Forbes/CCAP Best Northeastern Schools

By Luke Myers

The northeast is arguably the best region for quality higher education in the country. The top 25 schools in the region are all in the top 40 nation-wide and 41 schools in the top 100 schools of the country are located in the northeast. This high quality generally comes with a high cost, however. Only twelve northeastern colleges are in the top 100 Best Buy list, and other than the U.S. Military Academy, no school in the northeast is in the top 100 of both lists. The 25 best northeastern schools are all private except for West Point, but public schools make a better showing in terms of value, where they constitute two-thirds of the top 25 Best Buys in the region.

An overwhelming number of the nation’s most premiere institutions, when judging based on undergraduate student preferences and outcomes, reside in the northeast. Seven of the top ten and 14 of the top 20 schools in the nation are in this region. The Boston area is the northeast’s work horse, with one fifth of the top 25 schools in the region being located in or around the city.

Unlike other regions, many of the very best schools in the northeast are research universities. Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Columbia Universities along with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are all in the region’s top 10 (and the nation’s top 15). Besides the military academies, the top five public schools include SUNY Binghamton, University of Pittsburgh, Montclair State University, CUNY Baruch College and the College of New Jersey.

Private liberal arts schools still dominate the region, however. Of the top 100 schools in the nation, 27 are private liberal arts colleges in the northeast. The best of these include Williams, Wellesley, Amherst, Swarthmore, Haverford, Bowdoin, and Vassar colleges, all of which reside in the top 20 schools in the nation.


25 Best Northeastern Colleges*

1 United States Military Academy (1)
2 Princeton University (2)
3 Williams College (4)
4 Harvard University (5)
5 Wellesley College (6)
6 Amherst College (8)
7 Yale University (9)
8 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (11)
9 Swarthmore College (12)
10 Columbia University (13)
11 Haverford College (15)
12 Boston College (16)
13 Bowdoin College (18)
14 Vassar College (19)
15 Colby College (24)
16 Middlebury College (25)
17 Union College (26)
18 Colgate University (29)
19 Smith College (31)
20 Bryn Mawr College (35)
21 Franklin and Marshall College (36)
22 Wesleyan University (37)
23 Brandeis University (38)
24 Tufts University (39)
25 Barnard College (40)

25 Best Buy Northeastern Colleges*

1 United States Military Academy (3)
2 Cooper Union (9)
3 U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (17)
4 CUNY, Baruch College (35)
5 United States Coast Guard Academy (44)
6 SUNY, Binghamton (50)
7 University of Vermont (52)
8 St. Joseph's College (57)
9 SUNY, Stony Brook (73)
10 University of Connecticut (81)
11 Wells College (89)
12 SUNY, Albany (99)
13 CUNY, Queens College (114)
14 Princeton University (122)
15 Montclair State University (131)
16 Rutgers University, New Brunswick (132)
17 College of New Jersey (133)
18 SUNY, Environmental Sci. and Forestry (137)
19 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (143)
20 Juniata College (149)
21 Harvard University (153)
22 University of Maine, Orono (154)
23 University of New Hampshire (157)
24 Wellesley College (161)
25 University of Rhode Island (165)


* Numbers in parentheses are from the national rankings.