If you pursue a bachelor's degree in economics, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #15 most popular program in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
College Factual looked at 22 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Economics Bachelor's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,900 bachelor's degrees in economics during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Economics School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The economics bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on economics students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of economics students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How easy is it for economics to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized economics related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for economics students working on their bachelor's degree.
The economics school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Economics Bachelor's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
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University of Pennsylvania is a wonderful option for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in economics. Located in the city of Philadelphia, UPenn is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the economics major at University of Pennsylvania earn $30,463 more than the standard college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Carnegie Mellon University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in economics. Located in the large city of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the economics degree program at Carnegie Mellon University make $27,650 more than the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in economics has to look into Swarthmore College. Swarthmore is a small private not-for-profit college located in the large suburb of Swarthmore.
Those economics students who get their bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College receive $18,310 more than the typical economics grad.
Villanova University is a great option for students interested in a bachelor's degree in economics. Located in the large suburb of Villanova, Villanova is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Those economics students who get their bachelor's degree from Villanova University earn $8,431 more than the typical economics student.
Located in the town of Lewisburg, Bucknell is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the economics major at Bucknell University get $12,312 above the standard college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Lafayette is a small private not-for-profit college located in the suburb of Easton.
Bachelor's recipients from the economics program at Lafayette College make $9,530 more than the standard college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the city of Philadelphia, Drexel is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from Drexel University get an earnings boost of about $12,333 above the average earnings of economics graduates.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
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 the rest 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).
The economics bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
