2025 College Rankings

New York University’s administration is deeply immersed in activism, often prioritizing commitments extraneous to its educational mission—particularly environmental initiatives—at the expense of student needs. Most notably, the administration has a poor track record on free speech. According to data from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), only about 20 percent of students say that it is “extremely” or “very” clear that the university values free expression, and just 14 percent are confident that the administration would defend a speaker in the face of controversy. FIRE gives NYU a “yellow” speech code rating, indicating policies that could easily be misused—and contends that the school frequently violates its own stated commitments to free speech. In 2024, FIRE filed a formal complaint with NYU’s accreditor, citing a long history of suppressing campus debate. Unlike many of its peer institutions, NYU has yet to adopt a position of institutional neutrality.

Given these administrative priorities, NYU’s weak response to the recent surge of campus anti-Semitism was perhaps predictable. The school has faced ongoing criticism for its handling of virulent protests following Hamas’s October 2023 attacks on Israel, with many Jewish students alleging that NYU failed to enforce its code of conduct. In 2024, a group of Jewish students sued the university over its apparent indifference to anti-Semitic chants and harassment. In spring 2025, the federal government announced an investigation into NYU for its failure to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitic aggression.

Students at NYU tend to hold similar political views. There are 4.5 liberal students for every conservative and five times as many liberal student organizations as conservative ones. Overall, students show little openness to opposing perspectives. NYU students are significantly more likely to support banning right-wing speakers than left-wing ones. According to FIRE, 75 percent of students say that it can be acceptable to shout down a speaker; 69 percent say that blocking a campus speech can be acceptable; and 31 percent believe that violence can be justified in certain cases. Since 2019, there have been eight documented attempts to de-platform speakers on campus.

Rampant censorship leads to self-censorship, a serious problem at NYU. Students report frequently holding back their views in conversations with peers, with professors, and even in class discussions. FIRE data show that 16 percent of students say that they are “very” or “fairly” often personally offended by perspectives shared by classmates.

NYU’s curriculum fares better than some of its peers on our metrics. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) gives the university a B+ in its What Will They Learn? ratings, which assign letter grades based on how many of seven core subjects are required in the core curriculum or general education program. While NYU does not require students to study U.S. history or government, it also refrains from mandating DEI-focused courses as part of its core curriculum.

Still, for many students, the education may not justify the cost. Median earnings for NYU graduates ten years after enrollment fall nearly $13,000 short of expectations, based on SAT scores and Pell Grant data. Even more concerning, it typically takes students 3.5 years to repay the cost of their education—well above the overall average of 2.3 years.