Turzai/Scarnati map
Here's GOP designed new map that had no input from Dems or rank-and-file Rs. Gov Wolf will review it.
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where on average there are about 600,000 - 700,000 people per congressional district and most of the counties here in PA are rural, with 36 of the 67 counties having < 100,000 people.
What they had done before was to carve around high-minority population (smaller) cities in the east and then take those cities and put them (either whole or spit up) in other districts that would dilute them with heavily rural populations several counties away. In some cases, even doing that still meant very close party registration populaces... But then that's when Turzai attempted the Voter ID crap to essentially kill the minority smaller city voters (although fortunately that whole thing was thrown out as an unconstitutional "poll tax" due to the cost requirement to obtain a birth certificate).
So this will be tricky to do to be done right. You don't necessarily want to concentrate districts in the urban areas in order to minimize an urban vote with a lesser number of seats and maximize the lesser population areas so they get more seats.
Fortunately, according to the LWV rep who attended my telephone town hall on this subject, there is now quite a bit of demographic and other informational data available about the voting populace and there is software out there that can get very granular with that data for use in these types of maps. So maps meeting the criteria are more do-able than in the past.
It's just that we have this tight timeframe to get it done so it goes into effect for THIS YEAR'S election. 
And we'll go through this all over again after the 2020 census, but hopefully the state will have a process that is non-partisan to do the lines.
VS new map -
For example the 3rd, 11th and the 18th still look like a geographic nightmare, from the standpoint of anybody trying to run a campaign or represent them. I'm not as familiar with the eastern part of the state, so I won't pass judgment but the Philadelphia districts do seem a little better.
Of course Allegheny County (Pittsburgh) has a high concentration of Dems, so they had us all packed into the 14th and didn't let our votes spill over into the 12th and 18th districts. I don't see that changing on the new drawing.
It does seem to follow more contiguous boundaries but then it still takes the purple/blue Montgomery County, and divides it up 4 ways as before yet leaves the redder Bucks County intact. It keeps the snaked 1st congressional (which was Brady's seat although he is not running again) to capture Chester City, which should really remain in Delco. They know what doing that would do to a new 7th congressional.
Just based on the district population size needing to be in the 600 - 700k range, it is a foregone conclusion that Philly would be divided up, but how they do that is something that needs to be looked at.
Found a suggested alternative from the Inquirer -
Pennsylvania’s congressional districts are among the most gerrymandered in the nation, according to experts. University of Michigan professor Jowei Chen created an alternative map that is more geographically compact, and drawn without regard to politics or race. The map below focuses on districts in Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Current -
Alternative -
http://www.philly.com/philly/infographics/280115652.html
straight up 611 which is part Broad Street and part Washington Lane/Old York Road up into Montco through Cheltenham and Jenkintown and Abington all the way up to Willow Grove. 
to shop mainly because there was a Strawbridge's & Wanamaker's there that was closer to us than the downtown stores.
All gone now but am still back and forth up there all the time!
You are right about the college expansion. Before Temple did their thing, I would say LaSalle was probably one of the first to start expanding in the Germantown/Olney area (back in the early '80s), then Penn & Drexel did their thing in West Philly, and then Temple FINALLY started doing something with all the houses they bought on and on either side of Broad St. back a few blocks, that they had left vacant for friggin 30 years. They started renovating the campus, built dorms, and built the Liacourus Center... And the most recent expansion has been St. Joe's University, that has completely transformed City Line Ave along West Philly and near Bala Cynwyd, from Bryn Mawr Ave. to Lancaster Ave. Pretty amazing!
And yes, this is all pricing people out due to the property tax hikes. 
I remember north of Street Rd up there was undeveloped. Now they have gone hog wild.
They bowled down the old Nabisco plant on Roosevelt Blvd. and are developing that land - http://mcbrealestate.com/demolition-former-nabisco-factory-commences-make-way-mixed-use-development-project/
The 10-year abatement also meant that any tiny piece of open land was jammed with some type of housing. Downtown near the river, all sorts of multistory, million dollar condos were built on top of tiny parking lots. Where I live, some properties were subdivided to throw housing in until neighbors complained to get the zoning updated. At some point before the housing crash, $39,000 "row" houses were suddenly called "townhomes" with a price tag of $399,000 (or more). 
After the crash, the prices have come back down to earth.