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03-29-23-penn-campus-anna-vazhaeparambil
The U.S. Department of Education found that federally aided Penn students earned a higher annual income than financial aid recipients from any other Ivy League university. Credit: Anna Vazhaeparambil

Penn graduates earn the highest median salaries among federally aided Ivy League students, according to U.S. Department of Education data. 

The Department of Education publishes college scorecards displaying data such as graduation rate, average annual cost, and median earnings for each university. Federally aided Penn students earned a median of $103,246 ten years after matriculation, a higher annual income than financial aid recipients from any other Ivy League university.

The scorecard, which was based on data from 2022, compared Penn’s numbers to the national midpoint of $47,922 for four-year schools. After Penn, the institution with the second-highest median earnings was Princeton University, at $95,689. 

The scorecard also included information on the average net price that federally aided students pay per year, which is equal to the cost of attendance minus grants and scholarships. Penn came in fourth among Ivy League schools on this measure, with an average annual cost of $25,046. Cornell University, at $37,042, had the highest cost.  

In March, Penn announced a 4% rise in the cost of attendance for the 2023-2024 year, from $81,340 to $84,600. Penn also raised the eligibility limit for financial aid from $75,000 to $65,500, increasing the number of undergraduates whose tuition, fees, housing, and dining are fully covered by the university.   

“This expansion of Penn’s undergraduate financial aid program will make the path to Penn possible for hundreds of additional students each year,” Penn President Liz Magill told Penn Today. 

Other measures, such as Payscale data and The Forbes 400, have recently evaluated the financial outcomes of Ivy League students. 

In assessing early-career median pay, Payscale found that the earnings of Ivy League graduates in 2022 exceeded those of graduates from other institutions by more than $27,000. Penn had 17 alumni, including 1997 graduate Elon Musk and 1968 graduate Donald Trump, on the 2022 Forbes list of the wealthiest people in the U.S. — the highest number of any university.