CCNY's tradition of quality and affordability continues to earn national recognition.
Recognized perennially for its tradition of quality, affordability and outstanding student outcomes, The City College of New York is once again listed among the nation’s Best Value Schools by Money Magazine.
Money’s annual Best Colleges list showcases the country’s top values, based on graduation rates, cost of attendance, financial aid, alumni salaries and more. There isn’t one “best” college for every student, but a star rating on more than 700 colleges that can help prospective students build a list of standout schools that fit their budget.
CCNY is ranked highly on Money’s 2025 list with four and half stars in two categories: Best Public Colleges and Best Colleges in the Northeast.
To create the of Best Colleges, the magazine weighed dozens of data points related to quality, affordability and student outcomes. Data collection and analysis for the ratings were led by Money’s rankings partner, Witlytic. Money’s editorial staff, however, was solely responsible for the final ratings decisions.
Methodology Behind 2025 Rankings
Money started with all of the four-year public and private nonprofit colleges in the country, a group that totals more than 2,400. To make its initial cut, a college had to:
- Have at least 500 undergraduate students or 150 freshmen;
- Have sufficient, reliable data to be analyzed;
- Not be in financial distress;
- Have a graduation rate that was at or above the median for its institutional category (public, private or historically black college or university), or have a high “value-added” graduation rate (in other words: score in the top 25% of graduation rates after accounting for the student body).
A total of 732 schools met the requirements in Money’s initial cut. It ranked them on 25 factors in three categories:
- Quality of education (30% of weighting);
- Affordability (40% of weighting);
- Outcomes (30% of weighting),
Click here for a more detailed description of the methodology.
This is the latest recognition of the Grove School’s quality by a ranking body. Earlier this summer, The Princeton Review ranked CCNY one of its 209 Best Value Colleges for 2025.
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Lightcast puts at $3.2 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. In 2023, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.
Jay Mwamba
p: 917.892.0374
e:
jmwamba@ccny.cuny.edu