City College of New York

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City College of New York
160 Convent Avenue
New York, NY 10031

(212) 650 7000

Our Mission at CCNY
Shepard Hall
The City College of New York (CCNY), the first college of The City University of New York (CUNY), is a comprehensive teaching, research, and service institution dedicated to accessibility and excellence in undergraduate and graduate education. Requiring demonstrated potential for admission and a high level of accomplishment for graduation, the College provides a diverse student body with opportunities to achieve academically, creatively, and professionally in the liberal arts and sciences and in professional fields such as engineering, education, architecture, and biomedical education. The College is committed to fostering student-centered education and advancing knowledge through scholarly research. As a public university with public purposes, it also seeks to contribute to the cultural, social, and economic life of New York.

Biology Labs at CCNYOur Vision
“Open the doors to all. Let the children of the rich and the poor take their seats together and know of no distinction save that of industry, good conduct, and intellect.”
Townsend Harris, Founder, 1847

Since its founding, The City College of New York has provided a world-class higher education to an increasingly diverse student body--serving as one of the single most important avenues to upward mobility in the nation. Access to excellence remains the vision of the College today.

The College strives for excellence in its wide-ranging undergraduate and masters programs (including programs in the only public schools of engineering, architecture, and biomedical education in the city) and in its 13 on-site CUNY doctoral programs – all of which are designed to prepare students for successful careers as well as for continuing graduate and post-graduate education. The College’s commitment to excellence is further exemplified by its emphasis on scholarly research and the integration of this research with teaching at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

City College’s commitment to access is two-fold. It strives to offer an affordable education and to recruit and support a diverse student population, reflective of both New York City and the global society in which we live. This commitment to access stems not only from a belief that every student prepared for a rigorous college education deserves access to and support for it, but also that excellence itself requires the broad inclusion of, in the words of Townsend Harris, “the children of the whole people.”

Finally, the College will strive always to use its most valuable resources – a talented and dedicated faculty and staff and an inclusive and ambitious student body – to take a leadership role in the immediate community and across the nation.

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