Pennsylvania State
University-Penn State Berks
Public College in Reading, PA. Six-year graduation rate 30%. Median 10-year earnings $63,435.
Students who entered Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Berks reach a median of $63,435 ten years later, which puts this school in the upper band of undergraduate earnings outcomes. Completion is the weak point: 30% graduate within six years. 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 30% — below national average
Admissions
With an acceptance rate of 99%, Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Berks takes nearly everyone who applies. 6,030 students applied in the most recent cycle — a mid-sized pool drawn mostly from the surrounding region. Only 9% of admitted students enroll — the great majority of admits go elsewhere or nowhere. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 25% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, and test-optional applicants are not represented in them.
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 | 550–640 | 140 (25%) |
| SAT Math | 540–635 | |
| ACT Composite | 18–27 | 7 (1%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Academics
Only 30% finish within six years, so roughly two in three students leave without the credential. Retention of 77% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. Retention runs well ahead of completion, which means students are not leaving immediately; they are leaving somewhere between the second year and the finish line. 35% of students transfer out, which reframes what the graduation rate above is measuring. At 13:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,887 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $23,721 annually once grants are applied. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $16,429 while those at $110k+ pay $29,541. 67% of students receive grant aid, averaging $10,050 — common but not automatic. 53% of students take federal loans, a middling borrowing rate.
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 · 586 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 | $16,429 |
| $30–48k | $15,862 |
| $48–75k | $23,583 |
| $75–110k | $25,465 |
| $110k+ | $29,541 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,004 of these 1,887 students, totalling $6,161,487 — an average of $6,137 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Berks 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)