Is a research university right for me?–

Research universities are colleges and universities whose faculty are active in research and publishing. Research universities offer a wide array of doctoral programs, especially in the sciences. They tend to be big, with tens of thousands of students. Do you prefer a larger university setting, such as largest public university in your state? Research universities are typically big, offering degrees in many different disciplines. Is a big high-powered research environment the thing for you? If not, you should think about a liberal arts college. In deciding on an undergraduate institution, ask yourself what sort of environment will best help you to be happy and excel. Consider whether you are self motivated enough to be a face in the crowd for some classes and largely unknown on campus at a large university. Of course you can find clubs and friends at a large university, but often liberal arts colleges have a more personal quality to them. If you want the community feel, a research university may not fit you well. Are you interested in STEM fields? Research universities have that name for a reason – real research is happening there. This can create an exciting atmosphere for students interested in STEM. Attending a research university can give you a better chance of getting into better programs for graduate degrees, although a lot of that depends on your performance.

Is an online college right for me?–

Online colleges are typically the same colleges and universities you could attend in-person, but for certain degree programs the college or unviersity has made the degree programs available to be completed online. For over 5 million students, online degree programs allow students to earn their degrees in the most flexible format available. Online degrees are as respected as the on-campus degrees you could earn from the same schools. There’s usually no distinction between the two degrees, and your degree and transcript will not say that the degree was earned online. Online degree programs are offered by a vast majority of colleges and universities, and the number of offering continues to grow. Whether you are searching for an associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate, there’s a good chance you can earn your degree online from a respectable online college. Are you a self-driven student? Perhaps the hardest aspect of obtaining an online degree is whether you will be disciplined enough to manage your time and course demands. Many online students report that online college made them more disciplined in all areas of their lives, but the flexible, self-paced learning that makes online colleges attractive can often be the same qualities that make it difficult. If you tend to be a procrastinator, you need to be honest with yourself. You can change your habits and propensities, or you can throw money down the drain. Do you need the flexibility of an online degree program? Most online students study online because of time demands of balancing work and life, or because the online college affords them the chance to attend a better school without moving. If you are serious about earning your degree for career advancement, online colleges make it possible. The most flexible options among online degrees are those that are asynchronous, meaning you don’t have scheduled times to meet with your class online. However, many students seek synchronous online degree programs so that they have some structure – set meeting times, scheduled exams, etc. The good news is that attending an online college doesn’t mean you will miss out on getting to know your professors and classmates. In fact, many online students who have experienced both online and on-campus courses report having easier access to their professors. Since most communication with your professor is expected to be in text – via email or your class learning management system – it makes asking your questions easier. The same students also report that they got to better know the thoughts of their classmates. While in-person course conversations can be dominated by a few extroverts, online courses that require online discussions make it so that you see all of your classmates’ thoughts and questions. If you’re interested in an online bachelor’s degree, check out what the best online colleges offer, or search our online degrees for the exact program that interests you. In either case, you will find well respected colleges and universities that offer online degrees.

Best Liberal Arts Colleges in New York 2024

Q: Is a liberal arts college right for me?–

Often referred to as “teaching colleges” liberal arts colleges put a premium on undergraduate studies and offers a broad range of subjects for students to study. A college of liberal arts typically provides smaller class sizes, more direct engagement with professors, and, most importantly, the opportunity to sample a wide range of subject areas on the way to a bachelor’s degree. Do you want your professors to know you? Liberal arts colleges strive to cultivate campus cultures that encourage tight bonds between professors and students. Professors at these schools will typically conduct original research. Yet the best of these schools offer their faculty reduced teaching loads so that they can both be productive researchers and still have plenty of time for students (both in and outside the classroom). Do you want to feel like you know everybody? One of the most enticing features of a liberal arts college is that in very little time, you can feel like you know who’s who, which can create strong friendships and make walks across campus more fun. While your sports teams may never be on ESPN, it’s more likely that you’ll know the athletes as your peers. Beyond student and faculty relationships, it’s not unusual for the school president and other administrators to learn who you are. When faced with problems with your student account or the need to switch classes, this can be comforting during a stressful moment.

Badge for BEST IN NEW YORK LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGES

By Dr. James Barham

Published: Mar 22, 2021
Updated: Oct 26, 2023

Liberal arts colleges are a great option for students seeking a well-rounded education in an intimate campus setting. The best liberal arts colleges in New York offer a diverse selection of degree programs with opportunities for a highly individualized educational experience.

10 Best Liberal Arts Colleges in New York

Brooklyn College
United States Military Academy
Barnard College
Hunter College
Vassar College
Baruch College
Queens College, City University of New York
Colgate University
Bard College
Union College

United States Military Academy
Brooklyn College
Vassar College
Barnard College
Hunter College
Bard College
Union College
Sarah Lawrence College
Baruch College
Cooper Union

Iona University 96%
Niagara University 90%
Manhattanville College 84%
Manhattan College 82%
Canisius University 78%
Le Moyne College 78%
New York Institute of Technology 76%
Ithaca College 75%
State University of New York at Purchase 75%
Wagner College 69%

Baruch College 19 to 1
Fashion Institute of Technology 17 to 1
John Jay College of Criminal Justice 16 to 1
Iona University 15 to 1
Lehman College 15 to 1
Queens College, City University of New York 14 to 1
Wagner College 14 to 1
Hunter College 14 to 1
United States Merchant Marine Academy 13 to 1
New York Institute of Technology 13 to 1

Vassar College $64,800
Colgate University $64,290
Union College $63,954
Hamilton College $62,670
Barnard College $62,525
Skidmore College $62,398
St. Lawrence University $62,020
Hobart and William Smith Colleges $61,725
Sarah Lawrence College $61,234
Bard College $60,622

Colgate University $63,904
Vassar College $63,840
Bard College $39,780
Cooper Union $38,350
Sarah Lawrence College $33,254
Hobart and William Smith Colleges $26,583
New York Institute of Technology $26,460
Ithaca College $25,128
Iona University $23,499
St. Lawrence University $23,040

United States Merchant Marine Academy
Le Moyne College
Wagner College
Manhattanville College
Canisius University
Lehman College
Hamilton College
St. Lawrence University
State University of New York at Purchase
Skidmore College

Canisius University
Iona University
Le Moyne College
Manhattanville College
Skidmore College
St. Lawrence University
State University of New York at Purchase
Niagara University
Fashion Institute of Technology
United States Merchant Marine Academy

Barnard College 9%
Hamilton College 12%
United States Military Academy 12%
Colgate University 12%
Vassar College 19%
Cooper Union 22%
Skidmore College 26%
United States Merchant Marine Academy 27%
Bard College 46%
Union College 47%

Vassar College 7 to 1
United States Military Academy 7 to 1
Hobart and William Smith Colleges 8 to 1
Skidmore College 8 to 1
Cooper Union 9 to 1
Colgate University 9 to 1
Bard College 9 to 1
Hamilton College 9 to 1
Union College 9 to 1
Barnard College 10 to 1

United States Merchant Marine Academy $1,008
John Jay College of Criminal Justice $6,930
Queens College, City University of New York $6,930
Baruch College $6,930
Hunter College $6,930
Lehman College $6,930
Brooklyn College $6,930
State University of New York at Purchase $7,070
Fashion Institute of Technology $7,170
Canisius University $31,800

John Jay College of Criminal Justice $11,090
Queens College, City University of New York $11,090
Baruch College $11,090
Hunter College $11,090
Lehman College $11,090
Brooklyn College $11,090
State University of New York at Purchase $11,310
Fashion Institute of Technology $11,542
Niagara University $14,040
Canisius University $15,480

Table of Contents

Colleges and Universities in New York

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.

Find college admissions consultants in your state.

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.

What are New York’s Colleges & Universities?

New York’s Best Overall

How do we determine New York's best colleges and universities?

Methodology

The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great! If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence in their fields of study.

Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is freer from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.

To rank the influence of schools, we first determine the influence of scholars and professionals based on the number of citations and publications they have had over the past 10 years. In addition to publications and citations, we consider the web links to and from these sources, and the page views of those sources. We then match the influential people to their alma maters and institutions of employment, so that their influence is attributed to those schools. Our machine-learning Influence Ranking algorithm produces a numerical score of academic achievements, merits, and citations across Wikipedia, wikidata, Crossref, Semantic Scholar and an ever-growing body of data. If you are interested in exploring how and why we rank by influence, explore our methodology in more depth.

A liberal arts college is a school that puts a premium on undergraduate studies and offers a broad range of subjects for students to study. A college of liberal arts typically provides smaller class sizes, more direct engagement with professors, and, most importantly, the opportunity to sample a wide range of subject areas on the way to a bachelor’s degree. We’ve identified 92 liberal arts colleges in New York. To be ranked among the 30 best liberal arts colleges in New York, schools must fully accredited institutions.

Best Liberal Arts Colleges in New York 2023

New York’s Best Liberal Arts Colleges in Your Area of Interest

Frequently Asked Questions About Research Universities, Liberal Arts Colleges, Online Colleges

In pursuing a bachelor’s degree, you will need to choose between three kinds of schools: research universities, liberal arts colleges, and online colleges.

Research universities are colleges and universities whose faculty are active in research and publishing. Research universities offer a wide array of doctoral programs, especially in the sciences. They tend to be big, with tens of thousands of students.

Do you prefer a larger university setting, such as largest public university in your state? Research universities are typically big, offering degrees in many different disciplines.

Is a big high-powered research environment the thing for you? If not, you should think about a liberal arts college. In deciding on an undergraduate institution, ask yourself what sort of environment will best help you to be happy and excel.

Consider whether you are self motivated enough to be a face in the crowd for some classes and largely unknown on campus at a large university. Of course you can find clubs and friends at a large university, but often liberal arts colleges have a more personal quality to them. If you want the community feel, a research university may not fit you well.
Are you interested in STEM fields? Research universities have that name for a reason – real research is happening there. This can create an exciting atmosphere for students interested in STEM. Attending a research university can give you a better chance of getting into better programs for graduate degrees, although a lot of that depends on your performance.

Learn more about research universities by reading about the best research universities in the US.

Often referred to as “teaching colleges” liberal arts colleges put a premium on undergraduate studies and offers a broad range of subjects for students to study. A college of liberal arts typically provides smaller class sizes, more direct engagement with professors, and, most importantly, the opportunity to sample a wide range of subject areas on the way to a bachelor’s degree.

Do you want your professors to know you? Liberal arts colleges strive to cultivate campus cultures that encourage tight bonds between professors and students.

Professors at these schools will typically conduct original research. Yet the best of these schools offer their faculty reduced teaching loads so that they can both be productive researchers and still have plenty of time for students (both in and outside the classroom).

Do you want to feel like you know everybody? One of the most enticing features of a liberal arts college is that in very little time, you can feel like you know who’s who, which can create strong friendships and make walks across campus more fun. While your sports teams may never be on ESPN, it’s more likely that you’ll know the athletes as your peers.

Beyond student and faculty relationships, it’s not unusual for the school president and other administrators to learn who you are. When faced with problems with your student account or the need to switch classes, this can be comforting during a stressful moment.

Learn more about liberal arts colleges by reading about the best liberal arts colleges in the US.

Online colleges are typically the same colleges and universities you could attend in-person, but for certain degree programs the college or unviersity has made the degree programs available to be completed online. For over 5 million students, online degree programs allow students to earn their degrees in the most flexible format available.

Online degrees are as respected as the on-campus degrees you could earn from the same schools. There’s usually no distinction between the two degrees, and your degree and transcript will not say that the degree was earned online.

Online degree programs are offered by a vast majority of colleges and universities, and the number of offering continues to grow. Whether you are searching for an associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate, there’s a good chance you can earn your degree online from a respectable online college.

Are you a self-driven student? Perhaps the hardest aspect of obtaining an online degree is whether you will be disciplined enough to manage your time and course demands.

Many online students report that online college made them more disciplined in all areas of their lives, but the flexible, self-paced learning that makes online colleges attractive can often be the same qualities that make it difficult. If you tend to be a procrastinator, you need to be honest with yourself. You can change your habits and propensities, or you can throw money down the drain.

Do you need the flexibility of an online degree program? Most online students study online because of time demands of balancing work and life, or because the online college affords them the chance to attend a better school without moving.

If you are serious about earning your degree for career advancement, online colleges make it possible. The most flexible options among online degrees are those that are asynchronous, meaning you don’t have scheduled times to meet with your class online. However, many students seek synchronous online degree programs so that they have some structure – set meeting times, scheduled exams, etc.

The good news is that attending an online college doesn’t mean you will miss out on getting to know your professors and classmates. In fact, many online students who have experienced both online and on-campus courses report having easier access to their professors.

Since most communication with your professor is expected to be in text – via email or your class learning management system – it makes asking your questions easier. The same students also report that they got to better know the thoughts of their classmates. While in-person course conversations can be dominated by a few extroverts, online courses that require online discussions make it so that you see all of your classmates’ thoughts and questions.

If you’re interested in an online bachelor’s degree, check out what the best online colleges offer, or search our online degrees for the exact program that interests you. In either case, you will find well respected colleges and universities that offer online degrees.

2021 Ranking Archive

Many of our 2024 undergraduate focused rankings look considerably different than 2023. That’s because we took a fundamentally different approach. For 2024 we utilized our Concentrated Influence algorithm, designed to take away the size advantage larger schools have when we rank their faculty and alumni’s academic influence. Concentrated influence highlights smaller schools that are proportionally as successful as larger universities at cultivating influential alumni and faculty.

Check out our directory of liberal arts colleges throughout the U.S. for a look at the top liberal arts schools in every state.

Do you have a question about this topic? Ask it here

Best Liberal Arts Colleges in New York 2024

10 Best Liberal Arts Colleges in New York

Colleges and Universities in New York

What are New York’s Colleges & Universities?

Best Liberal Arts Colleges in New York 2023

Career Outlook for degree at Brooklyn College

Most Influential Alumni

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Barnard College

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Hunter College

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Vassar College

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Baruch College

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Queens College, City University of New York

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Colgate University

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Bard College

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Union College, New York

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Fashion Institute of Technology

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Sarah Lawrence College

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Ithaca College

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Most Influential Alumni

John Jay College of Criminal Justice’s Online Degrees

Career Outlook for degree at Manhattan College

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Cooper Union

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at New York Institute of Technology

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Niagara University

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Iona University

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Skidmore College

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at State University of New York at Purchase

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at St. Lawrence University

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Hamilton College

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Lehman College

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Canisius University

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Manhattanville College

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Wagner College

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at Le Moyne College

Most Influential Alumni

Career Outlook for degree at United States Merchant Marine Academy

Most Influential Alumni

New York’s Best Liberal Arts Colleges in Your Area of Interest