College profile
Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Beaver
PA · Public · Large suburb · 1,603 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- The payoff holds even at full price: roughly 6× over a decade. With no aid at all — the full in-state ~$26,210/yr — a decade of median earnings (~$63,435/yr) still runs about 6× the four-year cost. This payoff doesn't depend on qualifying for anything. (Out-of-state costs more.)
- Built for the AI economy. About 1 in 8 degrees here is already in AI, computer science, or data fields. This campus is leaning into the shift, not waiting for it.
- Worth asking: do students finish? Only 22% graduate within six years here — the standard federal measure. Ask what drives that: course availability, transfers out, students working long hours. Not finishing is the costliest outcome there is.
Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.
Parent/student verdict
AccessibleAccessible for most applicants. Affordable — net price averages ~$17,418/yr among aid recipients. Major value play for in-state residents.
Best for
- Solid academic profiles — the admitted-student bands above are within reach for strong students
- In-state residents (tuition ~$14,408 — major value play)
- Students drawn to Business, Management, & Marketing or Psychology (the two biggest majors)
- Families wanting a small liberal-arts experience
The reality
- You'd be near the bottom of their admitted class if: SAT below 1050, or ACT below 21, or unweighted GPA below ~3.50 (test bands are the school's own; the GPA floor is our estimate, not a published figure)
Verdict is composed from this college's structured data (admit rate, SAT bands, net price with aid and at full price, Carnegie classification, scholarship grids) using transparent rule thresholds — not a chat-bot's opinion.
What are your child's odds here?
Enter their numbers once — this and every college page shows their verdict, and the UC campus cards on California school pages light up with it too. Free, no email.
Weighted is the higher GPA, with honors/AP credit in it — pick whichever your school reports. PSAT scores work in the SAT box.
Institutional snapshot
What kind of college is this?
24% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 5% an ACT — these ranges describe students who submitted, not the whole class.
Source: federal IPEDS Admissions 2023 for scores + admit rate; federal College Scorecard (20260606 vintage) for earnings + outcomes. SAT/ACT bands are the 25th–75th percentile of enrolled submitters.
Outcomes & cost
What graduates actually earn, finish, and owe.
Federal College Scorecard data. Earnings are median annual income measured years after entering. Debt is for federal-aid borrowers only (cash-pay students aren't counted).
The real cost
What Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Beaver actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Beaver's own aid decision: the gap between its price and your family's finances.
Your odds + estimated cost across your whole college list, side by side.
The payoffTen years of typical graduate pay minus four years of cost — how many dollars ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten. Check both the full-price and with-aid versions to see which applies to you; median pay reflects who a college admits and what they study as much as the college itself., both ways
+$530K ahead at full price +$565K with aidSource: College Scorecard (average net price among Title IV first-time, full-time undergraduates who received aid) and each college's published cost of attendance. We don't show the federal net-price-by-income brackets: their categories were fixed in 2008 and never adjusted, and none of the averages is your family's own number — the full story. Payoff = (10-yr median earnings × 10) − (4 years of cost), in dollars — how far ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten; medians travel with the students a college admits and the majors they choose as much as with the college itself. Full price is the published cost of attendance, largely in-state for publics; earnings are 10 years after enrollment, all majors combined.
What students study here
Most popular majors at Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Beaver
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Beaver actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Beaver's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Information Science/Studies. | $91,671 |
| Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing. | $91,032 |
| Human Resources Management and Services. | $81,755 |
| Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences. | $81,092 |
| Health and Medical Administrative Services. | $75,396 |
| Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods. | $73,308 |
| Business/Commerce, General. | $65,292 |
| Biology, General. | $64,910 |
| Criminal Justice and Corrections. | $56,877 |
| Communication and Media Studies. | $55,505 |
Sources: IPEDS Completions (C2023_a; bachelor's-level first majors, 2-digit CIP family — share is of the top 5 only) · College Scorecard program-level outcomes (PP-FOS). Full college-vs-major comparison: /college-outcomes →
Student body & economic mobility
Who attends here — and what the campus adds.
Opportunity Insights data. It measures two things at once: how many lower-income students a college enrols, and how many of them reach the top earnings quintile later. A high rate says the college does both — it does not establish that the campus caused the earnings, because the students it admits differ from the students it doesn't. Read it as a signal about access and destination, not as proof of value added.
Full leaderboards: /college-mobility →
Alternatives to Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Beaver
Matched not just by selectivity, but by strategic goal — what a family actually decides on.
Or compare any college side-by-side
Deciding on Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Beaver?
Get the full picture in one free report — your child's Reach / Competitive / Match / Likely odds and your real net price, for Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Beaver and every other college on your list.
Get your child's odds at Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Beaver →Score-odds calculator · Improve the score first · Find merit aid
For Parents
Get alerts when Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Beaver's numbers change
New admit rates, costs, and outcomes — a few alerts a year, no spam. Your email also saves your list across devices.
Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement.
At a glance
JSON · Using this page with an AI assistantPennsylvania State University-Penn State Beaver is a public four-year college in PA. It admitted 92% of applicants (1,603 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted that test: SAT 1050–1320, ACT 21–26. 24% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 5% an ACT — these ranges describe students who submitted, not the whole class.
Cost: about $17,418 a year on average with aid, $26,210 a year at full price for in-state students.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $63,435 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $564,678 ahead with aid, $529,510 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Information Science/Studies ($91,671); Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing ($91,032); Human Resources Management and Services ($81,755).
Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 6% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 30% of those reached the top fifth as adults.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-beaver.json