Graduate school may be a critical step in your higher education, whether you are interested in expanding your knowledge, learning a specialization, or earning advanced credentials required by your profession. The best graduate schools in Pennsylvania offer advanced degrees, such as master’s and doctoral degrees, as well as opportunities for independent research, mentorships, and professional networking.
Prospective students hoping to earn an associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree have over 100 higher learning institutions to choose from. The largest public university is Pennsylvania State University, or Penn State, with a tuition of $18,000, and a student population of over 95,000 across its campuses. As a private institution, the University of Pennsylvania, or simply Penn, is known for its medical, nursing, social work, and business fields. Tuition is $56,000, and the school boasts a 95% graduation rate.
Find college admissions consultants in your state.
Students can also attend one of the more than 60 religiously affiliated schools, such as Villanova University or Lafayette College, each with a tuition of about $53,000. Some of the most affordable colleges in the state include the Curtis Institute of Music and the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia, with tuitions set at $3,000 and $9,000, respectively. Though the average tuition for college in Pennsylvania comes in above the national average, those who practice medicine in underserved areas may qualify for up to $100,000 in loan forgiveness through the Pennsylvania Primary Care Loan Repayment Program.
As the nation’s second state, Pennsylvania’s history runs deep. It’s here where Betsy Ross made the first American flag and where the Declaration of Independence was signed. The Keystone State is also home to some culinary delights, including whoopie pies, soft pretzels, and the famous Philly cheesesteak. Students looking to earn their degree in Pennsylvania will undoubtedly enjoy what the state has to offer.
Check out the state’s top programs and learn more about earning your degree in Pennsylvania.
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There are 35 doctorate-granting universities in Pennsylvania. The top 25 graduate schools below are composed of both private and public schools that satisfy the following four conditions:
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great. This is why influence gets at the heart of what is truly best in education. At the undergraduate level, the best colleges and universities are those with the highest concentration of influence. Our Concentrated Influence metric adjusts overall influence by size of undergraduate student body, thus allowing smaller schools to compete with larger schools so long as they have proportionately as strong influential faculty and alums.
But at the graduate level, the combined influence score of a college or university’s top academic influencers is the best indicator of academic excellence. Overall influence, and not influence controlled by other variables, thus becomes the best gauge of academic excellence at the graduate level. Where smaller size is an advantage at the undergraduate level (hence Concentrated Influence), graduate studies benefit from a large and vibrant community of graduate students, who promise to become the new generation of academic influencers.
If you are serious about finding the best graduate schools, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching, and whether their graduates themselves are advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence. Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Influence, as measured by our InfluenceRanking engine, provides a ranking that is free from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
Find out more about our methodology here.
Less Tuition + fees
$58K
Acceptance
9%
Graduation
96%
Student body
28K
Median SAT/ACT
1505/34
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University of Pennsylvania’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$57K
Acceptance
17%
Graduation
93%
Student body
16K
Median SAT/ACT
1510/34
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Carnegie Mellon University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$20K
Acceptance
64%
Graduation
84%
Student body
27K
Median SAT/ACT
1350/30
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University of Pittsburgh’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$18K
Acceptance
76%
Graduation
69%
Student body
47K
Median SAT/ACT
1190/26
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Pennsylvania State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$17K
Acceptance
71%
Graduation
75%
Student body
33K
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Temple University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$55K
Acceptance
77%
Graduation
71%
Student body
23K
Median SAT/ACT
1290/28
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Drexel University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$54K
Acceptance
38%
Graduation
85%
Student body
2K
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Bryn Mawr College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$55K
Acceptance
50%
Graduation
88%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1365/31
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Lehigh University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$55K
Acceptance
31%
Graduation
92%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1395/32
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Villanova University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$38K
Acceptance
92%
Graduation
64%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1119/23
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Wilkes University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$42K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
70%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1165/24
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Thomas Jefferson University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$40K
Acceptance
77%
Graduation
79%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1215/25
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Duquesne University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
93%
Graduation
54%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1015/19
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Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$47K
Acceptance
75%
Graduation
65%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1125/22
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Widener University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$46K
Acceptance
79%
Graduation
82%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1215/26
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University of Scranton’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$47K
Acceptance
80%
Graduation
81%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1210/26
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Saint Joseph's University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
55%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1085/22
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Point Park University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$44K
Acceptance
74%
Graduation
65%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1145/24
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Arcadia University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
86%
Graduation
75%
Student body
16K
Median SAT/ACT
1120/23
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West Chester University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$34K
Acceptance
64%
Graduation
58%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1130/23
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Eastern University ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
74%
Graduation
69%
Student body
9K
Median SAT/ACT
1085/21
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Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$15K
Student body
5K
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Penn State Harrisburg’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$34K
Acceptance
79%
Graduation
68%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1135/22
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Gannon University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$31K
Acceptance
86%
Graduation
69%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1115/24
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Robert Morris University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$26K
Acceptance
97%
Graduation
73%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1080/21
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Lancaster Bible College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
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