Pennsylvania Ranks 2nd on Average as a Top Destination for Out-of-State College Students
Pennsylvania is the 2nd top destination for out-of-state college students in the USA, on average, based on 34 years of government data. It may come as a surprise to many, but Pennsylvania even beats California, Florida, DC, and many other popular destinations for young scholars. 2 in 3 of these students who are moving to Pennsylvania come to attend one of the state's 85 independent nonprofit colleges and universities (also called "AICUP").
The 34 years of information pull from 17 data points from 1988-2022, compiled by the US Department of Education's "IPEDS," or Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (like a census, this IPEDS data is not pulled every year, and presented only 17 years of data points between 1988-2022).
Pennsylvania (also called "PA") remained in the top 3 places in all of those years, in a close competition among only PA, Massachusetts, and New York. In 2 of those years, 2004 and 2002, Pennsylvania was even number one in the entire country. Overall, on average, Pennsylvania remains the 2nd most popular destination for out-of-state college students. This counts 50 states and also the District of Columbia (DC).
Read the recent NPR / PBS story on this same topic from WHYY Philadelphia, made in conjunction with AICUP, here:
https://whyy.org/articles/pennsylvania-freshman-out-of-state-students/
Data source: IPEDS, US Department of Education.
See the data summary in the original press release, here: https://aicup.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Moving-to-Pennsylvania-for-College-_-9.10.24.pdf
Direct to data (also included in the data summary above): https://aicup.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/AICUP-data-and-images-_-Heres-Where-Pennsylvanias-Out-of-State-Students-are-Moving-From-_-September-2024.pdf
View the full-sized image in high resolution at the PDF, here:
https://aicup.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/AICUPRankings.pdf
Learn more about AICUP, the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania. Visit the AICUP website to see more data like this and to see the full list of all 85 member schools, here: