The educational corridor is the home of the Ivy League bastions of Yale and Columbia, other highly regarded universities like Fordham and St. John's and medical teaching hospitals of worldwide renown such as the Beth Israel Medical Center and the New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System.

In size the institutions extend from City University of New York - or CUNY as it's more commonly called - with 23 campuses and 400,000-plus students to community colleges where the enrolment is limited to a few hundred.

The educational mosaic of the area is also enhanced by accredited vocationalinstitutions in computer and automotive training, seminaries, the U.S. Coastguard Academy in New London, CT, Julliard School and the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and schools like Sarah Lawrence College that have a special place in U.S. education.