-45%
Undergraduate enrollment
Undergraduate enrollment fell 45% at Penn Commercial Business/Technical School vs the 2003–2007 baseline (223 vs 403).
Pennsylvania · Private for-profit · Predominantly certificates
Penn Commercial Business/Technical School
Washington, Pennsylvania. 223 undergraduate students. 16 programs in the federal Field-of-Study dataset.
ANOMALY ENGINE · NOTABLE SIGNALS
What the data flags at Penn Commercial Business/Technical School
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.
+25%
Out-of-state tuition
Out-of-state tuition at Penn Commercial Business/Technical School rose 25% between 2006 and 2009 ($16.0k → $20.0k).
+13%
In-state tuition
In-state tuition at Penn Commercial Business/Technical School rose 13% between 2021 and 2024 ($12.1k → $13.7k).
-9pp
150%-time completion
150%-time completion fell 9 pp at Penn Commercial Business/Technical School vs the 2003–2007 baseline (72.7% vs 81.3%).
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.
$31,736+5% · 6→10y
Pennsylvania median $49,859$30,177
Treasury earnings · 6y post-entry72.7%+53% · '97→'09
Pennsylvania median 66.1%$8,904+90% · '97→'20
At program completion223+244% · '96→'09
latest IPEDS90.0%+2% · '04→'24
first-time, full-time73.3%-35% · '03→'24
latest cohort$13,654+81% · '01→'24
out-of-state $13,654SECTION 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
3.7%Median federal debt $8,904 amortized over 10 years vs. median earnings $31,736 (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.
+53%
Penn Commercial Business/Technical School · completion · 150% rose
57.0% → 87.1%
+180%
Penn Commercial Business/Technical School · undergrad enrollment rose
147 → 506
+81%
Penn Commercial Business/Technical School · in-state tuition rose
$7,540 → $13,654
+165%
Penn Commercial Business/Technical School · out-of-state tuition rose
$7,540 → $20,000
+90%
Penn Commercial Business/Technical School · median debt rose
$6,125 → $11,638
-100%
Penn Commercial Business/Technical School · cohort default rate fell
16.7% → 0.0%
-30%
Penn Commercial Business/Technical School · pell share fell
59.1% → 41.3%
SECTION 05 · PROGRAMS
Ranked by 5-year earnings
Each row is one (CIP × credential) program reported by the institution in College Scorecard's Field-of-Study data. Cohort floor is 30 students; below this, federal data is suppressed.
SECTION 06 · BY CIP FAMILY
3 programs with earnings, grouped
Programs are grouped by 2-digit CIP family. Programs without reported earnings are hidden to keep the list focused.
PERSONAL & CULINARY SERVICES · CIP 12
CONSTRUCTION TRADES · CIP 46
MECHANIC & REPAIR TECHNOLOGIES · CIP 47
FINANCIAL OUTCOME · ILLUSTRATION
Estimate the financial outcome at Penn Commercial Business/Technical School
Pick a program. Cost from Scorecard net price by family income; earnings from Treasury 5-year-post-completion median, projected forward with a Mincer age-earnings curve. The selection-bias toggle applies the Dale-Krueger shrinkage. Outcomes illustration, not a forecast — see methodology.
Shrinks the earnings premium toward the matched-applicant mean. STEM <15%, business ~40%, arts & education ~60%.
NET PRESENT VALUE
-$245,214
Over 40 years, discounted 5.0%
BREAKEVEN
—
Doesn’t reach breakeven within the horizon
- Cost per year
- $17,306
- HS-only baseline · PA
- $38,100
- Years to complete
- 1
- CIP family
- 12
Outcomes illustration · not a forecast. Projects observed Scorecard earnings forward with a Mincer age-earnings curve under your assumptions. See methodology for the math.
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 Commercial Business/Technical School graduates earn $X” — not “Penn Commercial Business/Technical School makes you earn $X”
Median earnings describe what cohorts earned. They do not describe what attending Penn Commercial Business/Technical School 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.