2022 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Astronomy & Astrophysics in Pennsylvania

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. At College Factual, we’re committed to helping you make that decision by providing information such as that found in our “Best Value Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania” ranking.

Astronomy & Astrophysics is the 222nd most popular major in the country with 1,268 degrees awarded in 2019-2020. In 2017-2018, astronomy and astrophysics graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $27,700 and had an average of $21,346 in loans still to pay off.

Across Pennsylvania, there were 26 astronomy and astrophysics graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 26 astronomy and astrophysics graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania” ranking looked at 2 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in astronomy and astrophysics. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have great astronomy and astrophysics programs and 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 astronomy and astrophysics program at the school. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

More Ways to Rank Astronomy & Astrophysics Schools

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 Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania” list to help you make the college decision.

In addition to College Factual’s rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you. We encourage you to try it out and pit your favorite colleges and universities head to head! If you don’t have time right now, you can bookmark it for later.

Best Value Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania.

Top 2 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Astronomy & Astrophysics in Pennsylvania

#1

University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

#2 in overall quality

$27,938 Average Net Price

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus. It ranked #1 on our 2022 Best Value Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania list. This large school is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and it awarded 1 bachelors’s astronomy degrees in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Pitt, the school also landed the #2 spot in our “Best Astronomy & Astrophysics Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus is $27,938 for Pennsylvania Bachelor’s Degree Astronomy students.

With a freshman retention rate of 93%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students. The student loan default rate at the school is 3.5%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Astronomy & Astrophysics at University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus

#2

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

#1 in overall quality

$34,508 Average Net Price

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Carnegie Mellon University. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is the setting for this fairly large institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out bachelors’s astronomy degrees to 2 students in 2019-2020.

Carnegie Mellon not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #1 on our “Best Astronomy & Astrophysics Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” list. It costs about $34,508 for pennsylvania bachelor’s degree astronomy students per year to attend Carnegie Mellon.

The student loan default rate at the school is 0.6%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 96%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. With a student-to-faculty ratio of 5 to 1, it’s easy to see that the school is committed to helping their undergraduates succeed.

Read full report on Astronomy & Astrophysics at Carnegie Mellon

• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Astronomy & Astrophysics in the Middle Atlantic Region
• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Astronomy & Astrophysics

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.

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