About Brooklyn College

Brooklyn College is an innovative liberal arts institution with a rich history of offering men and women—many of them immigrants or the children of immigrants, often the first in their family to go to college—a superb and affordable education leading to a productive career and a life rich in opportunities.  Noted for its outstanding faculty and beautiful campus, Brooklyn College has been designated one of "America's Best Value Colleges" by the Princeton Review for many years.

Brooklyn College enrolls both undergraduate and graduate students. The total enrollment for fall 2008 was 16,650, with the entering freshman class numbering more than 1,350. Its undergraduates are largely traditional college age and come from all over the country and the world. The college’s admissions criteria are increasingly selective, attracting high-achieving students to the Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College, part of the college’s Honors Academy, a signature program reserved for outstanding students.

The college’s renowned Core Curriculum—long a national model—is the central element in the education of its students and provides them with a broad background in the liberal arts and sciences.  Among the college’s other special programs are The On-Course Advantage (TOCA), which enables dedicated students to graduate in the traditional four years by giving them priority at registration, guaranteed access to required courses, and one-on-one advisement throughout their course of study; and the First College Year, which facilitates the transition to college through summer programs preceding the freshman year and Learning Communities that strengthen bonds among new students and between students and faculty

Over the past ten years, Brooklyn College has expanded, rejuvenated, and diversified its faculty by hiring more than 250 young scholars who now make up over 50 percent of the full-time teaching faculty. Members of the faculty have received Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowships, and are recipients of major grants from such institutions as NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. World-renowned concert pianist and contemporary American music performer Ursula Oppens joined the faculty in 2009. Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and Brooklyn College alumnus Paul Moses returned here in 2001 to teach in CUNY’s oldest journalism program. The faculty also includes Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and writer Edwin Burrows; Guggenheim Fellowship winner composer Tania León; and Obie Award–winning playwright Mac Wellman.

Brooklyn College is a student-centered campus. It has expanded the services offered by its Center for Academic Advisement and Student Success and the Enrollment Services Center.  This summer saw the opening of the new West Quad Building, which houses all the college’s student services under one roof as well as state-of-the-art physical education and athletic facilities.

As a public institution, Brooklyn College assumes public responsibilities. It has actively broadened its engagement with the surrounding neighborhood and with Brooklyn’s cultural and social organizations, and partners with high schools throughout the borough. Its community newsletter brings campus services, facilities, and appropriate programs to the attention of Brooklyn residents.

A major capital construction and renovation program is currently in progress at Brooklyn College. Ground-breaking for a new performing arts center will take place this fall, and a new science complex is on the drawing board.