Some of Broadway, Wall Street, Lady Liberty and more, New York City also boasts a world-class selection of higher education. With seven universities in New York featured within the QS World University Rankings® 2014/15 and an additional three in close proximity to the city, there’s good reason why New York is one of the most popular study destinations in the world, ranked 15th in the QS Best Student Cities 2015.
With a famously heterogeneous outlook, New York offers fantastic facilities for all, from budding economists to wannabe movie stars. Whatever subject you decide to study in New York, and whichever aspect of city life appeals to you – shopping, clubbing, eating, learning, socializing – NYC has an institution and neighborhood to suit.
To help you decide where you might like to study in New York City, here’s an overview of the city’s top universities, based on the QS World University Rankings® 2014/15.
1. Columbia University
New York City’s highest ranking institution, Columbia University currently stands in joint 14thplace in the QS World University Rankings, Maryland’s Johns Hopkins University. A member of the prestigious group of Ivy League universities and a world-leading center of research, Columbia University has a strong offering across the full subject spectrum. In the QS World University Rankings by Faculty, it makes the world’s top 15 for both arts and humanities and social sciences and management; the top 25 for natural sciences and life sciences and medicine; and the top 70 for engineering and technology.
Columbia University has a central location in the Upper West Side of Manhattan – close to the northern tip of Central Park and just off Broadway, the boulevard which gives its name to New York’s theater scene. It boasts a highly diverse faculty (over 3,700 academic staff) and student body (just under 30,000 students overall), with over 7,000 international students from more than 150 different countries.
2. Cornell University
At 19th in the world, just five places behind Columbia, Cornell University is another of the prestigious Ivy League universities, and offers a range of both academic and more vocational courses. Laying claim to being the first US university to offer a degree in veterinary medicine, Cornell University also bears the title of the first US university to teach modern Far-Eastern languages.
Cornell University’s main campus is actually in Ithaca, around 200 miles to the north-west of New York City, but it also has a strong presence in NYC. Its medical campus can be found in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and the Cornell Tech campus is in the Chelsea district, with an ambitious new campus currently under construction on Roosevelt Island – the island located in the middle of the river that separates Manhattan Island and the borough of Queens – set for opening in 2017. Cornell University’s schools of financial engineering and architecture are also based in Manhattan.
3. New York University (NYU)
Though not one of the famed Ivy League universities, New York University (NYU) is nonetheless ranked among the world’s best, currently joint 41st in the world. Notably, New York University has a strong focus on internationalization, with a number of branch campuses around the world and an impressive study abroad program. As well as helping its own students spend time abroad, NYU also counts a large number of international students among its large student community.
While NYU has several New York campuses, its main hub is its Washington Square campus, in Greenwich Village. Dubbed ‘the Village’, this area of Lower Manhattan is famed as one of New York’s most creative and bohemian localities, offering a great atmosphere for NYU students. Over the years the school has attracted an eclectic mix of writers, artists, musicians and intellectuals to study in New York – and no doubt this is all part of the appeal for many creatively minded students heading to NYU.
4. Yeshiva University
Ranked 280th in the world, Yeshiva University is another of the top research universities in New York. It was founded (over 100 years ago) with the mission of combining Jewish traditions and culture with Western heritage, and the continuing influence of this cultural focus is seen in the Yeshiva University Museum, which explores Jewish life through art, architecture and history.
Relatively small compared to most of the other universities in New York listed here, Yeshiva University has around 7,500 students, of which just over 3,000 are undergraduates. With campuses and facilities spread across Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens (and some in Israel), Yeshiva University’s main campus is in the Washington Heights area of Upper Manhattan.
5. City University of New York (CUNY)
Whereas all the other universities in New York listed here are private, the City University of New York (CUNY) is NYC’s public university system. Currently ranked 471-480 in the world, CUNY is the largest urban university system in the US, composed of 24 colleges spread across Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn (plus one on Staten Island), with more than 500,000 students enrolled on a huge variety of courses.