+14%
Out-of-state tuition
Out-of-state tuition at Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus rose 14% between 2006 and 2009 ($22.7k → $25.9k).
Pennsylvania · Public · Predominantly bachelor's
Penn State
University Park, Pennsylvania. 41,862 undergraduate students. 0 programs in the federal Field-of-Study dataset.
ANOMALY ENGINE · NOTABLE SIGNALS
What the data flags at Penn State
Short-arc shifts (recent 3-year window), peer outliers, earnings trend breaks, completion drops, enrollment cliffs, and debt-to-earnings warnings — surfaced deterministically from the federal record. Multi-decade shifts are reported separately in the Long Arc section, since 25-year tuition drift isn't really an anomaly.
+18%
Public bachelor's-predominant peer
10-year earnings at Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus are 18% above the public bachelor's-predominant peer median ($63.4k vs $53.8k).
SECTION 01 · OUTCOMES SNAPSHOT
The numbers, vs. Pennsylvania
Each tile compares this institution to the Pennsylvania median for the same metric. Sub-line shows the comparison value, not an interpretation. Sparklines trace the federally available history.
$63,435+14% · 6→10y
Pennsylvania median $49,859$55,620
Treasury earnings · 6y post-entry85.7%+4% · '97→'09
Pennsylvania median 66.1%$19,500+247% · '97→'19
At program completion41,862+20% · '96→'09
latest IPEDS92.0%+1% · '04→'24
first-time, full-time54.2%+25% · '01→'24
latest cohort$20,234+201% · '00→'24
out-of-state $40,188SECTION 02 · EARNINGS HORIZONS
How earnings spread, 4 to 10 years after entry
Treasury tax-record earnings for federally aided students who first enrolled at this institution. Each point is a horizon from the most-recent vintage. Single median per horizon (no p25/p75 publishing).
Earnings widen with time post-entry. Selection: federal-aid recipients only — not all graduates.Methodology →
SECTION 03 · DEBT-TO-EARNINGS
What loans cost relative to earnings
Annual debt service as a share of median earnings 10 years after entry, computed under federal Direct loan terms (10-year fixed at 6%). The 8% line is the gainful-employment threshold from federal regulation; above 12% has historically been considered “failing” under prior rule cycles.
Institution-wide
4.1%Median federal debt $19,500 amortized over 10 years vs. median earnings $63,435 (10y after entry).
SECTION 04 · LONG ARC
Ten-plus year arc
Federally available history. Coverage varies by metric — IPEDS publishes some series only after 2009 and others only before.
Undergraduate enrollment.
150%-time completion rate.
Median federal student debt at exit.
+201%
Penn State · in-state tuition rose
$6,852 → $20,644
+80%
Penn State · out-of-state tuition rose
$14,394 → $25,946
+247%
Penn State · median debt rose
$7,212 → $25,000
-100%
Penn State · cohort default rate fell
6.1% → 0.0%
SECTION 07 · SIMILAR INSTITUTIONS
Same sector and degree mix in Pennsylvania
Picked by Carnegie sector × predominant credential level. These are not rankings — just nearest-neighbour surfaces for comparison.
CAUSAL DISCIPLINE
“Penn State graduates earn $X” — not “Penn State makes you earn $X”
Median earnings describe what cohorts earned. They do not describe what attending Penn State caused. Selection effects (who admits, who enrolls, who completes) are real. We publish federal data with strict descriptive phrasing — and link the methodology where you can read about the limitations directly.