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of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

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    Data Dashboard

    College Costs

    The visualizations in this dashboard provide multiple calculations of college cost and summaries of the prevalence and amount of grant aid, scholarships, and loans.  They include advertised tuition and fees; total cost of attendance (this includes tuition and fees plus standard calculations of living expenses, books, etc.); and net price (the amount of unmet total cost after subtracting grants/scholarships from the overall cost of attendance). Average amounts of grants/scholarships and student loans are also shown. Across all visualizations, values are aggregated at the state- and institution type-levels and results can be filtered by region.  Specific values for each higher education institution in Pennsylvania are also provided. 

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    Data for this dashboard are sourced from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), which is a federal institutional survey system administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), and the College Scorecard, which is another federal data collection of postsecondary institutions administered by the U.S. Department of Education. Data from IPEDS Student Financial Aid survey and the College Scorecard were used to create this dashboard.

    Pennsylvania’s higher education institutions fall into eight institution types: 

    • PASSHE – Public four-year universities within the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.
    • State-Related Main Campus – A state-related university receives state funding through an annual nonpreferred appropriation from the General Assembly and offers a tuition discount to Pennsylvania residents. Each state-related university is governed by a board that includes Commonwealth officials and other members. There are four state-related main campuses in Pennsylvania—Pennsylvania State University, University of Pittsburgh, Temple University, and Lincoln University.
    • State-Related Regional Campus - Regional campuses of Pennsylvania State University and University of Pittsburgh, as well as Pennsylvania College of Technology.
    • Community College – Public two-year institutions that primarily confer Associate’s degrees and certificates.
    • Other Public Two-Year – Publicly-funded two-year institutions not categorized as community colleges.  This includes Northern Pennsylvania Regional College and Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, which primarily offer Associate’s degrees and certificates.
    • Independent Non-Profit Four-Year – Independent, non-profit colleges and universities granting Bachelor’s or higher degrees.
    • Private Licensed School – Privately operated, state-licensed schools offering postsecondary entry-level career training.
    • Specialized Institutions – Institutions that do not fit any of the above categories, including but not limited to cosmetology schools, schools of nursing, career and technical centers, and religiously-affiliated institutions and theological seminaries.

    A Technical Appendix provides detailed information about all data sources, data elements, and analyses utilized in the creation of these dashboards. A set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are also provided to address common questions about the dashboards.