SUNY New Paltz jumped more than 65 places in the 2019 edition of the Kiplinger’s Personal Finance “Best College Values” list, coming in at number 35 among U.S. public colleges and number 173 among all U.S. colleges and universities.
New Paltz’s rise into the top 200 of the Kiplinger’s nationwide list places it third among all SUNY colleges and universities.
Since Kiplinger’s began calculating value in higher education 20 years ago, the publication has revised its approach to emphasize metrics with a proven correlation with students’ success later in life, including on-time graduation rates, retention rates and low student debt at graduation.
SUNY New Paltz performs especially well on measures like these. Kiplinger’s profile of the SUNY New Paltz (which sources its data from the U.S. Department of Education and Peterson’s Databases) estimates the College’s four-year graduation rate at 55% and first-year retention rate at 87%, both well above national averages.
Kiplinger’s estimates average debt at graduation for New Paltz students at $26,385, thousands less than current national averages.
See Kiplinger’s full 2019 list of Best College Values to read more about their methodology and goals in creating this resource for prospective students and families.
SUNY New Paltz in College and University Rankings
SUNY New Paltz is consistently ranked among the nation’s top public colleges by a variety of highly regarded publications. Most recently, the Social Mobility Index placed SUNY New Paltz in the top three percent nationwide in its measurement of students’ success climbing the socioeconomic ladder; the U.S. News & World Report placed New Paltz in the top 10 among all public universities in its North region; Forbes Magazine named New Paltz in its “America’s Best Value Colleges” feature; and the College was named a Military Friendly® School with an additional Gold distinction.
