Hudson Valley’s Best Colleges For 2018: U.S. News & World Report

The new school year is in full swing, and as high school seniors plan the next big step in their lives, their attention is no doubt on what colleges best suit their educational and career ambitions. College rankings certainly play into that decision making as well, and for 2018, U.S. News & World Report has ranked Princeton University in New Jersey as the best national university for the seventh year in a row.

For the 15th consecutive year, Williams College in Massachusetts ranked as the best national liberal arts college, followed in second place by another Massachusetts school, Amherst College.

Public schools — namely the California schools and U.S. military academies — made a strong showing in the 2018 rankings. The United States Military Academy at West Point ranked as the top public school among national liberal arts colleges. At No. 87, Binghamton University SUNY was the highest nationally-ranked university in the New York State system, with SUNY Stony Brook and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry also in the Top 100.

Also on the magazine's list of top national universities, Pace came in at No. 187.

Among the magazine's top national liberal arts colleges were several schools in the Hudson Valley.Vassar College was ranked high — No. 12. On that list Bard was ranked No. 46 and Sarah Lawrence No. 53. Purchase College-SUNY was also listed in the top 300.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy made the magazine's list of Great Schools, Great Prices among national universities; Vassar and Bard made that same list on the national liberal arts colleges side.

Among regional universities, Marist ranked high, coming in at No. 9. SUNY New Paltz was No. 28. Iona College ranked No. 75; Manhattanville No. 102; St. Thomas Aquinas No. 111; Mount St. Mary No. 126. Also in the Top 200 were College of New Rochelle, Dominican, Monroe and Nyack.

Many Hudson Valley schools made more than one of U.S. News' rankings.

For example, Concordia College in Bronxville was No. 19 among regional liberal arts colleges in the North. The college was also named a top-10 Best Value School in the North Region. In addition, Concordia regionally ranked 3rd in Ethnic and Economic Diversity, and 2nd in percentage of International Students.

Concordia officials said they felt the college's steady climb in the highly respected rankings was affirmation of its commitment to excellence and dedication to making that excellence financially accessible.

“We are very proud of our top 20 spot in the U.S. News Best College Rankings,” said President John Nunes.

The top 5 national universities in the country are:
Princeton University (1)
Harvard University (2)
University of Chicago (3)
Yale University (3)
Columbia University (5)

The top 5 national liberal arts colleges are:
Williams College (1)
Amherst College (2)
Bowdoin College (3)
Swarthmore College (3)
Wellesley College (3)

The top 5 national universities among public schools are:
University of California Berkeley (1)
University of California Los Angeles (1)
University of Virginia (3)
University of Michigan Ann Arbor (4)
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (5)

The top 5 national liberal arts colleges among public schools are:
United States Military Academy at West Point (1)
United States Naval Academy (2)
United States Air Force Academy (3)
Virginia Military Institute (4)
St. Mary’s College of Maryland (5)

In its rankings, U.S. News also took a look at student debt, and it turns out that 70 percent of students who graduate from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., graduate with debt — the average amount of debt being $46,779 — the highest among national universities. For national liberal arts colleges, that number is highest among graduates of St. John’s University in Minnesota, where 66 percent of students graduate with debt with an average amount of debt of $40,272. Students from Princeton, it turns out, graduate with the least amount of debt among national universities, as do students of Berea College in Kentucky when it comes to national liberal arts colleges.

U.S. News relies on various factors in determining the rankings, with retention, graduate rate performance and graduation rate accounting for 30 percent of the rankings.

“Graduation rate performance measures how well schools are graduating their students based on our predictions, which consider spending, test scores and the proportion of students receiving Pell Grants,” U.S. News explains.

Faculty resources account for 20 percent of the rankings — things like class size, student-to-faculty ratio — and financial resources — average spending on things that go directly toward educating undergraduates — accounts for 10 percent of the rankings. The rest of the rankings are based on expert opinion, student excellence and alumni giving.

U.S. News notes that the top national and top national liberal arts universities have significantly higher graduation and freshman retention rates than other schools. That’s a six-year graduation rate of 96 percent for the top 10 national universities and 92.5 percent for top 10 national liberal arts colleges, whereas that same figure for all numerically ranked national universities is 71.7 percent and 75.7 percent for national liberal arts colleges. Similarly, the freshman retention rate for top 10 national universities is 98.3 percent and 96.5 percent for top 10 national liberal arts colleges, compared to 87.2 percent for all numerically ranked national universities and 85.7 percent for all numerically ranked national liberal arts colleges, respectfully.

What do you think of the rankings? Let us know in the comments below.

IMAGE: Vassar College via google maps

Editor's Note: SUNY Binghamton is ranked No. 87 on U.S. News' list of top national universities. It was omitted from the original version of this report. Patch regrets the error.