Total
Undergraduate Charges:
4.6 Percent Increase for 2002-2003
Total undergraduate
charges for tuition, fees, room and board at Penn will increase
4.6 percent for the 2002-2003 academic year from $34,614 in 2001-2002
to $ 36,212 in 2002-2003. The increase was approved Thursday by
the Board of Trustees.
The Tuition and
General Fee for undergraduate students for the 2002-2003
academic year will increase 4.3 percent, from $26,630 to $27,788;
average room and board charges will increase 3 percent,
from $7,984 to $8,224; and a new $200 recreation fee will be instituted,
yielding an increase in total charges of 4.6 percent. (See
Trustees
Coverage, in this issue).
Total student
charges at Penn for the 2002-2003 academic year are in line with
those at other institutions in the Ivy League, based on charges
already announced at Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton
and Yale.
"We have
done everything possible to keep the rate of tuition increase
as low as possible, while at the same time dramatically striving
to enhance the quality of the educational program that makes Penn
the school of choice for our students," President Judith
Rodin said. "Furthermore, our need blind admissions policy
maintains our commitment to keeping a Penn undergraduate education
as affordable as possible and available to the best and brightest
students in the nation and in the world regardless of their economic
circumstances."
In the coming
year, she said, Penn will continue its longstanding policy to
admit students based on academic achievement without regard for
their ability to pay.
"We are
continuing our commitment to reduce the debt burden on our students
by increasing the number of grants offered to students and reducing
loans," President Rodin said. "In fact, we are projecting
an increase of 7.8 percent in Penn's need-based undergraduate
grants and scholarships in the coming year."
Since 1997-1998,
the percentage of the average freshman aid package met by grants
has increased from 67.7% to 75.4%, while the average loan as a
percentage of total aid has declined from 22.9% to 14.6%. Roughly
30% of Penn's aided freshmen will have their need met without
any expected student loan.
Penn will continue,
for the third year, the Summer Savings Waiver Program, which provides
grants to offset the summer self-help work contribution
requirement of students who participate in unpaid or low-paying
community-service or career-related activity over the summer.
Penn continues
to experience exceptional demand from the nation's top high school
graduates, receiving 18,770 applications for 2,385 places in its
undergraduate program.
"We have
a number of key initiatives under way to enhance the undergraduate
experience for our students," President Rodin said. These
initiatives include:
-
the continuing
recruitment of top faculty in social science, physical science,
information science, and the humanities;
-
the opening this
coming academic year of the Pottruck Health and Fitness Center,
a 150,000 square foot state-of-the-art recreation and personal
fitness facility;
-
the ongoing renovation
of all of Penn's undergraduate residence halls, including the
completion this summer of a four-year $75 million renovation
of the Quadrangle and the commencement this summer of a four-year
$80 million renovation program for Penn's "high rise"
residences;
-
expansion of Penn's
innovative network of undergraduate student "hubs"
with the addition next year of Weiss Technology House, complementing
the existing "hubs"--Kelly Writers House, Civic House,
and the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships;
-
continued enhancements
to Penn's innovative College House undergraduate residential
living-learning program, in which undergraduate houses are led
by resident faculty members and academic support services and
student-led co-curricular programs are organized and provided
in residence;
-
the opening of
Huntsman Hall, a new 300,000 square foot academic facility for
the Wharton School that will house classes, study halls, and
activity spaces for Wharton's undergraduate programs
as well as the Wharton MBA programs; and
-
the opening of
Levine Hall, a 40,000 square foot facility which will double
the size of Penn's computing and information science program,
including new spaces for student research and a new cyber lounge.