Amid the college application season, many prospective students trust university rankings to guide their decisions. Publications such as U.S. News & World Report, the Wall Street Journal and Forbes use different metrics to assess universities’ outcome and value, leading schools like NYU to be ranked as high as 30th and as low as 273rd.
The university places highest in assessments that prioritize alumni success and reputation among peer institutions. U.S. News, which has historically ranked NYU higher than other outlets, most heavily weighs compiled ratings of academic quality from presidents, provosts and deans at peer universities. This component, titled peer assessment, accounts for accreditation, teaching outcomes and other factors that cannot be as easily quantified.
NYU’s rank declines when assessments prioritize financial value. The WSJ bases more than half of its evaluation on students’ return on investment, placing the university over 200 spots below where it sits on the U.S. News ranking. NYU’s reputation as one of the country’s most expensive universities, coupled with major offerings that garner statistically lower salaries compared to other universities, disadvantage it in rankings that consider years taken to pay off tuition.
The university’s arts programs bolster its position in Forbes’ rankings, which attributes 15% of its ranking to alum prevalence in lists such as Forbes 30 Under 30 and Forbes 400. The organization has written that the university’s alumni “stand highly decorated” in Grammy Award, Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award winners and ranked NYU 49th this year — despite attributing 20% of its ranking to alumni salary, 15% to student debt and 15% to return on investment.
Some rankings also assess diversity within universities, although this metric generally does not comprise more than 10% of evaluations. The QS ranking of universities, which allocates 25% of its ranking to “diversity and internationalism,” placed NYU 43rd globally and 14th among U.S. colleges. NYU has a higher population of international students compared to its peer institutions, and was recently ranked first in the nation for study abroad opportunities.
NYU’s U.S. News ranking has risen from No. 36 in 2017 to No. 25 in 2023, before falling to No. 35 in 2024. In the September rankings, the university moved up five spots, placing it at No. 30 nationally. NYU was also ranked 68th in the “Best Value” category, which evaluates financial aid availability and total cost.
Jelena Brankovic, a sociology professor at Bielefeld University, has conducted several studies analyzing the nuance of university rankings and how it affects universities and students. In an interview with WSN, she advised that students pay little consideration to their merit.
“Two very similar institutions can be 20, 30, or more places apart, while in reality, it’s difficult to really ‘see’ these differences once you are there,” Brankovic writes. “It’s extremely difficult, I’d even say impossible, for a ranking to reflect the real-life experiences of all the people at a particular institution.”
Contact Amelia Raymond at [email protected].
