New York Schools Make Moves In Latest U.S. College Rankings Report

The wait is over to find out which colleges and universities are among the best of the best.

The latest U.S. News & World Report released its updated ranking of the nation's best colleges and universities.

Princeton University claimed #1 spot this year while MIT and Harvard respectively rounded out the top 3.

Meanwhile, Stanford and Yale respectively claimed a fourth and fifth-place finish.

These rankings should come as little surprise as these schools have historically claimed the upper half of the top 10 for what seems like decades. In fact, their positions are completely unchanged from last year's report.

However, the bottom half of the list saw plenty of changes with some shocks and upsets. However, for a second year in a row, not a single heavy-hitter from New York was included among the top 10.

Here's the official 2025 rankings of top 10 best universities in America:

1. Princeton University

2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

3. Harvard University

4. Stanford University

5. Yale University

6. California Institute of Technology (+1 from last year)

7. Duke University (+1 from last year)

8. Johns Hopkins University (+2 from last year)

9. Northwestern University (+3 from last year)

10. University of Pennsylvania (-4 from last year)

While disappointing to see yet another year's roundup without a New York school at the top, here's the official ranking of the best colleges here in the state.

Here's how the top New York school changed in rankings from last year.

Cornell was able to gain some ground from 2024's roundup and managed to move up a space. Last year it was tied with Columbia in 12th place.

Speaking of Columbia, it failed to see the same success as its in-state competitor and fell down a peg to 13th place.

On the plus side, the institution outperformed Dartmouth, Notre Dame, Georgetown and Vanderbilt (respectively ranking at #14, tying in #18, and #24 - if you must know).

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Meanwhile, NYU regained some ground after slipping all the way back to 35th place in 2024. This year, it managed to climb 5 spaces to rank as the nation's 30th best university.

Still, this is a far cry from how all New York's top universities performed in the past.

Read More: SUNY Polytechnic in CNY Crowned a "Best Value" Institution

In 2022, Columbia almost beat first-place Princeton while Cornell tied with Rice in 17th place. NYU bowed in 28th place, beating out places like Tufts and Lehigh.

Although making the list at all is an impressive feat, I have a strong feeling school administrators are furiously working at how to get into the top 10 next year.