Pennsylvania State
University-Penn State Altoona
Public College in Altoona, PA. Six-year graduation rate 16%. Median 10-year earnings $63,435.
Ten-year median earnings of $63,435 are the headline number here, and they are strong ones. Only 16% finish within six years, so roughly four in five students leave without the credential they enrolled for. Median debt at graduation is $25,000, roughly typical for an undergraduate degree.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Graduation rate 16% — below national average
Admissions
With an acceptance rate of 98%, Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Altoona takes nearly everyone who applies. 8,447 applications came in, enough to make the rates below reasonably stable year to year. A 10% yield rate is low: the admitted pool is much larger than the entering class. The score bands below rest on the 24% of enrolled first-years who submitted an SAT score — a self-selected group, and not a cutoff.
Test score bands (middle 50% of submitters)
These bands describe the enrolled first-years who submitted a score, not the entering class. Where most students apply test-optional the submitters are a self-selected, higher-scoring group.
| Test | 25th–75th percentile | Submitted |
|---|---|---|
| SAT Evidence-Based Reading | 530–650 | 207 (24%) |
| SAT Math | 540–640 | |
| ACT Composite | 22–28 | 24 (3%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Academics
Completion is the problem here: 16% graduate within six years. First-year retention of 80% shows the cohort holds together through the hardest year. That gap between coming back and finishing is where this school loses people — after the first year, not during it. The 45% transfer-out rate is high enough that a large share of this school's students are really passing through. A 13:1 ratio points to small classes and accessible faculty.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 2,412 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $21,618 annually once grants are applied. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $16,017 while those at $110k+ pay $28,263. Grant aid reaches 73% of students at an average of $10,896. Federal borrowing reaches 54% of students.
Entering first-year students
A different, smaller group than the rates above: full-time students in their first year of college anywhere. The grant series here also excludes the "other sources" counted in the all-undergraduate figure, so the two are not comparable.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 854 students
Net price by family income
The same students as the headline above, limited to those who received Title IV federal aid — a narrower group, with a lower overall average. IPEDS publishes no combined figure across these bands, so they should not be averaged into one.
| Family income band | Average net price |
|---|---|
| $0–30k | $16,017 |
| $30–48k | $16,546 |
| $48–75k | $19,464 |
| $75–110k | $23,562 |
| $110k+ | $28,263 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,299 of these 2,412 students, totalling $7,959,326 — an average of $6,127 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Blair County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)