9 New York Colleges Ranked Among Top 100

A new report has ranked 500 colleges nationwide — including 42 in New York — as high schoolers scramble to sign up for SAT exams and fill out college applications. The personal finance website WalletHub unveiled its 2019 college and university rankings Monday. The top schools in America won’t shock you (the usual suspects are all there) and the authors say the best university in New York is none other than Columbia University in New York City, beating out Cornell University and Vassar College for bragging rights.

Columbia University ranked highly in Campus Experience and Student Selectivity, according to the authors. The study compared 951 higher-education institutions across the country based on 30 metrics. The metrics range from student-faculty ratio to graduation rate to post-attendance median salary. WalletHub then organized the results by ranking each college in seven categories: student selectivity, cost and financing, faculty resources, campus safety, campus experience, educational outcomes and career outcomes.

Here’s the breakdown for the New York colleges in the top 100:

Columbia University

• Overall rank: 8
• Total score: 75.89/100 points
• Percentile: 99 (99 is best)

Cornell University

• Overall rank: 31
• Total score: 71.7/100 points
• Percentile: 97 (99 is best)

Vassar College

• Overall rank: 48
• Total score: 68.78/100 points
• Percentile: 95 (99 is best)

Binghamton University—SUNY

• Overall rank: 51
• Total score: 68.47/100 points
• Percentile: 95 (99 is best)

Colgate University

• Overall rank: 52
• Total score: 68.08/100 points
• Percentile: 95 (99 is best)

Barnard College

• Overall rank: 53
• Total score: 68.04/100 points
• Percentile: 94 (99 is best)

Stony Brook University—SUNY

• Overall rank: 66
• Total score: 66.6/100 points
• Percentile: 93 (99 is best)

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

• Overall rank: 70
• Total score: 66.28/100 points
• Percentile: 93 (99 is best)

New York University

• Overall rank: 75
• Total score: 65.41/100 points
• Percentile: 92 (99 is best)

The following New York colleges made the list:

103. Skidmore College
111. Yeshiva University
116. Rochester Institute of Technology
121. Syracuse University
123. University of Buffalo—SUNY
129. Fordham University
132. SUNY Polytechnic Institute—Albany/Utica
148. Clarkson University
155. St. Joseph's College New York
163. SUNY College—Oneonta
198. SUNY—Plattsburgh
224. Le Moyne College
227. SUNY—Oswego
236. University at Albany—SUNY
239. SUNY—Geneseo
243. Manhattan College
265. College at Brockport—SUNY
288. Roberts Wesleyan College
294. St. John Fisher College
294. New York Institute of Technology
297. SUNY—Fredonia
336. Niagara University
345. Canisius College
357. St. Bonaventure University
361. Purchase College—SUNY
363. Adelphi University
366. Molloy College
371. St. Francis College
394. SUNY—New Paltz
403. Farmingdale State College—SUNY
411. Houghton College
468. St. John's University
490. Alfred University

WalletHub scored each of the seven metrics out of 100 possible points, with a 100 being the best school performance and the most favorable conditions for undergraduate students while they’re in school and after leaving. The authors then determined each school’s weighted average across each metric to calculate the overall score and used that to rank them. Public four-year and above schools were included as well as private, not-for-profit, four-year and above schools.

Student selectivity and educational outcomes received the most weight of all the categories in WalletHub’s rankings, accounting for 25 and 20 points, respectively. Student selectivity was largely based on net cost while educational outcomes looked mostly at a college’s graduation rate and retention rate.

You’ll recognize most, if not all, of the top schools in America. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, better known as MIT, boasted the top overall ranking with a total score of 80.1. Princeton, Yale, Harvard and California Institute of Technology rounded out the top five.

Here are the top 10 schools and overall scores for each. All were in the 99th percentile.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Overall rank: 1
• Total score: 80.1/100 points

Princeton University

• Overall rank: 2
• Total score: 79.5/100 points

Yale University

• Overall rank: 3
• Total score:78.86/100 points

Harvard University

• Overall rank: 4
• Total score: 78.58/100 points

California Institute of Technology

• Overall rank: 5
• Total score: 77.73/100 points

Duke University

• Overall rank: 6
• Total score: 76.15/100 points

University of Pennsylvania

• Overall rank: 7
• Total score: 76.1/100 points

Columbia University

• Overall rank: 8
• Total score: 75.89/100 points

Rice University

• Overall rank: 9
• Total score: 75.67/100 points

Stanford University

• Overall rank: 10
• Total score: 75.32/100 points

WalletHub used data collected from National Center for Education Statistics, Council for Community and Economic Research, U.S. Department of Education, COLLEGEdata and PayScale.

Click here to read the full report.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

Image via Shutterstock.