Alfred University

Private · Moderately Selective · NY

Photo: Martin Klingensmith (Raidfibre) (CC BY-SA 3.0)

School data & stats

TypePrivate

LocationNY · Northeast

SettingRural

Undergrads1,423

Student:faculty9:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate44.2%

6-yr grad rate57%

Drop-out rate22.5%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$42k

Out-of-state tuition$42k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity36.2%

Gender diversity52.3%

International8.8%

Identity—

Overview

Alfred University is a private university in the small village of Alfred, in the rural Allegheny hills of western New York. It is distinctive for housing the New York State College of Ceramics, a statutory college that operates within Alfred as part of the State University of New York system even though Alfred itself is private — an unusual public-private hybrid arrangement found almost nowhere else in American higher education.

Academics

The College of Ceramics makes Alfred a genuine world center for ceramic art and ceramic engineering, with glass science and glass art programs that few other institutions anywhere can match; its ceramic engineering track, housed in the Inamori School of Engineering, trains materials scientists and engineers who go on to work in advanced materials and glass industries. Beyond ceramics, the university offers business, engineering, and liberal arts programs within a small, close-knit academic community.

Campus & student life

The Alfred campus sits in a genuinely rural, intimate setting with a strong studio-arts culture running alongside its engineering programs — the visual arts studios and engineering labs sit close together, producing real cross-pollination between artists and engineers rare at other schools. Division III athletics and a close residential community round out student life.

Worth knowing

The dual public-private structure — a SUNY statutory college embedded inside a private university — is genuinely unusual and affects tuition and financial aid differently depending on whether a student enrolls in the College of Ceramics or one of Alfred's other colleges, a distinction worth understanding before applying.

alfred.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate73.8%

Enrolled mid-50%SAT 1095–1310 · ACT 24–29

Test policyoptional

Rec letters—

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

AdmissionRolling

Applying