Pennsylvania College Enrollment Among the Worst in the Nation

Pennsylvania college enrollment numbers are declining, but by how much? According to new research released from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, it's going down a lot. The decrease in enrollment wasn't just during the pandemic, either. Here are the numbers.

Before we get to Pennsylvania, let's look at some national trends. Overall, female enrollment declined by 1.2 percent (-118,000 students) while male enrollment grew by 0.4 percent (+25,000 students), according to the study. Also, most of the states follow the same "national trend, with slowing declines, stabilization, or growth over last spring. Both multi-state institutions and primarily online institutions (POIs), which are not included in individual states, regained the enrollments they lost last year, returning to spring 2021 levels."

Finally, one booming field is computer science. According to the study, "computer science undergraduate programs at four-year institutions reached their highest rate of growth in three years (+11.6%, +62,000 students) in spring 2023. At two-year institutions, computer science enrollments are now above pre-pandemic levels, reversing three years of flat or declining numbers."

Pennsylvania's colleges and universities experienced enrollment drops more than four times larger than the average decline in the U.S., according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. In Pennsylvania, spring college enrollment for 2023 dropped 2.6% over 2022. Nationally, college enrollment went down just 0.5% over that same time, so a major difference. As for the hard numbers, overall college enrollment in Pennsylvania for the spring was at 585,758. One bright glimmer of hope is that the rate of decline isn't as steep as in previous years. In spring 2021, the rate was -3.5%, and in spring 2022, it was -3.3%. Find the full report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center here.

Each year, U.S. News & World Report comes out with its rankings for the best colleges in the United States. Pennsylvania, of course, is known for having great colleges and universities, so it's no surprise that the Mitten is a often a favorite on the list.

Now, U.S. News & World Report has released its 2022-2023 Best Colleges rankings, and a whopping 46 colleges and universities in Pennsylvania were ranked among the best. So which schools were on top?

U.S. News has been publishing this guide of the best colleges across the U.S. for almost 40 years. According to a release, methodology has evolved over the years to reflect changes in higher education, says Kim Castro, editor and chief content officer at U.S. News. U.S. News prides itself on offering a ranking for millions of parents with "useful data and information to help with one of life's biggest decisions," Castro said.

In this year's study, U.S. News ranked a massive 1,500 colleges and universities in 17 academic measures. When going about ranking, U.S. News first put each school into a category based on its mission and, sometimes, its geographic location. There are also different lists for different kinds of universities. National universities are research-heavy and have several doctoral programs, while liberal arts colleges are ranked separately.

Regarding Pennsylvania's colleges, U.S. News states, "More than 100 four-year, degree-granting institutions for which U.S. News has information are located throughout Pennsylvania, including a mix of large research universities, midsize colleges, small liberal arts schools and several specialty schools. Among the specialty schools in Pennsylvania are art schools, seminaries and health sciences institutions. Many colleges and universities in Pennsylvania are located in the major cities of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, the latter being the fifth-largest city in the U.S. Dozens of top colleges and universities in Pennsylvania are publicly funded, including Pennsylvania State University—University Park, one of the largest universities in the U.S. with more than 39,000 undergraduate students." Read on for 10 Pennsylvania colleges and universities that made the cut.

This list is via US News & World Report.

Duquesne University is one of the nation's top Catholic universities. It's a regular on this list.

https://www.duq.edu/

On their website, they state, "Our Philadelphia campuses are tradition-breakers and beautiful places to learn. We cross the city and the suburbs." It is a beautiful campus!

https://www.jefferson.edu/

Temple University is a public state-related research university located in Philly.

Drexel University has a rich history and was founded back in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel.

https://drexel.edu/

Everyone knows Penn State. It's a a major, public, research-I university serving Pennsylvania and the global community, as they state on their site.

https://www.psu.edu/

The University of Pittsburgh is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh.

https://www.pitt.edu/

They're the only Augustinian Catholic university in the nation. Not to mention a great basketball team.

https://www1.villanova.edu/university.html

Lehigh is recognized among the nation's premier research universities.

https://www1.lehigh.edu/

The famed Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university based in Pittsburgh.

https://www.cmu.edu/

No big surprise that this is No. 1. The University of Pennsylvania is a private Ivy League research university in Philly that gets recognized all the time for its excellence in academics.

https://www.upenn.edu/