Best Value For Money Colleges In NYC

GRAMERCY, NY – New York City might be a pricey place to live, but one of its colleges has been listed among the best in the nation for value for money in a new report from Money magazine.

CUNY 's Baruch College, on Lexington Ave. at E. 23rd St., made number 8 of 727 colleges ranked for their quality based on price.

Money pared down its rankings by only including institutions that had at least 500 students, had sufficient, reliable data that could be analyzed, and weren’t strapped for cash. The colleges also had graduation rates that were at least the median for its institutional category — public, private or historically black college or university — or had a high “value-added” graduation rate.

Here are the best colleges in YOUR PATCH STATE and their overall ranks.

1. CUNY Baruch (8)
2. Barnard College: [54]
3. Columbia University: [56]
4. CUNY Queens College: [81]
5. John Jay College Of Criminal Justice: [109]

Here’s Money magazine's the breakdown of Baruch:

• Overall rank: 8
• Median SAT score: 1240
• Estimated price 2018-19 without aid: $32,500
• Est. price 2018-19 with average grant: $10,200
• Percent with need who get grants: 56%
• Average student debt: $10,800
• Early career earnings: $54,500

MONEY used research and expert advice on education quality, financing and value to create its rankings. Princeton University in New Jersey ranked No. 1 overall with a median SAT/ACT score of 1500/34 and an estimated price without aid of $67,700. Money says every student at Princeton who needs a grant gets one, and the average recipient sees the estimated price fall to $19,000.

The average Princeton grad accrues just $7,500 in student debt — less than half that of the No. 2 school, University of California-San Diego — and sees early career earnings of nearly $70,000.

Here are the top 10 colleges overall for the money, according to the magazine.

1. Princeton University - Princeton, NJ
2. University of California-San Diego - La Jolla, CA
3. University of California-Irvine - Irvine, CA
4. University of California-Los Angeles - Los Angeles, CA
5. Stanford University - Stanford, CA
6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Cambridge, MA
7. University of California-Berkeley - Berkeley, CA
8. CUNY Bernard M Baruch College - New York, NY
9. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor - Ann Arbor, MI
10. University of Virginia-Main Campus - Charlottesville, VA

When it comes to graduating and not owing money, CUNY is the place to be, with six campuses falling in the top 10 for lowest average student debt. CUNY graduates in New York City, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens typically owe between $10,000 and $12,000.

Money acknowledged that money isn’t everything when it comes to college, noting that what students actually learn remains somewhat of a mystery.

Click here to see the full rankings.

Patch national reporter Dan Hampton contributed to this article.

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