Answers:
They are all universities.
Syracuse (seer-accuse)
Cornell (core-Nell)
Binghamton (bing-ham-ton)
Columbia (coal-um-bee-uh)
Rensselaer (Ren-cell-ear)
Albany (awl-bunny)
Vassar (Wasser)
DeVry (dev-rye)
Juilliard (Julie[Andrews]-yard)
Long Island (lawn-Guile-and)
Stony Brook (stone-E-brook)

TIL FurAffinity can do spoiler text

Nice work!

I figured out six of them...after I got Binghamton and Albany, I assumed this was all about cities in New York. I was stuck after I got LI, SB, Cornell and Syracuse. Turns out it wasn't just cities in New York - it was universities in New York!

I fell into the same trap you did!

This in a way reminds me of a riddle I came up with years ago that no-one I've ever shown it has solved. it is entirely text based would you be interested in seeing it?

Sure!

This new version of “Classic Concentration” looks promising.

I was thinking the same thing! You must watch BUZZR, too.

The upper middle helped me solve the upper left. Fun!

Very clever, KT!

I figured it out the theme after solving only two of them ("Nell" and "Ren").

However, if that box is supposed to be spoiler tagged... It didn't work (for me, at least). Glad I figured it out before I scrolled down. :)

Edit: It must be a Firefox thing. It "worked" in Chrome.

bottom left is me

I *think* I have it after two of them... kinda stumped on recognizing others that fit the pattern even where I'm pretty sure I have the rebus.

One trip to a map later and I got another two so I'm sure of the pattern.

…and I'm WRONG!
The first two I figured out were Syracuse and Albany, and the two I got after looking at a map were Binghamton and Stony Brook… so I thought it was confirmed that the pattern was cities in New York. But I was wrong! XD I guess New York just has a lot of universities!

Still 2 or 3 I haven't figured out.

I only got one of them before I ran out of patience, so I'm hopeless.