Philly Colleges with Highest Salary Potential

Which Philadelphia-area colleges lead to the highest salaries? PayScale has the answers in its recently released College Salary Report. It ranked more than 1,000 colleges by the median salaries of alumni (early career and mid-career) who obtained bachelor’s degrees. The rankings come from “millions of people” who have taken the PayScale Salary Survey, the organization said.

“Unless you want to live in your parents’ basement for the rest of your life, you want to pick a school that prepares you for a successful career, both in terms of getting hired and equipping you with the skills to properly do your job,” said PayScale.

Earlier in the year, PayScale ranked all colleges by return-on-investment. And a local school ranked No. 1 in the nation for business and economics careers.

Check out the following table for information on this year’s College Salary Report. (Note that “High Meaning” denotes the percentage of alumni who say their work makes the world a better place; and “STEM” denotes the percentage of alumni who earned degrees in science, technology, math or engineering.)

Rank	College	Early Career Pay	Mid-Career Pay	% High Meaning	% STEM
10 (tie)	University of Pennsylvania	$60,300	$120,000	55%	19%
32 (tie)	Swarthmore College	$48,000	$109,000	51%	25%
59 (tie)	Villanova University	$55,300	$101,000	46%	21%
113 (tie)	Drexel University	$55,500	$92,900	44%	32%
169 (tie)	St. Joseph's University	$48,300	$88,700	47%	7%
209 (tie)	Widener University	$46,000	$86,300	62%	14%
251 (tie)	Ursinus College	$41,900	$84,300	31%	23%
273 (tie)	La Salle University	$46,200	$83,300	47%	6%
294	Rutgers University-Camden	$43,500	$82,200	49%	9%
320 (tie)	Thomas Jefferson University	$61,700	$81,100	85%	N/A
344 (tie)	Holy Family University	$43,600	$79,900	66%	3%
364	Temple University	$45,400	$79,100	50%	10%
393	Cabrini College	$39,500	$78,100	60%	8%
446 (tie)	West Chester University	$42,300	$76,400	59%	7%
739 (tie)	University of the Arts	$40,800	$67,100	44%	N/A