New York for the first time has more schools than any state among the top 50 universities and top 50 liberal arts colleges nationwide, according to rankings by U.S. News & World Report. The difference this year was Syracuse University, which cracked the top 50 universities. That gave New York 15 colleges and universities – all private – in the top 50 of both categories. Last year New York had 14 and trailed California.
“It's absolutely a home run,” Abraham Lackman, president of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, said Friday. “For the first time now, New York … has the most colleges in the top 100 in the country.”
He credited an aggressive building program at the state's more than 100 private colleges in recent years to improve laboratories and other academic resources. That program will be continued under a program Lackman successfully lobbied for this year that will provide $150 million in matching state funds for private college construction.
By comparison, California had 14 schools in the top 50 national universities and top 50 liberal arts colleges, Pennsylvania had 12 and Massachusetts had 11.
In total, New York had 12 of nation's top 120 universities and eight of the top 100 liberal arts colleges, according to the magazine's annual survey scheduled to be published in Monday's edition.
New York's top universities included: Columbia University (9th), Cornell University (13th), the University of Rochester (34th), New York University (37th), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy (43rd), Yeshiva University (45th), Syracuse University (50th), and Fordham University (68th).
New York's top liberal arts colleges included: Colgate University and nearby Hamilton College, (tied for 15th) in central New York, Barnard College (27th), Union College (36th), Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs (41st), Sarah Lawrence College (49th), Hobart and William Smith College and St. Lawrence University (tied for 61st), and Wells College (94th).
The State University of New York had four colleges among the 120 best in the nation: the state University at Binghamton was ranked 74th, the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse (93rd), SUNY Stony Brook (97th), and the state University at Buffalo (115th). California had seven public colleges on the list, five of them in the top 50.
When compared only to other public universities, SUNY schools fared better: SUNY Binghamton was No. 30, followed by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (43rd), SUNY Stony Brook (45th), and SUNY at Buffalo (57th).
SUNY spokeswoman Emily Dalton Smith said SUNY is proud of its rankings and gains from last year. SUNY Binghamton, Buffalo and Stony Brook each rose a couple spots compared to last year's magazine report.
She had no comment on comparison to other states.
“We are making gains,” she said.
Several private schools in New York also made the lists of “best values.”
The magazine's best values of national universities include Columbia (12th) with tuition and fees of $31,472; Cornell (13th) at about $31,467; RPI (27th) at about $31,857; and the University of Rochester (31st) at $31,297.
The magazine's best values for liberal arts colleges included: Colgate at about $33,105 in tuition and fees; Wells (12th) at $15,790, Hamilton (26th) at $33,350, Union (36th) at $37,500; and Barnard (38th) at $30,676.
The average tuition at SUNY, including state and campus fees, is about $5,250. The national average for public colleges is $5,132.
Nationally, for the third straight year, Harvard and Princeton share the top spot in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of America's best colleges.
The formula for the controversial rankings includes variables such as graduation and retention rates, faculty and financial resources, and the percentage of alumni donating money to their alma mater.