A Guide to Manhattan Colleges and Universities

Attending college in the midst of Manhattan is a dream for many aspiring undergrads. If you're considering your options for higher learning in the big city, look no further. We've done the legwork here to round up basic details on the major colleges and universities in Manhattan, so you can find the perfect educational fit for your future degree. This list includes data from 2016.

Barnard College

Manhattan Location: Upper West Side

Tuition & Fees: $47,631

Undergraduate Enrollment: 2,573

Year Founded: 1889

Public or Private: Private

Official Bio: "Since its founding in 1889, Barnard has been a distinguished leader in higher education, offering a rigorous liberal arts foundation to young women whose curiosity, drive, and exuberance set them apart. Ours is a diverse intellectual community in a unique learning environment that provides the best of all worlds: small, intimate classes in a collaborative liberal arts setting dedicated to the advancement of women with the vast resources of Columbia University just steps away – in the heart of vibrant and electric New York City."

Website: barnard.edu

Columbia University

Manhattan Location: Morningside Heights

Tuition & Fees: $51,008

Undergraduate Enrollment: 6,170

Year Founded: 1754

Public or Private: Private

Official Bio: "For more than 250 years, Columbia has been a leader in higher education in the nation and around the world. At the core of our wide range of academic inquiry is the commitment to attract and engage the best minds in pursuit of greater human understanding, pioneering new discoveries, and service to society."

Website: columbia.edu

Cooper Union

Manhattan Location: East Village

Tuition & Fees: $42,650

Undergraduate Enrollment: 876

Year Founded: 1859

Public or Private: Private

Official Bio: "Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture, and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences."

Website: cooper.edu

CUNY—Baruch College

Manhattan Location: Gramercy

Tuition & Fees: $17,771 (out-of-state); $7,301 (in-state)

Undergraduate Enrollment: 14,857

Year Founded: 1919

Public or Private: Public

Official Bio: "Baruch College is ranked among the region's and nation's top colleges by U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, Princeton Review, and others. Our campus is within easy reach of Wall Street, Midtown, and the global headquarters of major companies and non-profit and cultural organizations, giving students unparalleled internship, career, and networking opportunities. The college's more than 18,000 students, who speak more than 110 languages and trace their heritage to more than 170 countries, have been repeatedly named one of the most ethnically diverse student bodies in the United States."

Website: baruch.cuny.edu

CUNY—City College (CCNY)

Manhattan Location: Harlem

Tuition & Fees: $15,742 (out-of-state), $6,472 (in-state)

Undergraduate Enrollment: 12,209

Year Founded: 1847

Public or Private: Public

Official Bio: "Since its founding in 1847, The City College of New York (CCNY) has been true to its legacy of access, opportunity, and transformation. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic, and boldly visionary as the city itself. CCNY advances knowledge and critical thinking and fosters research, creativity, and innovation across academic, artistic, and professional disciplines. As a public institution with public purpose, CCNY produces citizens who make an impact on the cultural, social, and economic vitality of New York, the nation, and the world."

Website: ccny.cuny.edu

CUNY—Hunter College

Manhattan Location: Upper East Side

Tuition & Fees: $15,750 (out-of-state), $6,480 (in-state)

Undergraduate Enrollment: 16,879

Year Founded: 1870

Public or Private: Public

Official Bio: "Hunter College, located in the heart of Manhattan, is the largest college in the City University of New York (CUNY). Founded in 1870, it is also one of the oldest public colleges in the country. More than 23,000 students currently attend Hunter, pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees in more than 170 areas of study. Hunter's student body is as diverse as New York City itself. For more than 140 years, Hunter has provided educational opportunities for women and minorities, and today, students from every walk of life and every corner of the world attend Hunter."

Website: hunter.cuny.edu/main

Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)

Manhattan Location: Chelsea

Tuition & Fees: $18,510 (out-of-state), $6,870 (in-state)

Undergraduate Enrollment: 9,567

Year Founded: 1944

Public or Private: Public

Official Bio: "One of New York City’s premier public institutions, FIT is an internationally recognized college for design, fashion, art, communications, and business. We’re known for our rigorous, unique, and adaptable academic programming, experiential learning opportunities, academic and industry partnerships, and commitment to research, innovation, and entrepreneurship."

Website: fitnyc.edu

Fordham University

Manhattan Location: Lincoln Center (with additional campuses in the Bronx and Westchester)

Tuition & Fees: $45,623

Undergraduate Enrollment: 8,633

Year Founded: 1841

Public or Private: Private

Official Bio: "We’re a Jesuit, Catholic university. Our spirit comes from the nearly 500-year history of the Jesuits. It’s the spirit of full-hearted engagement – with profound ideas, with communities around the world, with injustice, with beauty, with the entirety of the human experience. This is what makes us Fordham: We’re a tight community in New York City, and we value and educate the whole person. Much of our Jesuit history and mission comes down to three ideas, which, translated from the Latin, mean roughly this: strive for excellence in everything you do, care for others, and fight for justice. It adds up to an education that works. Wisdom, experience, morality, critical thinking, creative problem-solving. This is what Fordham students take into the world."

Website: fordham.edu

Marymount Manhattan College

Manhattan Location: Upper East Side

Tuition & Fees: $28,700

Undergraduate Enrollment: 1,858

Year Founded: 1936

Public or Private: Private

Official Bio: "Marymount Manhattan College is an urban, independent, liberal arts college. The mission of the college is to educate a socially and economically diverse student body by fostering intellectual achievement and personal growth and by providing opportunities for career development. Inherent in this mission is the intent to develop an awareness of social, political, cultural, and ethical issues in the belief that this awareness will lead to concern for, participation in, and improvement of society. To accomplish this mission, the college offers a strong program in the arts and sciences for students of all ages, as well as substantial pre-professional preparation. Central to these efforts is the particular attention given to the individual student. Marymount Manhattan College seeks to be a resource and learning center for the metropolitan community."

Website: mmm.edu

New School

Manhattan Location: Greenwich Village

Tuition & Fees: $42,977

Undergraduate Enrollment: 6,695

Year Founded: 1919

Public or Private: Private

Official Bio: "Imagine a place where scholars, artists, and designers find the support they need to challenge convention and fearlessly create positive change in the world. Imagine an intellectual and creative haven that never has – and never will – settle for the status quo. The New School is a progressive urban university where the walls between disciplines are dissolved so that journalists can collaborate with designers, architects with social researchers, media specialists with activists, poets with musicians."

Website: newschool.edu

New York Institute of Technology (NYIT)

Manhattan Location: Upper West Side (with other campuses on Long Island)

Tuition & Fees: $33,480

Undergraduate Enrollment: 4,291

Year Founded: 1955

Public or Private: Private

Official Bio: "Explore New York Institute of Technology – a dynamic, highly ranked, and accredited not-for-profit university committed to educating the next generation of leaders, and to inspiring innovation and advancing entrepreneurship. Our 12,000 students from nearly all 50 states and 100 countries at campuses around the world become engaged, technologically savvy physicians, architects, scientists, engineers, business leaders, digital artists, health care professionals, and more."

Website: nyit.edu

New York University

Manhattan Location: Greenwich Village

Tuition & Fees: $46,170

Undergraduate Enrollment: 24,985

Year Founded: 1831

Public or Private: Private

Official Bio: "Founded in 1831, New York University is now one of the largest private universities in the United States. Of the more than 3,000 colleges and universities in America, New York University is one of only 60 member institutions of the distinguished Association of American Universities. From a student body of 158 during NYU's very first semester, enrollment has grown to more than 50,000 students at three degree-granting campuses in New York City, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai, and at study away sites in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America. Today, students come from every state in the union and from 133 foreign countries."

Website: nyu.edu

Pace University

Manhattan Location: Financial District

Tuition & Fees: $41,325

Undergraduate Enrollment: 8,694

Year Founded: 1906

Public or Private: Private

Official Bio: "Since 1906, Pace University has produced thinking professionals by providing high-quality education for the professions with a firm base in liberal learning amid the advantages of the New York Metropolitan Area. A private university, Pace has campuses in New York City and Westchester County, enrolling almost 13,000 students in bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs in its College of Health Professions, Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, Lubin School of Business, School of Education, School of Law, and Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems."

Website: pace.edu

School of Visual Arts

Manhattan Location: Gramercy

Tuition & Fees: $41,900

Undergraduate Enrollment: 3,714

Year Founded: 1947

Public or Private: Private

Official Bio: "Comprised of more than 6,000 students at its Manhattan campus and 38,000 alumni in 75 countries, SVA also represents one of the most influential artistic communities in the world. The mission of the School of Visual Arts is to educate future generations of global creative citizens to foster cultural and social change that promotes our core values through the pursuit and achievement of their professional goals."

Website: sva.edu