About Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is an integral part of the civic, urban, and artistic energy of New York and uses the entire city as a living classroom that broadens our students' understanding of the world around them.
For more than 90 years, the college has been attracting a wide variety of motivated students—many of them immigrants or the children of immigrants who wish to better their lives through a superb education. They come because of the college's renowned faculty of academics, professionals, and artists who are among the best in their field. They know they will be learning on a campus considered one of the most beautiful in the country, with well-equipped facilities, studios, smart classrooms, and production and practice rooms—all with a highly affordable tuition.
Brooklyn College has a student enrollment of 15,938 students—13,405 undergraduates and 2,533 graduates—who come from 136 nations and speak 91 languages.
The college offers 175 undergraduate degree, graduate degree, certificate, and advanced certificate and diploma programs in business; education; the humanities and social sciences; natural and behavioral sciences; and visual, media, and performing arts. More than 4,000 students received bachelor's and master's degrees, as well as certificates and advanced certificates and diplomas, at our last Commencement Ceremony.
Mission Statement
Brooklyn College provides a transformative, distinctive, and affordable education to students from all backgrounds. We are proud of our history of intellectual freedom and academic excellence, as well as our location in a borough known for innovation, culture, and the arts. We have a special commitment to educate immigrants and first-generation college students from the diverse communities that make up our city and state. Our striving spirit reflects our motto: "Nothing without great effort." Through outstanding research and academic programs in the arts, business, education, humanities, and sciences, we graduate well-rounded individuals who think critically and creatively to solve problems. They become leaders who transform their fields and professions and serve our increasingly global community.
Academic Opportunities
Students seeking a highly challenging academic program beyond the college's rigorous overall program are invited to apply to the Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College and the specialized programs in the Honors Academy. Admission into these programs is very competitive and offers tremendous benefits, which may include opportunities to engage in academically rigorous activities throughout the city and across the globe, free tuition and laptops, stipends for travel, and much more.
For undergraduate students, the college follows the CUNY Pathways general education curriculum, which creates a firm foundation in the liberal arts and sciences. Our strong advisement program guides them throughout their college years. Even before their first semester begins, freshmen are introduced to the First College Year, which helps them transition from high school to college through summer bridge programs. First-year Learning Communities strengthen bonds between them and with the faculty. Preprofessional programs are available for students interested in engineering, law, medicine, optometry, and podiatry.
Special programs for graduate students are provided as well. The Graduate Investment Program offers travel grants that support attendance at domestic and international conferences, research grants that fund supplies and materials, and workshops on topics of specific importance to graduate students—grant writing, thesis assistance, and many more. Brooklyn College is also an active part of graduate-focused CUNY programs, including the New York City Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, the Bridges to the Doctorate Program, and the Latin/Greek Institute.
The college encourages students to study abroad through special academic programs. Students have explored media production and cultural studies in South Korea, participated in archaeological digs in Israel and Iceland, studied political systems in Argentina, made documentary films in India, and sharpened their artistic skills in Italy and France, just to name a few. They often assist in their professors' research, engaging in cutting-edge investigations while exploring a part of the world they may not have seen on their own.
A World-Class Faculty
Brooklyn College professors are award winners and recipients of national funding from institutions such as NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Education. The faculty includes Mac Wellman, an Obie Award–winning playwright; Justin Townsend, a Tony Award–winning lighting director; Emmy Award–nominated filmmaker Rick Lopez; acclaimed biographer Jeanne Theoharis; internationally recognized computer theorist Rohit Parikh; esteemed audiologist Shlomo Silman; leading expert in microalgae biotechnology Juergen Polle; organometallic chemist and cancer researcher Maria Contel; political scientist and author Corey Robin; and award-winning author Helen Phillips.
Career Guidance
The Magner Career Center connects students with an array of established organizations across Brooklyn and New York, including Ascend Schools, Bloomberg, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Deloitte, EY, Goldman Sachs, Google, the Guggenheim, HarperCollins, JumpStart, KPMG, Lincoln Center, Morgan Stanley, NASA, the Peace Corps, PricewaterhouseCoopers, SUNY Downstate, Teach For America, UBS, the United Nations, and YAI.
The center's career coaches have assisted students with their applications for various prestigious scholarships and competitive fellowships, such as the America Needs You Fellowship Program, Basta Fellows Program, Goldsmith Scholars Program, Girls Who Code, and Jeanette K. Watson Fellowship Program. These connections are opportunities are offered through our alumni and internship panels, job and internship fairs, job/internship database, company visits, career conferences, and mentor program. With generous donations from Brooklyn College alums, the center provides more than $100,000 a year in stipends to help students afford unpaid internships. It is devoted to leveling the playing field for socioeconomically disadvantaged students and giving everyone the opportunity to succeed within the professional realm. The center's career coaches and mentors come from a wide range of backgrounds, and are therefore able to offer an enhanced understanding of a student's unique circumstances and challenges.
Working with the Brooklyn College Foundation and the Office of Alumni Engagement, the Magner Center has coordinated for hundreds of prominent alumni to speak on campus over the years, including Johnson & Johnson's chief medical officer, Joanne Waldstreicher '81; former global CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, Barry Salzberg '74; Emmy Award–winning actor Jimmy Smits '80; New York Knicks vice president of public relations, Jonathan Supranowitz '94; executive director, Inclusion & Diversity, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., Irene Waxman '70; film, television, and theater director, Joel Zwick '61; sports agent, Jeffrey S. Fried '80; and chief human resources & global diversity officer, Discovery Communications, Adria Alpert Romm '77.
Student Life
Student life at Brooklyn College is active, diverse, and multifaceted. Our students are engaged in 114 student clubs and organizations spanning a broad range of artistic, community, cultural, ethnic, media, religious, social action, and other special interests. More than one dozen fraternities and sororities bring Greek life to campus. Intramural sports are popular, and the college's award-winning basketball, cheerleading, cross country, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, and volleyball teams compete at the Division III level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Building for the Future
Brooklyn College has just completed construction of a new center for the performing arts, providing a fitting home for its award-winning performance programs. The college is also deep into the planning stages for a new state-of-the-art science complex.
