Pennsylvania State
University-Penn State Harrisburg
Public College in Middletown, PA. Six-year graduation rate 26%. Median 10-year earnings $63,435.
A decade after enrolling, the median Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Harrisburg student earns $63,435 — comfortably above what the typical bachelor's-granting institution returns. Only 26% finish within six years, so roughly three in four students leave without the credential they enrolled for. Debt at graduation runs to a median of $25,000, neither a bargain nor a burden.
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 26% — below national average
Admissions
Admission is not the constraint here: 98% of applicants are accepted. 9,316 applications came in, enough to make the rates below reasonably stable year to year. Yield is low at 11%, so most admitted students do not end up enrolling. 23% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score. The bands below describe the middle half of that group, not of the class.
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 | 550–650 | 238 (23%) |
| SAT Math | 570–660 | |
| ACT Composite | 22–31 | 27 (3%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Academics
Only 26% finish within six years, so roughly three in four students leave without the credential. Retention is strong at 82%, and first-year attrition is where most degrees are lost. The distance between those two figures is the part worth noticing — students return for a second year at a much higher rate than they graduate, so attrition here is spread across the middle years rather than concentrated in the first. 46% of students transfer out, which reframes what the graduation rate above is measuring. The 15:1 student-faculty ratio is small enough that seminar-sized classes are the norm.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 4,154 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price after grant aid is $23,788 a year — mid-range for a four-year institution. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $16,219 at the $0–30k band to $29,834 at $110k+. Grant aid reaches 63% of students at an average of $10,745. Federal borrowing reaches 42% 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 · 1,204 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 | $16,219 |
| $30–48k | $16,221 |
| $48–75k | $21,176 |
| $75–110k | $25,103 |
| $110k+ | $29,834 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,727 of these 4,154 students, totalling $10,730,900 — an average of $6,214 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Dauphin 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)