2023 Best Value Colleges for Systems Engineering in Pennsylvania (With Aid)

With all of the options students have for higher education today, it can be tough to choose which direction to take. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Best Value Systems Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania For Those Getting Aid” ranking is part of that endeavor.

Systems Engineering is the 160th most popular major in the country with 3,904 degrees awarded in 2020-2021. In 2019-2020, systems engineering graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $89,736 and had an average of $21,799 in loans still to pay off.

Across Pennsylvania, there were 190 systems engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $96,574 and $0 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Systems Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania For Those Getting Aid” ranking looked at 2 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in systems engineering. Not only do the schools that top this list have excellent systems engineering programs, but they also cost less that schools of similar quality.

To come up with these rankings, we looked at factors such as the cost to attend the school after aid is awarded and overall quality of the systems engineering program at the school. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Best Value Systems Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania For Those Getting Aid” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our tool, College Combat. If you’re torn between two schools, you can use it to help you see how they stack up against one another. Bookmark it so you can compare any new schools that might interest you.

Best Value Systems Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania For Those Getting Aid

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Systems Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania For Those Getting Aid.

Top 2 Best Value Colleges for Systems Engineering in Pennsylvania (With Aid)

1

University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

#1 in overall quality

$25,046 Average Net Price

$81,207 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Pennsylvania. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Best Value Systems Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania For Those Getting Aid list. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this large private not-for-profit school awarded 81 degrees to qualified ’s systems engineering students in 2020-2021.

In addition to being on our pennsylvania systems engineering students with aid list, UPenn has also earned the #1 rank in our “Best Systems Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania” ranking. The yearly cost to attend University of Pennsylvania is $25,046 for pennsylvania systems engineering students with aid.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 95%. The impressive undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools. The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 0.9%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Systems Engineering at UPenn

2

Drexel University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

#2 in overall quality

$35,963 Average Net Price

$60,176 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Drexel University. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Systems Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania For Those Getting Aid. Drexel is a large school located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that handed out 20 ’s systems engineering degrees in 2020-2021.

Drexel not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #2 on our “Best Systems Engineering Schools in Pennsylvania” list. It costs about $35,963 for pennsylvania systems engineering students with aid per year to attend Drexel.

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%. Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 88%.

Read full report on Systems Engineering at Drexel

• Best Value Colleges for Systems Engineering in the Middle Atlantic Region (With Aid)
• Best Value Colleges for Systems Engineering (With Aid)

Notes and References

References

• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Average salary, average net price, and average tuition and fees are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to luis gomes.