Make College Possible - Pennsylvania Treasury's 529 College Savings Program

When you invest in the GSP, your savings are guaranteed to keep up with rising tuition costs.* The GSP is unique because you save for tomorrow's college expenses at today's lower costs.

The following chart projects how saving today in the GSP beats paying later or borrowing later.

This hypothetical illustration assumes four-year tuition costs at a Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education school starting at $20,708 beginning with the 2007-08 school year, a lump sum deposit into the GSP at the beginning of the school year, a tuition inflation rate of 6.0%, and an annual interest rate of 8.5 % to repay the ten-year loan beginning in 2017.

As the chart shows, by saving now instead of paying later you can reduce the total amount you would pay by $19,850; and by saving instead of borrowing, you can reduce the total amount you would pay by $39,635.

How the GSP works

Any U.S. citizen or resident alien with a valid Social Security number or taxpayer identification number who is 18 years of age or older with a permanent address that is not a P.O. Box can open a GSP account, so long as the Account Owner or Beneficiary is a resident of Pennsylvania at the time the account is opened.
You can make a lump sum contribution, periodic contributions, or automatic contributions by payroll deduction or bank transfers.
You can contribute as little as $25, or as much as you want (up to $368,600 per Beneficiary).**
You can make contributions whenever you want.
The Pennsylvania Treasury Department places your money in the Tuition Account Guaranteed Savings Program Fund (GSP Fund), a separate fund established for the GSP by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Department invests participant contributions through professional investment managers, who buy and sell stocks, bonds and other investments with the specific goal of seeing that the growth meets or exceeds tuition increases.
Regardless of how well or poorly these investments do, your account is guaranteed to grow every year by the same percentage that tuition increases at your chosen Tuition Level. *
When your student is ready for college or career school, you tell the GSP to pay an amount from your available account balance to cover any qualified higher education expenses.
To keep track of your savings progress, you will receive quarterly statements on your account, or you can access your account information online.

* The guarantee is that, when used for qualified higher education expenses, your contributions will grow at the rate of tuition inflation at a Tuition Level that you choose. If the applicable GSP Credit Rate at the time a contribution is made has a premium, however, your rate of growth will be lower than the actual rate of tuition inflation at your Tuition Level by approximately the rate of the premium. Premiums do not, however, alter the way in which the dollar value of your account is determined. When used for qualified higher education expenses, each GSP Credit will still have the full value of the actual per credit tuition cost. The guarantee is an obligation of the Pennsylvania GSP Fund only. The guarantee is not backed by the full faith and credit of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and is not an obligation of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Treasury Department, Upromise Investments, Inc., Upromise Investment Advisors, LLC, or any other party. The GSP is not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency.

** The availability of tax or other benefits may be contingent on meeting other requirements. A withdrawal or a portion of a withdrawal not used for qualified education expenses, may be subject to federal income tax and a 10% federal penalty tax, as well as state and local income taxes.