World-Class Reputation

Hayes Hall on the South Campus, where UB architecture students dream up tomorrow's models for building and living.

UB is the premier public research university in the northeastern United States and the largest and most comprehensive campus in the 64-campus SUNY system. We’re an established leader and are consistently recognized by top university guides and publications for our excellent value and high-quality academics.

On this page:

Rankings: The facts speak for us

The bronze buffalo in front of the Center for the Arts, North Campus.

  • We were the first SUNY institution invited to join the prestigious Association of American Universities, an association of elite research universities in the U.S. and Canada.
  • One of the world’s best universities —Times Higher Education
  • One of the “Best Values” in public higher education —Kiplinger’s
  • For more than a decade, among the top 20 institutions in the United States hosting international students —Institute of International Education (IIE)
  • Top-ranked destination school for international students — IIE Open Doors
  • Ranked in the Top 20 nationwide for graduating students with the “least debt.” — U.S. News & World Report

Reputation: What others say about UB

High four-year graduation rate, low average student debt at graduation, abundant financial aid, a low sticker price and overall great value.

—Kiplinger’s

Stellar academics and for all it is doing to make college affordable, especially for applicants with need in these tough economic times.
—The Princeton Review “Best Value Colleges”

We also offer some of the country’s strongest graduate and professional degree programs, recognized as among the top-tier schools for quality of programs and research, according to U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Graduate Schools”:

  • English PhD program
  • Graduate School of Education
  • Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
  • Law School
  • Master's program in rehabilitation counseling
  • PharmD program
  • School of Engineering and Applied Sciences 
  • School of Management’s MBA program 
  • School of Nursing
  • School of Public Health and Health Professions
  • School of Social Work

Results: We make a difference in everything we do

Talented Students

Our students are eager to learn and get involved on campus, and they go on to do amazing things. Whether they are conducting climate research in Greenland, performing street theater in Prague or teaching English to refugees, UB students are engaged citizens whose collaborative learning experiences resonate far beyond the classroom. 

  • Forty-eight percent of accepted students scored 1,200 or higher on the SAT (critical reading and math)
  • 35 percent ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school class
  • Approximately 11 percent study abroad

Paras Prasad, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry

World-Renowned Faculty

Our faculty have been recognized as the best teachers and top innovators in the world, winning such prestigious awards as the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the National Medal of Science, the National Medal of Technology, the MacArthur Foundation “genius award” and the Guggenheim Fellowship, among others.

UB students have benefited from the expertise and passion of two U.S. astronauts; one of the country’s top geneticists; a Nobel Prize-winning chemist; the “Father of Chinese Physics,” a Tony Award-nominated stage and screen actor; one of America’s legendary jazz musicians; and the CEOs of a major cable television network and one of Hollywood’s most successful film companies.

Li Yanhong (Robin), co-founder of Chinese search engine Baidu.com.

Accomplished alumni

More than 255,000 UB alumni are making a difference in every state and 150 countries around the world. Among our celebrated graduates are NASA’s lead astronaut for medical issues; a former president of the American Medical Association; the former minister of education in the People’s Republic of China; the CEOs of J. Crew and A&E Television Network; and the Washington Post’s Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist. 

Great Grads

Here are just a few of our many accomplished UB alumni:

  • Co-founder of Baidu.com, major Chinese-language search engine — Li Yanhong (Robin)
  • Industrialist and former Indonesian minister of state-owned enterprises — Tanri Abeng
  • Former Chinese minister of education and current president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering — Zhou Ji
  • Taiwan’s former deputy minister of education — Wu Tieh-Hsiung
  • Former dean of Singapore’s National Institute of Education at Nanyang Technological University — Saravanan Gopinathan
  • Former vice chancellor of Kenyatta University, Kenya  — Everett Standa
  • Executive director of World Education Services — Mariam Assefa
  • Former astronaut and NASA mission specialist — Ellen Shulman Baker
  • Award-winning journalist for CNN — Wolf Blitzer
  • Pulitzer Prize–winning cartoonist for The Washington Post — Tom Toles