Penn State was recently ranked the fifth best college investment…in Pennsylvania. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, according to Nerdwallet.com, an independent website dedicated to financial analysis, our school has proven to be the fifth best ‘Bang-for-your-buck’ university in our great commonwealth.

According to the study, NerdWallet examined four different criteria to determine their rankings. Affordability, which accounts for 50% of the score and is demonstrated by the annual price tag of attending the college. Prestige is then determined by the Forbes annual college ranking (which clocks us in at number 97), and counts for 30% of the score. Then the graduation rate and default rate on loans count for the remainder of the score.

Penn State is the first of only two state schools on the list, being beaten out by Swarthmore, U Penn, Haverford, and Lehigh in that order. It should be noted that one of the most astonishing figures represented is our 6.1% default rate on student loans, which is the highest among colleges represented by at least 2%.

Some good news for us, though, as NerdWallet shows that our college is actually one of the more affordable in our state, despite any unnecessary expenditures on cheesy advertisement campaigns.

Check out their neat graphic below or visit the study here.

About the Author

Alex Goncalves

International Politics and Latin American Studies major at Penn State, space explorer, man-child. Formerly a paleontologist-at-heart.

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