It’s state-related, meaning part private part public.
We’re out of state and attended a very nice “for the glory” overnight program. Private meet and greets with professors in the major, tour of the campus, cocktail reception at Beaver Stadium. Very impressive. But, for all of this the Provost Scholarship was awarded. $16,000 OVER 4 YEARS. $2,000 a year. Just too expensive. Will attend Rutgers. An excellent in-state school for his major.
It is crazy how little Penn State awards both in state and out of state compared to other similarly sized state Universities. My daughter will be attending PSU this fall. She is very excited but it was hard for me to turn away the significant scholarships offered at comparably ranked Universities (all Big 10 schools, of course!) At the end of the day, the additional cost to attend our in state versus an out of state was marginal and she will be happiest in Happy Valley!
@NASA2014 The 14 State Schools in PA are part of the PASSHE System (PA State System of Higher Education). These schools are funded by the state. PSU receives about 5% of it’s funding from the state, so it’s a state related school, as are Pitt and Temple. “state schools” are those in the PASSHE system that get nearly all of it’s funding from the state (>95%). Those schools tuition is much less than PSU for both in state and out of state.
An undergraduate degree from Penn State for an OOS student is $200,000 compared to roughly $120,000k for in state. If they only receive aid of 5% from the state why the disproportionate costs to OOS students?
Again $200k for OOS and that’s if you graduate in 4 years!!! Just saying and I’ll probably end up at Happy Valley. The two states to live in are PA and Virginia for good in state schools with reasonable $$. The system is broken on college tuition…
^ I suppose you mean VA and (CA/NC/NYS/MI…?)
If what Jlhpsu said is true that only 5% of funding for Penn State comes from the Commonwealth then why penalize OOS student with such a high differential in cost? PA residents are not paying that much more than OOS and surely not where a year at PSU should cost $20k more
University of Michigan gives students aid. I don’t understand why PSU won’t give aid. Like really 5%???
Conversely, think about it like this: they’re only getting 5% of their funding from the state. Where does the rest come from? Where can they possibly get the money to feed, house, instruct, and support almost 100,000 students statewide?
Answer: full-pay and OOS students.
Michigan has an endowment comparable to many top private universities. That is why it can afford to give aid.
Think of it this way as well…if PSU gets 5% of its funding get from the state through taxes etc…where might they use that 5%? Aid for in state students who pay taxes…or OOS students who don’t?
Also @Oneiota PSU in state students pay much more for PSU than the state schools because of the funding issue. So we are already paying taxes that help support the in state institutions. We are full pay in state. Freshman year we paid 33k for tuition room and board. Would have been 19k at an in state “state” school. We made that choice. Everyone has to decide for themselves if the cost is worth it.
The PASSHE schools receive about 20-25% funding from the state today. In the 1980’s when the PASSHE system was put together the state funding was 80%. Pennsylvania is the second highest cost to attend college in the USA. PSU has 24 branches that are essentially ridiculously overpriced community colleges (with a few exceptions) and the state funds them which takes away funds for the PASSHE schools.
Hello,
I got admitted to Penn state UP and SHC, does Penn state offers merit scholarships in sophomore or in junior year on the basis of their performance( Cgpa) in college?
I was obviously given bad information on the PASSHE funding, but I was correct on the PSU funding which is one of the things we are discussing here. However I should have double checked my info before posting it here. I always thought the PASSHE schools received most of their funding from the state, hence all of the potential closures from the declining enrollments and state budget cuts.
As far as the PSU commonwealth campuses being like community colleges, I disagree. And so would the many kids who’ve gotten their 4 year bachelors degrees from the commonwealth campuses. Not to mention the 60% of PSU UP graduates that began at the commonwealth campuses. Admission to the Commonwealth Campuses have lower requirements than at UP, but are above or in line with most of the PASSHE schools. Enrollments at the PSU commonwealth campuses are either steady or growing depending on the campus, and not in a free fall like several of the PASSHE schools. A degree from Penn State is a valuable commodity, whether one goes to a commonwealth or not.
The state funds the entire Penn State university system as far as I can tell to an amount equaling approximately 5% of their funding. This is for all of it’s campuses. I was unable to find a line item anywhere in the budget showing that the commonwealth campuses are currently funded by the state in an amount in excess of what the state appropriates to the entire university system… If you have that information, I’d like to see it @bester1. That would be interesting to me.
I will agree that college costs are too high everywhere. PA has the two highest tuition public universities in the COUNTRY (Pitt and PSU).
@Oneiota
@eaglemom2014
These days when money is a factor, opting for your large, in-state university option is a wise choice vs. Penn State. No could really blame you for that decision.
@Oneiota said:
“An undergraduate degree from Penn State for an OOS student is $200,000 compared to roughly $120,000k for in state. If they only receive aid of 5% from the state why the disproportionate costs to OOS students?”
You would be wasting your time trying to answer that question.
The short answer is the PA state-related schools get some funding from PA in exchange for reduced tuition for residents. Plain and simple.
@bodangles said:
“Conversely, think about it like this: they’re only getting 5% of their funding from the state. Where does the rest come from? Where can they possibly get the money to feed, house, instruct, and support almost 100,000 students statewide?
Answer: full-pay and OOS students.”
This is basically the formula for many private college and universities.
The Commonwealth campuses are NOT community colleges and shouldn’t be perceived as such. The freshmen profile for non-UP campuses on the whole are still competitive: 3.00-3.50 GPA. Erie and Harrisburg have AACSB-accredited business schools. To receive this international accreditation, they have to prove that their curriculum meets some very tough standards and that they primarily have PhD and/or tenured faculty teaching. Altoona’s nursing program is amazing and those students have access to a huge trauma 1 hospital. Don’t even get me started on how difficult Erie’s engineering program is. I’ve had the privilege to meet and work with many of the faculty across all of PSU, including the smaller campuses. Those professors are equally as talented as UP professors, and from what I’ve experienced, very committed and passionate about teaching their students – students whose stats were just a tad shy of UP standards and/or their program was full and/or they didn’t submit the app before the priority deadline. Let’s not misrepresent these campuses please.
I have been reading these threads, so I assume that the financials are in line as opposed to sending a package? My daughter received merit scholarships for $48 K from URI and $40K from Wentworth, so Penn State says the assist 52 % of applicants - does that mean they given them loans? WOW,
@sophley I wish there was a love button on college confidential. Loved your post. So true in my experience as well.