Here are the top 20 colleges in New York state, according to U.S. News & World Report ranking

There are many reasons to choose a college, such as location, graduation rate, borrower debt and student-faculty ratio — all factors that were included to rank colleges and universities in the recently released U.S. News and World Report 2025 Best Colleges guide.

The outlet ranked nearly 1,500 four-year bachelor’s degree-granting institutions in the United States using 17 factors, such as graduation rates, borrower debt, standardized tests, student-faculty ration, financial resources for students and more. Each indicator is assigned a weight based on U.S. News’ researched judgment about which measures of quality matter most. The colleges are then ranked based on their overall scores.

More than 130 four-year institutions are located in New York — the most of any state. Dozens of colleges are within the State University of New York (SUNY) and City University of New York (CUNY) systems, two of the largest public university systems in the country.

Here are the top 20 colleges ranked in New York state, according to U.S. News and World Report’s 2025 Best Colleges.

20 – Adelphi University

Garden City, N.Y.

Ranked 189th in National Universities (tie)

19 – St. John Fisher University

Rochester, N.Y.

Ranked 179th in National Universities (tie)

18 – Touro University

New York, N.Y.

Ranked 171st in National Universities (tie)

17 – St. John’s University

Queens, N.Y.

Ranked 152nd in National Universities (tie)

16 – Clarkson University

Potsdam, N.Y.

Ranked 152nd in National Universities (tie)

15 – SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Syracuse, N.Y.

Ranked 144th in National Universities (tie)

14 – University at Albany-SUNY

Albany, N.Y.

Ranked 121st in National Universities (tie)

13 – CUNY-City College

New York, N.Y.

Ranked 121st in National Universities (tie)

12 – Yeshiva University

New York, N.Y.

Ranked 98th in National Universities (tie)

11 – Rochester Institute of Technology

Rochester, N.Y.

Ranked 91st in National Universities (tie)

10 – Fordham University

New York, N.Y.

Ranked 91st in National Universities (tie)

9 – University at Buffalo-SUNY

Buffalo, N.Y.

Ranked 76th in National Universities (tie)

8 – Syracuse University

Syracuse, N.Y.

Ranked 73rd in National Universities (tie)

7 – Binghamton University-SUNY

Binghamton, N.Y.

Ranked 73rd in National Universities (tie)

6 – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Troy, N.Y.

Ranked 70th in National Universities

5 – Stony Brook University-SUNY

Stony Brook, N.Y.

Ranked 58th in National Universities

4 – University of Rochester

Rochester, N.Y.

Ranked 44th in National Universities

3 – New York University

New York, N.Y.

Ranked 30th in National Universities

2 – Columbia University

New York, N.Y.

Ranked 13th in National Universities

1 – Cornell University

Ithaca, N.Y.

Ranked 11th in National Universities