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2024 Best Value Colleges for Software Engineering in Pennsylvania

5 Ranked Colleges
288 Degrees Awarded
$29,700 Avg Net Price*
Best Value Computer Software Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania

It’s not easy to decide which college to attend when there so many options available for students. At College Factual, we’re committed to helping you make that decision by providing information such as that found in our “Best Value Computer Software Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania” ranking.

Software Engineering is the 167th most popular major in the country with 4,251 degrees awarded in 2020-2021.

Across Pennsylvania, there were 288 software engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Computer Software Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania” ranking, we looked at 5 colleges that offer a degree in software engineering. Not only do the schools that top this list have excellent software engineering programs, but they also cost less that schools of similar quality.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the software engineering program at the school and the cost of the school after aid is awarded among other things. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

More Ways to Rank Software Engineering Schools

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When choosing the right school for you, it’s important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we’ve created a number of major-specific rankings, including this “Best Value Computer Software Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania” list to help you make the college decision.

We’ve created a tool called College Combat that lets you create your own customized comparisons based on the factors that matter the most to you. Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.

Best Value Computer Software Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Computer Software Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania.

Top 5 Best Value Colleges for Software Engineering in Pennsylvania

1

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology. It ranked #1 on our 2024 Best Value Computer Software Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania list. Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology is a public institution located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The school has a small population, and it awarded 16 ’s degrees in 2020-2021.

Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #4 on our “Best Software Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania” list. The yearly cost to attend Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology is $9,421 for pennsylvania computer software engineering students.

Read more about Software Engineering at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology

2
Villanova crest
Villanova University
Villanova, Pennsylvania

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Villanova University. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Computer Software Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania. Villanova, Pennsylvania is the setting for this fairly large institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out ’s computer software engineering degrees to 21 students in 2020-2021.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Villanova, the school also landed the #2 spot in our “Best Software Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania” ranking. It costs about $43,577 for pennsylvania computer software engineering students per year to attend Villanova.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 96%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The low undergrad student loan default rate of 0.9% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.

Full Villanova Software Engineering Report

3
Ship crest
Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania
Shippensburg, Pennsylvania

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. The school came in at #3 for the Best Value Computer Software Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania. Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania is a medium-sized school located in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania that handed out 16 ’s computer software engineering degrees in 2020-2021.

Ship did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #5 on our “Best Software Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania” list. The estimated yearly cost for Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania is $23,006 for Pennsylvania Computer Software Engineering students.

The low undergrad student loan default rate of 4.8% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.

Read full report on Software Engineering at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania

4
Drexel crest
Drexel University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Out of the 5 schools in the Best Value Computer Software Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania that were part of this year’s ranking, Drexel University landed the #4 spot on the list. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out ’s computer software engineering degrees to 47 students in 2020-2021.

In addition to being on our pennsylvania computer software engineering students list, Drexel has also earned the #3 rank in our “Best Software Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Drexel University is $35,963 for Pennsylvania Computer Software Engineering students.

The low undergrad student loan default rate of 1.9% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 90%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The impressive undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 10 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools.

Read more about Software Engineering at Drexel

5
Carnegie Mellon crest
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Out of the 5 schools in the Best Value Computer Software Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania that were part of this year’s ranking, Carnegie Mellon University landed the #5 spot on the list. Carnegie Mellon University is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and, has a fairly large student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 144 ’s computer software engineering degrees to qualified students.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Carnegie Mellon, the school also landed the #1 spot in our “Best Software Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania” ranking. The yearly cost to attend Carnegie Mellon is $36,775 for Pennsylvania Computer Software Engineering students.

With a freshman retention rate of 97%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students. The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 0.7%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. Since the school has a undergrad student-to-faculty ratio of 5 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors.

Full Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Report

Notes and References

References

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

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