Study Names Top Colleges in Upstate New York for 2025 Academic Year

School is in-session in Upstate New York, and across the country.

Each school year, students will leave their homes and families to attend college. The years that students spend away at school are formative ones, as the lessons learned in college will impact them for the rest of their lives.

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Here's the question we have: of the countless colleges universities in Upstate New York, which institutions are giving their students the best educational experience? We did some digging, and found the answer.

An answer to this question was provided by the experts at WalletHub, who recently published a study on the best colleges and universities in the country for the 2025 academic year.

READ MORE: Students at These Upstate NY Colleges Have the Highest Student Loan Burdens

To complete this study, WalletHub's researchers compared more than 800 higher-education institutions in the U.S. across 30 key measures. The data set is grouped into seven categories, such as Student Selectivity, Cost & Financing and Career Outcomes.

Their goal was simple: determine the institutions who provide the best education for the best price.

Overall, the top five universities in the United States in 2025 are:

1. Princeton University
2. Yale University
3. Harvard University
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
5. Dartmouth College

The Clinton, NY-based Hamilton College was ranked the second-best "college" in 2025, as it does not have the university designation. The top university in New York, ranked 12th in the country overall, is Columbia University.

We dug through the rest of the study, and uncovered the top universities in Upstate New York. Scroll below to see that list.