True cost of attendace @ UPenn

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Regarding outside scholarships and UPenn, you can actually reduce your expected family contribution, to a point:

When you receive an outside scholarship, i.e. scholarships awarded from non-governmental sources outside the University, you will receive a dollar for dollar reduction in the self-help component of your financial aid package. Self-help includes expected savings from summer earnings and Federal Work-Study. University grant will be reduced only after all self-help has been eliminated.

So if the work study is around $2K (not part of your EFC, usually a part of the offered package) and the student contribution is around $2K, you can knock those off with outside scholarships. Penn doesn’t package student loans so you can often take one to help pay your EFC if necessary.