The U.S. News & World Report (USNWP) has released its 2021 Best College rankings, where SUNY New Paltz ranked at No. 9 for top public schools in the north region.
SUNY New Paltz was also ranked No. 45 out of 176 schools in the “regional universities north” category, No. 21 in “best colleges for veterans” and No. 22 in “best undergraduate teaching.” USNWP offers a place for incoming college students to compare college; rankings like these help showcase different aspects of an institution.
USNWP “have earned a reputation as the leading provider of service news and information that improves the quality of life of its readers by focusing on health, personal finance, education, travel, cars, news and opinion.”
USNWP calculates the rankings through data and scientific surveys, such as looking at graduation rates, social mobility, faculty resources and graduation rate performance.
“Only thoroughly vetted academic data from our surveys and reliable third-party sources are used to calculate each ranking factor,” reads the USNWP website. “This means for better or for worse, we do not factor nonacademic elements like social life and athletics.”
Since 2018, SUNY New Paltz has increased its ranking by one in both the top public schools in the north region category and the best colleges for veterans category.
Dean of Admission Lisa Jones and Associate Dean of Admission and Director of Freshman Admission Kimberly Strano say the school’s growing reputation amongst current and graduated students helped to increase their rankings.
“We provide the building blocks for our students to become active participants in our global society allowing them to be successful in careers of today and tomorrow. Recent construction, as well as our newest building, the Engineering Innovation Hub, which houses the Hudson Valley Additive Manufacturing Center, help to demonstrate the commitment to making sure that we are providing our students with state-of-the-art facilities to work in during their education at New Paltz.”
Jones and Strano also acknowledged that, although updated buildings and technology help an education, there is value to what is learned outside those buildings.
“New Paltz also understands that so much of a student’s education will come from outside the classroom. The college is a diverse environment in both thoughts and ideas, and the people who live, learn and work here. This diversity is reflected in the racial and ethnic groups, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and religious and political affiliations.”
