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Trump administration removes Penn from list of colleges that will lose tuition assistance program for Army officers

Princeton and Carnegie Mellon are among the 22 schools being cut off from tuition assistance by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. In initial list that included Penn had 34 schools.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during an event at the State Department in December.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during an event at the State Department in December. Read moreMark Schiefelbein / AP
    by Rob Tornoe
    Published 

Military officers will see their tuition assistance cut off at 22 schools and institutions across the country, but the University of Pennsylvania isn’t among them.

The Ivy League institution, which counts President Donald Trump among its alumni, was on among an initial list of 34 schools “at risk” of losing Pentagon-funded tuition assistance. But Penn was not part of the 22-university list released by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday.

Penn did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Hegseth previously said he intended to cut off schools where faculty members have “leftist political leanings” and “openly loathe our military,” but he didn’t cite any specific examples of bias or misconduct at the 22 schools that will lose tuition assistance beginning with the 2026-27 academic year.

“We will no longer invest in institutions that fail to sharpen our leaders’ warfighting capabilities or that undermine the very values they are sworn to defend,” Hegseth wrote in a letter released Friday with the final list.

It was not immediately clear why Penn and other schools were removed from the initial draft list.

Among the schools still set to lose access to the tuition-assistance program is Princeton University, where Hegseth obtained a bachelor’s degree in 2003. Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh is also on the list, as is Yale University, where Vice President JD Vance obtained a law degree.

The move means members of the military will be banned from using Department of Defense tuition assistance to pay for Senior Service College Fellowship programs at those schools.

The impact won’t be large — the Department of Defense said less than 100 military students are enrolled in programs at schools that will lose funding. Military personnel currently enrolled may complete their courses of study, Hegseth said, though its unclear if they’ll have to change schools to continue receiving financial assistance.

Hegseth’s announcement did not mention several other financial assistance programs for undergraduates, including the GI Bill, which is administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Here is the full list of schools losing tuition assistance from the Pentagon:

Educational institutions

  1. Harvard University

  2. Saint Louis University

  3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  4. Tufts University

  5. Georgetown University

  6. Carnegie Mellon University

  7. Brown University

  8. Columbia University

  9. Yale University

  10. Middlebury College

  11. Princeton University

  12. The George Washington University

  13. College of William and Mary

International instituion

  1. Queen’s University (Canada)

Non-profit institutions

  1. Center for Strategic and International Studies

  2. New America Foundation

  3. The Brookings Institution

  4. Atlantic Council

  5. Center for a New American security

  6. Council on Foreign Relation

  7. The Henry L. Stimson Center

Senior Service College

  1. The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies West Space Scholars Program