Verified data from IPEDS & College Scorecard

Verified Federal Data · No Paid Rankings

Best Colleges in New York

Top New York colleges ranked by what actually matters after graduation: earnings, completion rates, and what you actually pay. Federal data. No surveys, no sponsorships.

10
Schools in ranking
136
New York schools in dataset
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How We Rank New York Colleges

Rankings use a composite score from verified federal data: graduate earnings (28%), graduation rate (25%), social mobility via Pell Grant share (20%), debt burden (15%), and net cost for low-income students (12%). Where a school has not reported one of these, that component is dropped and the remaining weights are rescaled rather than filled in with an estimate. Only 4-year non-profit schools with sufficient data qualify.

  • Earnings: Median annual earnings 10 years after enrollment. Source: College Scorecard.
  • Graduation rate: Full-time first-time students completing within 150% of normal time. Source: IPEDS.
  • Net price: Average annual cost after all grants and scholarships. Source: IPEDS.
  • Social mobility: Share of students receiving Pell Grants, a direct measure of access for low-income students. Source: IPEDS.
  • Debt burden: Median federal loan debt at graduation. Source: College Scorecard.

Top 10 Colleges in New York (2026)

Ranked by composite: earnings, graduation rate, social mobility, debt, affordability.

#SchoolEarnings (10yr)
1$75,971
2
Boricua College
Boricua College

New York, NY

$35,348
3$90,610
4$104,043
5
Colgate University
Colgate University

Hamilton, NY

$85,139
6
CUNY City College
CUNY City College

New York, NY

$66,039
7$83,847
8$56,195
9$60,752
10$63,163

136 New York schools in dataset. Top 10 shown. Data: IPEDS + College Scorecard. Updated annually.

All 136 Colleges in the Dataset

The ranking above shows the top 10 by composite score. Every school in the full dataset is listed here so you can explore beyond the top results.

Comparing across states?

We rank top colleges in all 50 states using the same federal data.

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Find Your Perfect Fit in New York

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