CCNY is one of 209 schools chosen by The Princeton Review as a 2025 "Best Value College."
The City College of New York is one of the nation's best colleges for students seeking a great education with excellent career services and at a relatively affordable price, according to The Princeton Review®.
The Princeton Review chose 209 schools for its 2025 "Best Value Colleges" list. The selections were primarily based on data from the company's surveys of administrators at more than 650 colleges in 2024–2025. Criteria covered everything from academics, cost, and financial aid to graduation rates, and student debt.
"We congratulate The City College of New York along with all of the other exceptional institutions that made our 'Best Value Colleges for 2025', list," said Rob Franek, editor-in-chief of The Princeton Review. "They offer outstanding academics and excellent career services, and they demonstrate extraordinary commitments to affordability via generous financial aid and/or comparatively low sticker prices. For all of those reasons—and more—we recommend them highly to college applicants."
The company factored in data from its surveys of students attending the schools as well as data from PayScale.com’s surveys of alumni of the schools about their starting and mid-career salaries and job satisfaction. In all, The Princeton Review crunched more than 40 data points to tally return on investment ratings of the colleges. Those ratings were the primary bases for the company's selection of schools as Best Value Colleges.
The Princeton Review gave CCNY an ROI rating score of 88/99. Students surveyed cited the College’s "quality and challenging education," "commitment to provid[e] opportunities to all...students no matter [their] race or background” and "broad curriculum.” Students also noted that their instructors are good at fostering "discussion and engagement" and "will help you in any way they can to achieve your goals, going “above and beyond for their students in terms of making time and really listening."
Simply put, "CCNY's student body is one of the most diverse in the country," said one student. Undergrads here come from "all around the world" and it's rather routine to hear "many languages... spoken on campus," said another. "I've met so many peers from so many backgrounds, I've lost count,” one agreed. Many also stress that this diversity extends across all "racial and socioeconomic" lines as well. As another undergrad explained, "The university draws people of incredible intellect who are maybe economically challenged and allows them to excel.”
The Princeton Review does not rank the Best Value Colleges hierarchically on a hierarchical list, from 1 to 209. However, the project report features seven categories of ranking lists, each one ranking the top public colleges and the top private colleges for the category.
CCNY was also listed thirteenth of the Top 20 Best Schools for Making an Impact (Public Schools).
CCNY annually receives high rankings from the Princeton Review. In August, the company named CCNY as one of The Best 390 Colleges for the eighth consecutive year.
About The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review is a leading tutoring, test prep, and college admissions services company. Every year, it helps millions of college- and graduate school–bound students as well as working professionals achieve their education and career goals through its many education services and products. These include online and in-person courses delivered by a network of more than 4,000 teachers and tutors; online resources; a line of more than 150 print and digital books published by Penguin Random House; and dozens of categories of school rankings. The company's Tutor.com brand, now in its 25th year, is one of the largest online tutoring services in the U.S. It comprises a community of thousands of tutors who have delivered more than 28 million tutoring sessions. The Princeton Review, headquartered in New York, is not affiliated with Princeton University.
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.
Syd Steinhardt
ssteinhardt@ccny.cuny.edu
212-650-7875