Thirty New York schools made it on WalletHub’s recently released list of best and worst community colleges in 2025.
The personal finance company compared over 650 community colleges across 18 metrics ranging from cost of in-state tuition fees to graduation rate and New York was ranked No. 20 out of all 50 states’ community-college systems.
“A good community college minimizes costs for students while also providing an enriching learning experience that leads to high student retention and high graduation rates,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo says. “The best colleges also help their students even post-graduation by offering employment services to help them find jobs with good salaries.”
Here’s how New York schools fared.
Which New York community colleges are on the list?
Only one community college in New York made it into WalletHub’s top 100: CUNY Stella and Charles Guttman Community College in Manhattan. The school received a No. 98 ranking with a total score of 63.3 and has some of the highest per-pupil spending, according to WalletHub.
Here’s which other New York community colleges made the list.
What are WalletHub’s top five community colleges?
How WalletHub assessed community colleges
WalletHub selected a sample of 653 schools from the list of American Association of Community Colleges member institutions and compared them across three key categories — cost and financing, education outcomes and career outcomes — and 18 key metrics.
The cost and financing category took a look at these aspects:
The education outcomes category analyzed these components:
And the career outcomes category took into account these factors:
Data used to create the ranking was collected as of July 15, 2025 and the information was sourced from the National Center for Education Statistics, Campaign for Free College Tuition, U.S. Department of Education and Council for Community & Economic Research.
Emily Barnes reports on consumer-related issues for the USA TODAY Network’s New York Connect Team, focusing on scam and recall-related topics. Follow her on X and Instagram @byemilybarnes. Get in touch at ebarnes@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: See the NY community colleges ranked best in US and where RCC ranked
Reporting by Emily Barnes, New York Connect Team / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
