Pennsylvania Colleges: Tuition, Debt & Earnings (2026 stats)

Analysis & insights

EDsmart Data aggregates institution-level College Scorecard data for this profile. Highlights below compare local medians to U.S. and regional benchmarks.

Costs & borrowing

Pennsylvania median public in-state tuition is $11,486, about +108.4% vs the national median. Versus the Mid East region, tuition is +55.6%.

Median graduate debt is $17,500 (+30.3% above the U.S. median of $13,432, and +34.6% vs the Mid East regional median of $13,000). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #38 nationally of 48 (lower debt = better rank); #5 in Mid East of 5 (1 = lowest median debt).

On published in-state tuition, Pennsylvania ranks #47 nationally (1 = lowest median sticker among states with data).

Earnings, employment & retention

Among bachelor's-predominant campuses with ≥200 students, median 10-year earnings in Pennsylvania are $62,101, about +14.3% vs the U.S. campus median ($54,323).

The median campus reports 87.2% of its 8-year cohort as working and not enrolled—our closest federal proxy to a placement rate. The U.S. campus median is 87.9% (-0.7 pp). Formal job-placement statistics are not published in Scorecard; treat this as a comparative outcome indicator, not a hire guarantee.

First-year, full-time retention at the median campus is 78.6% vs a U.S. median of 76.3%—a leading indicator for completion and time-to-degree.

Loan repayment indicators at the median campus: 2-yr default 4.5% (U.S. 5.0%); 3-yr repayment progress 79.3% (U.S. 73.7%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Pennsylvania ranks earnings #7 and employment proxy #30 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Westminster College (94.6%), Saint Vincent College (94.0%), Waynesburg University (93.7%), Lebanon Valley College (93.6%), Robert Morris University (93.4%), Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania (93.2%), Seton Hill University (93.1%), Thiel College (92.8%), West Chester University of Pennsylvania (92.6%), Washington & Jefferson College (92.5%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Pennsylvania, sector medians diverge: Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $59,982 (74 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $63,435 (36 campuses). Public campuses often dominate enrollment while private nonprofits can show higher earnings medians at selective institutions.

Average institution-level completion rate across all sectors in Pennsylvania is 57.9% (national institution average about 50.3%).

National Student Clearinghouse data cite roughly 1,047,644 residents with some college but no credential in Pennsylvania (YoY change 2.30%). That stock of incomplete credentials sits alongside the completion and employment metrics above.