Financial aid is central to Penn’s identity and reflects a clear, enduring promise: Every student with the talent to be admitted should be able to attend and thrive without the burden of insurmountable debt.
An Ambitious Goal: Defining a New Standard for Affordability
Penn’s Quaker Commitment has changed the financial aid landscape for talented students of all backgrounds
Spring 2026
For years, Penn has made that promise real through comprehensive financial aid policies, ensuring that students from all backgrounds can fully engage in the breadth and opportunity of a Penn education, regardless of their financial circumstances.
Building on this enduring foundation, Penn reaffirmed and further strengthened its commitment in 2024 through an expanded set of financial aid policies known as the Quaker Commitment. These efforts are helping to reshape the higher education landscape, particularly for middle-income families, by extending access and opportunity in new and meaningful ways.
Roughly
10,000
undergraduates
10,000
undergraduates
Nearly
50%
of all students
are aided
50%
of all students
are aided
25%
of students
receive a Named
Scholarship
of students
receive a Named
Scholarship
25%
of students belong
to the Penn First
Plus community
of students belong
to the Penn First
Plus community
Nearly
15%
of all students
are highly aided
15%
of all students
are highly aided
Beginning in the fall of 2025 for all classes, Penn is now effectively tuition-free for families earning up to $200,000 with typical assets. In addition, home equity is no longer included in financial aid calculations—a rare policy in higher education.
This expansion reflects Penn’s belief in the transformative power of education.
“Penn’s financial aid has broadened both my world and my own sense of self,” says Max Brody, C’26. “Even though I’m from a small town in Oklahoma, Penn’s financial aid has given me the opportunity to participate in national fellowships like the Truman Scholarship, advocating for policies that would benefit rural communities like mine. Penn’s financial aid also allowed me to travel internationally for the first time in my life—I had the wonderful chance to visit Chile undertaking work on dietetics and patient care.”
Overall, the generous financial aid here has let me meet new people, engage in different subjects, and grow in ways that I never imagined prior.”Max Brody, C’26
The impact of this investment is clear. Over the past three decades, Penn’s undergraduate financial aid budget has grown from $50 million to $328 million. The average aid package now exceeds $70,000, and student borrowing has declined by nearly 70 percent.
Philanthropy is critical to supporting the Quaker Commitment. Today, endowed funds support just 27 percent of our undergraduate financial aid costs. The remainder is funded by the University’s operating budget. Flipping this ratio will enable the University to redirect operating funds toward advancing Penn’s priorities in research, teaching, and other critical initiatives. Increasing endowed scholarship support is one of the most powerful ways donors can help close this gap, ensuring that Penn can meet our commitment to students today and for generations to come.
2025–26
Budget
Budget
$328
million
27%
73%
Endowed Funds
$88.9 M
Operating Funds
$239.1 M
Higher education opens doors, and we’ve seen again and again how our students go on to make an indelible impact on their communities and society. The Quaker Commitment is an extension of our values and our firm belief that excellent students deserve the opportunity to flourish.”J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD
President, University of Pennsylvania
At the heart of Penn’s commitment to access and affordability is the catalytic power of challenge matches. Through a new University-supported match for Men and Women of Pennsylvania Challenge Fund donors, a growing pool of resources is generated that, in turn, matches gifts to existing or new endowed scholarships. The result is a virtuous cycle—one that amplifies every dollar, deepens the longevity of student support, and sustains the culture of leadership giving that drives the Quaker Commitment forward.
For information on how to support financial aid and Penn First Plus, contact Maryann O’Leary Salas at maryanno@upenn.edu.
