With years of state budget cuts to higher education adversely affecting the cost and quality of schools and research showing that public institutions can outperform private colleges in terms of graduates’ career outcomes, the personal-finance website WalletHub released its 2018’s Best College & University Rankings, along with separate rankings for colleges and universities.

To help college-bound seniors choose the best schools within their states, WalletHub’s analysts compared nearly 1,000 higher-education institutions in the U.S. based on 26 key measures grouped into seven categories, such as Student Selectivity, Cost & Financing and Career Outcomes. The data set ranges from student-faculty ratio to graduation rate to post-attendance median salary.

Top 10 Colleges & Universities in Pennsylvania

With that in mind, here’s a closer look at some of the top schools and how each performed in certain metrics:

School Snapshot: University of Pennsylvania (1 = Best; 32 = Average; 63 = Worst)

• 1^st – Admission Rate
• 58^th – Net Cost
• 1^st – Student-Faculty Ratio
• 8^th – On-Campus Crime
• 3^rd – Gender & Racial Diversity
• 5^th – Graduation Rate
• 1^st – Post-Attendance Median Salary

School Snapshot: Swarthmore College (1 = Best; 32 = Average; 63 = Worst)

• 2^nd – Admission Rate
• 54^th – Net Cost
• 2^nd – Student-Faculty Ratio
• 62^nd – On-Campus Crime
• 2^nd – Gender & Racial Diversity
• 1^st – Graduation Rate
• 15^th – Post-Attendance Median Salary

School Snapshot: Carnegie Mellon University (1 = Best; 32 = Average; 63 = Worst)

• 4^th – Admission Rate
• 63^rd – Net Cost
• 9^th – Student-Faculty Ratio
• 9^th – On-Campus Crime
• 1^st – Gender & Racial Diversity
• 9^th – Graduation Rate
• 2^nd – Post-Attendance Median Salary

To view the full reports, please visit:

Best Colleges & Universities Overall: https://wallethub.com/edu/college-rankings/40750/

Best Colleges: https://wallethub.com/edu/best-colleges-in-the-us-ranking/40748/

Best Universities: https://wallethub.com/edu/best-universities-in-usa-ranking/39704/

Please let me know if you have any questions or if you would like to schedule a phone, Skype or in-studio interview with one of our experts. Full data sets for specific colleges and universities are also available upon request.