CCNY is one of The Wall Street Journal's 2025 Best College's in the U.S. and was ranked high in best value and social mobility.
The City College of New York is one of The Wall Street Journal and College Pulse’s 2025 Best Colleges in the U.S. and also ranked #4 in best value. The best college rankings rate the top 500 universities in the country and was developed in collaboration with WSJ’s research partners College Pulse and Statista.
The rankings also include #21 in social mobility, #163 in student experience and #187 in best salaries.
City College ranked #225 in the best college category. The ranking aims to guide prospective students across the nation while recognizing the colleges doing an outstanding job in higher education and is based on two pillars: student and alumni survey and student outcomes metrics.
The best value ranking lists schools in order of how quickly the difference between their graduates' salaries and those of comparable high-school graduates pays back the average net price of four years of study-what they call "years to pay off net price."
City College was recently ranked one of the nation's best institutions for undergraduates according to The Princeton Review.
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.