Best Colleges In NY: Latest U.S. News Rankings

NEW YORK – New York City has the nation's third highest ranking university, with another 10 national schools in the state making the top 100 of a list compiled by U.S. News & World Report.

Columbia University was beaten only by Princeton and Harvard.

The 2020 list includes the the overall best national universities, as well as rankings for the best liberal-arts colleges, the top public schools, the best value schools and more.

Other high ranking national schools in the state included Cornell and NYU.

For the 2020 rankings, U.S. News made some changes to help prospective students with their college search. A new set of listings looked at the top performers in social mobility, evaluating which schools best serve underrepresented students. The 2020 methodology also factors in which schools support first-generation college students through graduation.

A total of 1,400 colleges are included in the 2020 rankings. (You can read the full methodology here)

“For more than three decades, we’ve collected and analyzed data on thousands of colleges and
universities across the country and helped put schools on the map,” Kim Castro, editor and chief content officer of U.S. News, said.

“We’ve found the best institutions to be ones committed to academically and financially supporting their students through graduation. They draw in high-quality professors and set students up for postgraduate success.”

Here are the top ten New York schools that made the list:

Columbia University

Cornell University

New York University

University of Rochester

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Syracuse University

Fordham University

Binghamton University-SUNY

University at Buffalo-SUNY

Stony Brook University-SUNY

Overall, Princeton University once again stayed in the No.1 spot. Williams College was the top liberal-arts college and the University of California-Los Angeles was the No.1 public school.

Below are the top 5 national universities:

1. Princeton University (NJ)
2. Harvard University (MA)
3. Columbia University (NY) (tie)
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (tie)
3. Yale University (CT) (tie)

Below are the top 3 liberal arts colleges:

1. Williams College (MA)
2. Amherst College (MA)
3. Swarthmore College (PA) (tie)
3. Wellesley College (MA) (tie)

Below are the top 3 public universities:

1. University of California—Los Angeles
2. University of California—Berkeley
3. University of Michigan—Ann Arbor

Read the full U.S. News & World Report study.