Ranked, compared, and filtered by real data: costs, outcomes, and admissions
Pennsylvania has more private colleges than almost any other state in the country, and the range is genuinely impressive. Penn State anchors the public system with one of the largest alumni networks in the world, while Carnegie Mellon, Penn, Pitt, Villanova, Drexel, and Temple give Philadelphia and Pittsburgh competitive private and public options at multiple price points.
The density of hospital systems in both cities makes nursing, medicine, and public health programs particularly strong and particularly well-connected to actual employment.
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See how Pennsylvania's colleges compare to the national average on the four measures most students and families weigh when deciding where to go: cost, acceptance rates, graduate earnings, and graduation rates.
The colleges in Pennsylvania that rank highest by UCD Score, and those that deliver above-national graduate earnings at a below-average net price, two of the strongest signals when choosing a school.
Not every student is looking for the same thing. These six panels rank Pennsylvania's colleges by the data that matters most for each path.
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by net price
Ranked by enrollment
Ranked by grad earnings
Which colleges give you the most for what you spend? These eight schools rank highest in Pennsylvania by the ratio of 10-year graduate earnings to annual net price.
| # | College | Net Price / yr | Earnings (10yr) | Ratio | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valley Forge Military College Wayne | $6,398 | $50,798 | 7.9× | Excellent |
| 2 | Bucks County Community College Newtown | $6,389 | $47,324 | 7.4× | Excellent |
| 3 | Westmoreland County Community College Youngwood | $5,167 | $37,439 | 7.3× | Excellent |
| 4 | Delaware County Community College Media | $6,576 | $45,391 | 6.9× | Excellent |
| 5 | Community College of Beaver County Monaca | $6,937 | $45,090 | 6.5× | Excellent |
| 6 | Pennsylvania Highlands Community College Johnstown | $6,200 | $38,752 | 6.3× | Excellent |
| 7 | Butler County Community College Butler | $6,233 | $38,891 | 6.2× | Excellent |
| 8 | University of Pittsburgh-Titusville Titusville | $11,150 | $66,125 | 5.9× | Excellent |
ROI Ratio = median earnings 10 years after enrollment ÷ annual net price. Higher is better.
The six fields of study with the most annual graduates across all colleges in Pennsylvania, based on IPEDS completion data.
The specific degree programs producing the most graduates across Pennsylvania's colleges. A more granular view than the Popular Majors above, useful when you already know roughly what you want to study and want to see where the volume is.
Careers with a strong employment footprint in Pennsylvania. What graduates from local colleges actually go on to do. State-level employment is shown where the BLS publishes it; national wage + growth shown alongside.
The cities in Pennsylvania with the most colleges, ranked by number of institutions.
A four-year public college costs about $8,000 a year in Florida and about $20,000 in Pennsylvania. The same kind of school, two and a half times the price, by state.
Utah crowds 14,137 students into each of its colleges, four times the national norm. These are the states where college options are scarcest per student.
There are 170 colleges that operate a medical school, and they cluster hard. Texas leads with 14, three states hold a fifth of them, and four states have none.
Browse our full directory: every college, major, program, and career we track, all built from verified government data.
Scout uses AI and can make mistakes. Verify important numbers on the page.
