Tuition at the University of Pennsylvania

Ivy Coach is cited today on the pages of UPenn’s newspaper.

Wondering the tuition cost at the University of Pennsylvania? The University of Pennsylvania will raise its annual tuition by 3.8% for the 2018-2019 academic year. The latest tuition hike means that UPenn’s tuition will cross the $70,000 threshold for the first time in school history — to $71,200. This same figure stood at $68,600 for the 2017-2018 academic year. To offer perspective on the recently announced tuition hike, UPenn raised tuition by 3.9% for both the 2017-2018 and 2016-2017 academic years. So allow us to roll our eyes not once but three times when nobody’s looking as folks fake outrage at the 3.8% jump. The fake outrage is tired. Yes, the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening. Yes, tuition goes up every year, at a rate a bit higher than inflation.

Tuition at the University of Pennsylvania

Ivy Coach is cited in today’s “Daily Pennsylvanian,” the newspaper of the University of Pennsylvania, in a piece by Yoni Gutenmacher entitled “Experts and students raise concerns over long-term consequences of Penn’s tuition increases.” As Gutenmacher writes, “Brian Taylor, director of the college counseling practice Ivy Coach, said that the yearly tuition increases are standard practice and normal procedures for any business. Noting that the cost of attending Penn has increased by similar rates for the past several years, Taylor said that it is unlikely that next year’s increase will significantly affect students. ‘The University of Pennsylvania, just like every other highly-selective college, is a business,’ Taylor said. ‘When inflation is 2.8 percent, and there’s a tuition hike of 3.8 percent, that’s just not that consequential.'”

UPenn Needs No Justification to Raise Tuition

Schools like the University of Pennsylvania have every right to raise their tuition to whatever number they see fit. We live in a free market economy here in the land of the free and the home of the brave. The school has got costs to cover. To keep a top mathematics professor, you’ve got to pay that professor more — not less. It is the cost of doing business but the school need not justify its tuition hikes. If students and their parents don’t want to pay the cost of their tuition, then they shouldn’t apply to the University of Pennsylvania. There are many other options for an undergraduate education.

Among the Ancient Eight, it’s not the University of Pennsylvania but rather Columbia University that traditionally has the highest cost of tuition, while Princeton University typically has the lowest tuition. But, of course, droves of students will continue to apply to the University of Pennsylvania — and to each and every Ivy League institution. They won’t be scared off by this 3.8% hike. In fact, UPenn’s annual tuition hikes don’t seem to be scaring many folks off — not in the least. And for those folks who need financial aid, well, UPenn has increased its 2018-2019 financial aid budget by 5.25% to a total of $237 million in aid dollars. So there’s that.

Have a question about tuition at the University of Pennsylvania? Or about the laws of supply and demand? Let us know your question by posting it below. We look forward to hearing from you!