More PSU students seeking assistance

Anne Danahy

UNIVERSITY PARK — A growing number of Penn State students are applying for financial aid, even as a smaller percentage of those seeking help are from low-income families.

Anna Griswold, executive director for student aid, told the university trustees Friday that the number of student aid applications increased by about 5,000 this year. She said that 75 percent of undergraduates applied for aid in 2008- 09 compared with 66 percent 10 years earlier.

“More and more students are applying for financial aid and more students are borrowing to pay costs,” Griswold said.

The university is also seeing a change in who is applying for aid. Griswold said that as a percentage of those seeking aid, the number of students from families earning $40,000 or less has dropped 18 percent over the past 10 years. At the same time, the number from families earning between $85,000 and $130,000 has increased 86 percent.

Overall, students’ median family income is $74,000 compared to about $66,000 in 1998-99. At the same time, paying tuition takes up a larger part of family income. Griswold said an average 18 percent of family income was needed to pay tuition in 2008-09, compared with 12 percent a decade earlier.

“Clearly the impact of our declining state appropriation is evident in these numbers,” Griswold said.

In response to a question about why the university is receiving fewer aid requests from low-income families, while the requests from moderate and higher income family had increased, Chairman Jim Broadhurst said fewer poor students are applying.

“They’re falling out of the system to a great degree,” he said.

Griswold agreed, saying many of the higher income students have always been attending Penn

State, but they are now applying for financial aid, while fewer of the lower and lower-middle income students are going to Penn State.

Griswold said that half of undergraduates receive some type of grant or scholarship and 60 percent take out loans. The average debt of borrowers is $28,000.

The total cost for an instate student at University Park, including room and board, was $23,232.

Griswold said projections are that the university will have $6 million less in endowment earnings this year and make about 2,000 fewer awards.

Student aid added up to $810 million in 2008-09.

The number of students applying for admission to the university and the percentage who come from out of state are also increasing. Anna Rohrback, executive director for undergraduate admissions, said the university received a record-setting 109,031 applications in 2009. Among those, applications from out-of-state students, including international students, climbed 9 percent, while the number from Pennsylvania residents remained constant, Rohrback said.

Anne Danahy can be reached at 231-4648.