The Best Master's in Accounting Programs in New York for 2027

Graduates of NYU earn the most four years after finishing, a median of $134,461; the lowest figure here is $91,337 at Stony Brook.

NYU leads on both counts: the top rank among these schools and the highest graduate pay.

In-state tuition among the 17 accounting programs analyzed in New York runs from $6,930 at CUNY Bernard M. Baruch College and CUNY Hunter College to $62,990 at Fordham University, a $56,060 spread for what is, on paper, the same MAcc credential. The average graduation rate across every program in this set is 74%, meaning cost differences this large are not consistently bought back with better completion odds: Baruch sits within two points of that average at a fraction of the price, while Fordham's 82% graduation rate costs $56,060 more per year in tuition alone.

Run the math against the national numbers. The BLS reports a median salary of $94,160 a year for accountants and auditors. Baruch's full-year, in-state tuition of $6,930 equals about 27 days of that median salary, a cost most graduates clear within a month of starting work. Fordham's $62,990 equals roughly eight months of that same median salary, before rent, books, or loan interest. Stony Brook, University at Buffalo, and SUNY Geneseo all cluster at $7,070 in-state, within $140 of the CUNY schools, making the SUNY system the most consistent low-cost route into a New York MAcc.

Private master of accountancy programs in New York are not uniformly expensive: Touro University charges $19,472 in-state, a middle tier well below NYU's $62,796 or Ithaca College's $52,616. The lesson for anyone comparing accounting programs in New York is to check the actual in-state tuition figure for each school rather than assume private or public predicts cost; Touro undercuts Adelphi ($46,784) and Ithaca by tens of thousands of dollars despite both being private nonprofits.

Chapter 530 of the Laws of 2025 adds a New York route of 120 semester hours and two years of experience on November 21, 2026; before that a license takes 150 hours and one year. Experience must be supervised by a licensed U.S. CPA and can come from public accounting, government, industry or a college.

To sit for the exam: 120 semester hours with a course in each of the four core accounting areas. Every route also requires passing all four sections of the Uniform CPA Examination.

A master's from this list usually takes a candidate past the 150 semester hours of New York's one-year route; the count covers every college credit, undergraduate included. From November 21, 2026 it stops being the only way in, when the two-year bachelor's route opens.

Checked against the New York State Board for Public Accountancy and the law behind it in October 2026. These rules are changing state by state, so confirm them with the board before you plan a course schedule around them.

AACSB (https://www.aacsb.edu/) is the accrediting body most selective MAcc programs point to, and it issues a separate, harder-to-earn accreditation specifically for accounting units on top of its general business accreditation. ACBSP is a second, more widely held accreditation standard used by many regional and smaller private programs. The distinction matters for New York applicants because a separately AACSB-accredited program signals faculty research standards and curriculum review that a general business accreditation does not guarantee on its own.

Several of the highest-scoring accounting programs in New York, including NYU Stern, Baruch's Zicklin School of Business, and Fordham's Gabelli School, sit within business schools long associated with AACSB's accounting-specific accreditation track. That concentration is not a coincidence: the same institutional investment that earns separate accounting accreditation, dedicated faculty, updated curriculum, employer relationships, also tends to produce the higher graduation rates and Program Scores this ranking measures.

Before enrolling, confirm current accreditation status directly on AACSB's site rather than relying on a school's own marketing page, since accreditation status can change and a program's status at the time of this ranking may not reflect its status when you apply to an accredited MAcc program in New York.

New York University leads every accounting program in this analysis with a 96.8 Program Score and an 88% graduation rate, the highest completion rate of any school in the state, but that standing comes at $62,796 in-state tuition, the second-highest in the set. CUNY Bernard M. Baruch College is the clearest value play among the best master's in accounting in New York: a 92 Program Score, a 72% graduation rate, and tuition of $6,930, roughly one-ninth of NYU's price for a program that trails NYU's score by less than five points.

Fordham University ties Baruch's 92 Program Score but with an 82% graduation rate and $62,990 in-state tuition, the single highest tuition figure among the 17 accounting programs analyzed. Stony Brook University, 89.7 score, 76% graduation rate, $7,070 tuition, and Touro University, 87.5 score, 72% graduation rate, $19,472 tuition, round out the top five.

Beyond the top five, the SUNY and CUNY systems dominate the value tier: University at Buffalo, 87.4 score, 75% graduation rate, $7,070, SUNY Geneseo, 84 score, 71% graduation rate, $7,070, and CUNY Hunter College, 83.9 score, 57% graduation rate, $6,930, all deliver Program Scores above 83 at a fraction of the state's private-school tuition. Ithaca College, 85.8 score, 76% graduation rate, $52,616, and Adelphi University, 84.2 score, 67% graduation rate, $46,784, fill the higher-cost private tier among New York's MAcc lineup, useful for students who want a smaller private campus without paying NYU or Fordham prices.

Online and hybrid study can suit working accountants in New York who need the 150th credit hour without leaving a paycheck, and format alone does not set a program's quality.

Touro University, at an 87.5 score with a 72% graduation rate and $19,472 in-state tuition, runs multiple New York campuses and commonly structures its accounting coursework with evening and hybrid formats aimed at working students layering a MAcc on top of a full-time job. Combined with the 4+1 accelerated tracks available at public schools like Baruch and Stony Brook, New York offers at least three distinct speed-and-format options for earning a MAcc: a five-year combined bachelor's-to-MAcc path, a traditional two-year on-campus master's, or an evening or hybrid format through a school like Touro.

Whichever format a prospective student picks, the credit-hour math for CPA licensure does not change across New York's MAcc applicants: online or accelerated, the 150 total credit hours of New York's current license route count the same, so the format decision should turn on cost, schedule, and learning style, not on licensure eligibility.

The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook (https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/accountants-and-auditors.htm) puts the national median salary for accountants and auditors at $94,160 a year. That figure is a national field median, not a per-school outcome, so it applies the same regardless of which of the 17 accounting programs in New York a graduate attends; it is the baseline against which every program's tuition on this list should be measured, not a promise tied to any individual school.

For detailed, occupation-level wage breakdowns by metro area, including New York City and the state's other labor markets, the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program (https://www.bls.gov/oes/) publishes data that can sharpen the national $94,160 figure into a regional estimate. A CPA license, unlocked by the 150-credit coursework most New York MAcc curricula are built to deliver, remains the credential most closely tied to higher-paying roles within the profession, though BLS does not break out a separate CPA-only wage figure.

Whatever program a graduate chooses from New York's MAcc list, the return on tuition should be judged against that same $94,160 national benchmark: a $6,930 program like Baruch recovers its full cost in under a month of that salary, while a $62,990 program like Fordham takes roughly eight months, a gap worth weighing seriously before enrolling.