Penn released a new cost calculator for prospective students on Wednesday, providing estimates tailored to the University’s financial aid policies.
Unlike generic formulas used across higher education, Penn’s tool is specific and customizable, offering students a more precise estimate of their cost of attendance. The University launched a beta version of the cost calculator on Oct. 14 and plans to refine it in the coming months.
Dean of Admissions Whitney Soule acknowledged that “looking at a sticker price” can be “intimidating” during a Tuesday event accompanying the launch.
“Even when it’s usually contextualized that that might not be what you pay and it’s worth looking further, it can still be really intimidating for families to see the cost of education and just feel that the environment might not be for them,” she said.
In March, Penn’s Board of Trustees voted to approve a 3.9% increase in undergraduate tuition, bringing the total cost of tuition, fees, room, and board to $94,582 for the 2026-27 academic year. Since 2016, cost of attendance has outpaced the average rate of inflation.
According to Soule, the calculator will not only provide “a better experience for families,” but also help attract the “very best talent.”
Executive Vice President Mark Dingfield said that existing net price calculators, which the Department of Education requires universities to make publicly available, “don’t use their institution’s own specific aid policies.” The cost calculator, he said, uses “Penn’s specific financial aid methodology.”
“This tool was developed in-house by people here at Penn,” Dingfield added. “This was a collective program that brought together folks from financial aid, admissions, our technology group, and even our colleagues from Penn Medicine who brought some of their user experience development work.”
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The tool’s website displays profiles of eight sample households with varying financial and family backgrounds, allowing users to see how similar users would pay without entering their own data.
For an individualized estimate, families can upload their Form 1040 — the personal federal income tax return document — or manually enter financial information. Users are also asked to provide household characteristics, parent assets, and other details.
“Because we are asking families to upload something as sensitive as 1040, I’m sure you can imagine that privacy and security have been a major consideration throughout this build,” Soule said. “We have spent plenty of time working through that, and we’ve gone through several reviews with our privacy and security partners, and we have secured the verification that this tool is compliant with the very strict security standards that Penn has.”
After submitting their information, families can see a first-year cost of attendance breakdown — divided into Penn’s grant, the family’s payment, and work-study.
Families with more complex circumstances may receive “less precise” results from the calculator and are encouraged to speak with Penn’s financial aid team, Soule said. As of now, the resource is not designed for international students.
Every cost estimate is coupled with a “why this number” explanation, which outlines “in plain language how factors like income and assets influence the estimate,” according to Student Registration and Financial Services Associate Vice President Mariana Valdes-Fauli.
“This has consistently been one of the most well-received features in all the user testing that we did,” Valdes-Fauli said. “Families and counselors have really appreciated having more visibility into our process that can otherwise feel opaque.”
The tool also features a four-year projection of attendance cost, accounting for expected annual growth in the cost of attendance, parent income growth, and other factors. Users can also see how a sibling entering college or summer internship income would affect their projection.
Families can save their estimate and share it with others by creating an account on the website. While calculating their estimated cost, users can direct questions to a chatbot, according to Valdes-Fauli.
“We’ll also track questions the chatbot can’t answer, helping us identify information gaps and continuously improve the calculator and supporting resources after launch,” she said.
Valdes-Fauli highlighted that the website also has “a dedicated back-end experience for financial aid staff that gives counselors greater visibility into estimates.”
“This means that conversations can start from a shared understanding of a family’s circumstance,” she said. “The result is a more informed, personalized experience for families with counselors better equipped to provide relevant guidance and answer questions efficiently.”
In an email to the University community on Wednesday, Dingfield, Penn President Larry Jameson, and Provost John Jackson Jr. said the calculator “is the first in a broad range of Penn Forward initiatives that, in addition to building trust, will enable bold discovery and extend Penn’s geographic reach.”
The University-wide Penn Forward framework was announced by Jameson in September 2025. The Penn Quaker Commitment, one of the nine initiatives that emerged from the framework in April, aimed to simplify costs and provide “clear, predictable pricing.”
The Quaker Commitment was introduced in the 2025-26 academic year and covers at least full tuition for students whose families have a total income below $200,000. The University does not consider private home equity when determining financial aid eligibility.
Financial aid has continued to expand this year, including through a May donation for middle-income families and endowed undergraduate scholarships announced last month.
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Senior reporter James Wan leads administration reporting and can be reached at wan@thedp.com. At Penn, he studies communication and computer science. Follow him on X @JamesWan__.
