends to fluctuate.
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