Rankings used for this review include the U.S. News & World Report 2011 rank of the top 100 U.S. Universities, International Colleges and University's (ICU) 2010 top American Colleges and Universities, U.S. College Ranking's 2010 picks, Diploma Guide's top-five by state, and Student's Review's top-50 for the U.S. With the exception of Student's Review, the main criteria compared for the other lists include costs, acceptance rates, peer assessments, freshman retention, graduate rates, SAT/ACT scores, class sizes and student-grade comparisons nationwide. Students Review is based on surveys of students about personal satisfaction with their schools.
In every case except Student Reviews, Columbia University was at the top of the list. In the U.S. New & World Report listing of the top 100 in the country, Columbia was the only New York school that made it into the top 10, with Cornell placing 15th. Cornell was second among New York schools in Diploma Guide, U.S. News and U.S. College Ranking, third in ICU's and fifth in Students Review. Colombia did not make the top 100 in Students Review.
U.S. News and U.S. College agreed exactly on their top 10 picks for the Empire State, from one through 10: (1) Columbia University in New York City, (2) Cornell University in Ithaca, (3) New York University in New York City, (4) University of Rochester in Rochester, (5) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, (6) Yeshiva University in New York City, (7) Syracuse University in Syracuse, (8) Fordham University in New York City, (9) SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse and (10) Binghamton University -- SUNY in Binghamton. Diploma Guide only listed their top five for New York, from first through fifth: (1) Columbia, (2) Cornell, (3) New York University, (4) University of Rochester and (5) Rensselaer. The U.S. News list includes tuition and fees for each school.
Students Review listed only seven New York universities in their top 50 list. From first through seventh, they were (1) Marist College in Poughkeepsie, (2) Hamilton College in Clinton, (3) Colgate University in Hamilton, (4) University of Rochester, (5) Cornell, (6) Syracuse and (7) Rensselaer.
Schools that made every single list cited were the University of Rochester, Cornell University, Syracuse University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.