Penn launches new cost calculator to show that with financial aid, it’s ‘more affordable than most people realize’

The University of Pennsylvania launched a new cost calculator Wednesday that gives prospective students a more precise estimate of what they would pay to attend Penn.

Officials said the tool aims to increase transparency — including around the availability of financial aid — for families who might otherwise assume they cannot afford the Ivy League institution. Tuition and estimated costs for living on campus at Penn topped $99,000 this year.

Yet many students receive aid, including through a program launched two years ago providing full-tuition scholarships to students from families earning less than $200,000 a year.

The university also on Wednesday announced a $20 million gift from hedge fund billionaire Scott Shleifer and his wife, Elena, that would largely be devoted to scholarships.

“It can still be really intimidating for families to see the cost of an education,” dean of admissions Whitney Soule said at a media briefing Tuesday ahead of the announcement of the new calculator.

Soule, who worries that many students may never apply to Penn because they believe the college is out of reach, said the calculator will help the university pursue its goal of finding talent, “wherever it is.”

The cost of higher education has faced growing scrutiny as tuition bills have continued to mount. President Donald Trump’s administration this year imposed new limits on how much students can borrow in federal loans, an effort it said would incentivize universities to lower tuition. Critics said it would make it harder for some students to access higher education.

» READ MORE: Penn tuition, fees, and room and board will exceed $94,000 for 2026-27

A number of elite universities have moved in recent years to offer more students free tuition. Penn, for instance, expanded its “Quaker Commitment” program in 2024 to provide full-tuition scholarships to students from families earning less than $200,000 a year, up from $140,000.

Nearly 50% of Penn students receive aid, according to the university, and among those, nearly 70% receive packages covering all of their tuition and fees.

Colleges have also increasingly adopted financial calculators intended in part to show prospective applicants that the price they would pay may be significantly different from the sticker price.

Penn says its new tool goes further than what many other colleges are offering.

“I hope a lot of our peers will follow this example,” Penn president J. Larry Jameson said during the Tuesday media briefing.

» READ MORE: Penn receives $20 million gift to help make tuition more affordable

The Department of Education already requires schools to have a net price calculator available for prospective students. However, these tend to rely on generic formulas and do not consider an institution’s unique financial aid policies, Penn officials said.

For example, Penn does not factor a family’s primary house equity into its aid calculations, while many other schools do.

The old calculator would also provide a broad estimate, while the new version gives families a more precise figure.

Prospective students can either upload their 1040 tax form or manually enter their information.

The page features eight hypothetical households and the financial aid each would receive, including one for a student named “Maya.” Her parents collectively earn $120,000 a year and would pay about $15,000 a year for her to attend Penn.

The other examples represent families earning between $37,000 and $425,000.

The tool goes beyond the first year, accounting for changes to project the full four-year cost of a student’s time at the university, officials said. It also features an AI chatbot trained by Penn’s financial aid team to answer families’ questions.

“We hear often that there’s so much confusion and frustration around the financial aid process in general, and so this tool is really going to allow students to have a much more transparent view into our financial aid process,” Mariana Valdes-Fauli, associate vice president of student registration and financial services, said at the Tuesday briefing.

Along with its efforts to demonstrate affordability, the university also on Wednesday announced a $20 million gift from the Shleifer family, with $12 million to create and endow a new scholarship program.

The Shleifer Scholars Program “will establish a permanent cohort of undergraduate students whose Penn education is made possible through the Quaker Commitment, delivering comprehensive funding that covers full tuition for students from middle-income families and empowers them to engage in experiences beyond the classroom,” the university said in a statement.

An additional $3 million will go toward a Shleifer Family Quaker Commitment Challenge that will match donations of $500,000 to create new endowed scholarships. And $5 million will go to the university’s President’s Priorities Fund.

Shleifer, a 1999 graduate of the Wharton School and a former partner at Tiger Global Management, said in a statement that Penn had a “profound impact” on his life.

“Elena and I want more students to have access not just to a Penn education, but to the full range of experiences that make that education so meaningful,” Shleifer said.