17 Hudson Valley Schools Ranked ‘Best Colleges For Your Money’

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Buying a house and sending kids to college are two of the biggest spending decisions most Americans will ever make. Fortunately for Hudson Valley families, 15 regional colleges among 77 institutions in New York are best values in America, according to a new “Best Colleges for Your Money” ranking from Money magazine.

A CUNY institution, Bernard M. Baruch College, was the highest-ranked institution from New York to make the national list, according to the analysis of more than 700 of the nation’s best-performing colleges. It came in second, right behind Princeton. SUNY Albany was the highest-ranked institution in the Hudson Valley, clocking in at No. 79.

A total of 711 schools nationwide made the list.

Money said the ranking is a “new, uniquely practical analysis” that draws on research and advice from some of the nation’s leading experts on education quality, financing and value. (SIGN UP: Get Patch’s daily newsletter, news alerts and updates. Download the Patch App for iPhone and iPad.)

Hudson Valley schools on the magazine's list are:

• No. 79 SUNY Albany
• No. 158 Vassar College, Poughkeepsie
• No. 177 SUNY New Paltz
• No. 186 St. Thomas Aquinas College, Sparkill
• No. 286 Marist College, Poughkeepsie
• No. 305 Fordham University, the Bronx
• No. 309 Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy
• No. 402 Nyack College
• No. 450 Mount St. Mary College, Newburgh
• No. 467 Iona College, New Rochelle
• No. 481 College of Mount St. Vincent, the Bronx
• No. 505 College of St. Rose, Albany
• No. 581 Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville
• No. 600 Dominican College of Blauvelt
• No. 631 The Sage Colleges, Troy
• No. 639 Purchase College, SUNY, Harrison
• No. 704 Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson

Here’s why SUNY Albany made to the top 100 in the Money 2017 Best Colleges For Your Money ranking for 2017-18:

• Median SAT/ACT score: 1100/24
• Estimated price without aid, 2017-18: $26,300
• Estimated price with average grant, 2017-18: $15,400
• Percent who get need-based grants: 54
• Percent who get merit grants: 1
• Early career earnings: $45,400

The top 10 education values were at:

1. Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
2. CUNY Bernard M Baruch College, New York City
3. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
4. University of California-Berkeley
5. University of California-Los Angeles
6. Stanford University, Stanford, California
7. University of California-Irvine
8. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
9. University of California-Davis
10. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Read the full list, see where other schools landed.

PHOTO: Thompson Library, Vassar College via Wikimedia Commons

By Deb Belt (Patch National Staff). Lanning Taliaferro contributed to this report.