Which is more prestigious: Arizona State University or Colgate University?

The biggest practical tradeoff is national academic reputation versus broad public name visibility. Colgate usually carries more prestige in selective admissions, academic circles, and graduate school contexts because it is a highly selective private liberal arts college with a strong reputation for close faculty attention and rigorous undergraduate education. Arizona State has much wider mass-market recognition because of its size, major sports presence, and huge alumni network, but that is not the same thing as being viewed as more elite.

In most prestige-based comparisons, Colgate comes out ahead. Among employers and grad schools that know higher education well, Colgate is typically seen as the more selective and traditionally prestigious institution. Its smaller scale, private liberal arts identity, and long-established academic reputation matter in those settings.

ASU is respected, especially for certain programs, research activity, entrepreneurship, and the sheer scale of opportunities available there. In some regions, especially the Southwest, or in fields where ASU has strong program-level visibility, its name may be more familiar to the average person. But familiarity and prestige are different measures, and your question is really about the second one.

So the clearest answer is Colgate for overall prestige. ASU has stronger everyday name recognition in some circles and a much larger public footprint, but Colgate is more likely to be read as the more prestigious school by employers, graduate admissions readers, and people who pay close attention to colleges.