University Times

Following are highlights from a comparison of select Pennsylvania institutions in U.S. News and World Report’s 2010 “America’s Best Colleges” edition:

• Acceptance rate: Pitt accepted 55.4 percent (down slightly from 56 percent in last year’s data) of applicants for fall 2008’s entering class (20,685 total applicants; 11,467 accepted); Penn State, 51.2 percent (39,089 applicants, 20,011 accepted); Carnegie Mellon, 37.9 percent (13,527 applicants, 5,129 accepted); Temple, 60.8 percent (18,670 applicants, 11,349 accepted); Penn, 16.9 percent (22,935 applicants, 3,883 accepted).

(The most selective institution nationally was Harvard, 8 percent.)

• Student-faculty ratio: Pitt 15:1; Penn State and Temple, 17:1; CMU, 11:1; Penn, 6:1.

• Average six-year graduation rate in 2008: Pitt graduated 76 percent of its 2002 entering students within six years (up from 75 percent of 2001 entering students); Penn State, 85 percent; CMU, 87 percent; Temple, 65 percent; Penn, 95 percent.

• Retention rate of fall 2007 entering freshmen: Pitt, 90 percent (the same as last year); Penn State, 93.2 percent; CMU, 94.5 percent; Temple, 85.8 percent; Penn; 98 percent.

• Percentage of full-time students deemed to have financial need: Pitt, 54 percent (down from 55 percent), $9,696 average aid package; Penn State, 50 percent, $9,517 average aid package; CMU, 48 percent, $26,552 average aid package; Temple, 69 percent, $15,436 average aid package; Penn, 43 percent, $33,221 average aid package.

• Alumni giving rate: Pitt, 14.7 percent (15 percent in 2007); Penn State, 19.7 percent; CMU, 20.1 percent; Temple, 9 percent; Penn, 38.7 percent.

—Peter Hart