New Paltz among country’s smartest public colleges

Business Insider has ranked SUNY New Paltz as one of the top 104 smartest public colleges in the nation.

The recently published list, which features colleges that offer “brainpower and affordability,” ranks institutions based on average standardized test scores as reported to U.S. News & World Report. According to Business Insider, “research shows that both the SAT and ACT are good measures of general cognitive ability and give a reasonable snapshot of the brainpower level of that school.”

Earlier this fall, the College was ranked No. 4, up from No. 6 last year, among public regional universities in the North offering both bachelor’s and master’s degree programs according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2015 college rankings. The College also ranked No.25 among best public and private regional universities in the North with bachelor’s and master’s degree programs, up from No. 33 last year.

The annual rankings, in which U.S. News & World Report categorizes schools based on criteria created by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, provide a resource for parents and students contemplating entering the competitive world of higher education. The guidebook look at how schools stack up based on widely accepted indicators of excellence, including quality of the incoming class, acceptance rate, SAT/ACT scores, retention rates, graduation rates, and student/faculty ratio.

Read the Business Insider‘s full list and methodology here.

SUNY New Paltz Rankings
SUNY New Paltz is nationally recognized among the nation’s top public colleges in a variety of categories: Princeton Review named the College to its 2015 list of “Best Colleges: Region by Region;” Kiplinger’s Best Values in Public Higher Education ranked New Paltz 49th nationally, and listed the College among Kiplinger’s “30 Best College Values in the Mid-Atlantic,” and among Kiplinger’s “Best College Values Under $30,000.” The College also ranked 2nd nationally in the Affordable Colleges Online list of the nation’s most affordable colleges with the biggest return on investment; ranked 6th in Great Value Colleges 2014 list of “50 Affordable Colleges in the Northeast;” ranked in The Princeton Review’s Guide to 332 Green Colleges; and was recognized by the US Department of State among the nation’s leaders in Fulbright Scholars.