What are the best colleges and universities in Texas if you reward schools for making the best use of their limited resources? Academic Stewardship asks how effectively schools manage their financial and human resources to gain the influence that makes them academically excellent. Schools that are exemplary in Academic Stewardship are doing everything in their power to help students and faculty achieve their full potential.
Colleges and universities in New York deserve to be recognized when they do more with less. It’s impressive when a large wealthy school can spend money lavishly on expensive buildings and programs. But it’s even more impressive when a small school with limited means is able to train and inspire students that the larger wealthier schools tend to ignore.
The American Association of Colleges and Universities reported in late 2021 that almost 75 percent of higher-education professionals at US colleges and universities felt financial constraints prevented their schools from effectively attracting students. Distracted by the size and amenities of larger schools, prospective students tended especially to be overawed by the big research universities.
New York’s smaller colleges, especially its liberal arts colleges, need effective ways of communicating their value to a world that celebrates “bigger is better” and “you need the best.” Unfortunately, most college ranking companies, such as U.S. News & World Report, define “best” in a way that devalues schools with smaller budgets and fewer students even when these schools do remarkable work in advancing their students’ education. By and large, college rankings penalize schools that serve underserved populations.
Inspired by Malcolm Gladwell, who for years now has criticized conventional college rankings for misrepresenting what’s good and valuable in education, we decided to construct a new ranking metric that highlights those schools that do more with less. That metric—called the Academic Stewardship metric—takes away both the size and the wealth advantage of schools, and focuses instead on how well schools use the resources available to them to advance the education of their students.
As a metric, Academic Stewardship is defined by a precise mathematical formula, which can be found in our Academic Stewardship white paper. Measuring the Academic Stewardship of New York’s colleges requires measuring two forms of stewardship: 1) Stewardship of financial resources (using the money they have responsibility without waste) and 2) Stewardship of human resources (doing their best to help students, faculty, and administration to flourish). Together, these two types of stewardship form what we call Academic Stewardship. If you want to learn more about the factors involved in Academic Stewardship, click the more button below.
Academic Stewardship as so defined is connected to keeping tuition and other costs down, but it should not be confused with affordability or frugality. The schools that this metric ranks as exemplary academic stewards tend to be all over the map when it comes to tuition and other costs. At issue is the influence of schools given the financial and human resources they have on hand. If a school is going to charge more for tuition, then that needs to be reflected in the school having proportionately greater influence.
The benefits of attending a school with strong academic stewardship include:
Tuition + fees
$16K
Acceptance
80%
Graduation
65%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1190/24
Houghton University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$36K
Acceptance
83%
Graduation
68%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1120/23
Elmira College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$37K
Acceptance
72%
Graduation
58%
Student body
<1K
Cazenovia College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$27K
Acceptance
97%
Graduation
43%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
945/20
Nyack College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$50K
Acceptance
93%
Graduation
58%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1120/22
Hartwick College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$47K
Acceptance
18%
Graduation
79%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1417/32
Cooper Union’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
55%
Graduation
72%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1331/29
Sarah Lawrence College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$34K
Acceptance
74%
Graduation
62%
Student body
2K
Russell Sage College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$40K
Acceptance
90%
Graduation
64%
Student body
2K
Manhattanville College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
60%
Graduation
77%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1210/25
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
64%
Graduation
61%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1060/22
Alfred University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
73%
Graduation
72%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1175/25
State University of New York Maritime College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Student body
4K
Graduate Center, CUNY’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$58K
Acceptance
57%
Graduation
74%
Student body
3K
Bard College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$50K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
73%
Student body
2K
Wagner College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$62K
Acceptance
41%
Graduation
86%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1320/29
Union College, New York’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$48K
Acceptance
67%
Graduation
77%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1270/27
Yeshiva University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$60K
Acceptance
14%
Graduation
90%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1430/32
Barnard College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$31K
Acceptance
76%
Graduation
69%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1150/24
Canisius College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$63K
Acceptance
25%
Graduation
88%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1445/32
Vassar College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$37K
Acceptance
88%
Graduation
58%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1090/23
Marymount Manhattan College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$36K
Acceptance
92%
Graduation
77%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1125/23
Niagara University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$27K
Acceptance
85%
Graduation
54%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1025/21
St. Francis College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$60K
Acceptance
62%
Graduation
77%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1272/28
Hobart and William Smith Colleges’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
On average, tuition at New York’s higher education institutes comes in well-below the national average at about $7,900. Students have nearly 80 public school options to choose from, ranging in fees from $1,000 at the United States Merchant Marine Academy up to $10,000 at the University at Buffalo, the largest public university. However, some of the state’s private schools, such as New York University (NYU), charge tuition fees at a much higher cost.
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Although tuition fees at NYU average $52,000, students who attend this school have access to some of the best programs in fields like literature, business, medicine, communications, and law. The school also boasts famous alumni like Whoopi Goldberg and Jonas Salk. New York also offers close to 40 religiously affiliated schools. Students can expect to pay a wide range of tuition costs at these schools, but have the option to major in fields like social work, law, religious studies, business, and nursing.
They say New York is a place where dreams come true. Here, fashion, culture, food, business, art, and many languages comfortably coexist. While The Empire State’s metropolitan landmarks, like the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, are noteworthy, many forget New York also offers access to the Great Lakes, the Atlantic Ocean, and countless cozy cabins tucked away in the verdant Catskills Mountains. Additionally, New York is home to over 200 colleges and universities, making it easy for students to dream big while earning their degrees.
Explore some of the top programs New York higher education institutes have to offer, and make your educational and personal dreams come true.