Macaulay Honors College of the City University of New York

In less than ten years, Macaulay Honors College at The City University of New York has gone from an idea on a blank piece of paper to one of the nation’s leading honors colleges. There are now 1,200 graduates of Macaulay who are defining success in 1,200 different and wonderful ways: as doctors and lawyers, as Rhodes Scholars and teachers, as mathematicians and writers and entrepreneurs and artists.

Macaulay offers an exceptional academic and co-curricular environment for future leaders of New York City. More than 60% of them are immigrants or children of immigrants, and about a third are the first in their family to attend college. Macaulay students enroll in one of seven CUNY senior colleges (Baruch, Brooklyn, City, Hunter, Lehman, Queens, or Staten Island). Through the unique Macaulay advising program, each student develops a coordinated, individualized academic program that includes research, global learning, graduate and professional mentoring, community engagement, and close faculty-student collaboration. Selected for their top high school records and leadership potential, every Macaulay student receives a full-tuition scholarship, a laptop and technology support, a $7,500 study grant to pursue global learning and service opportunities, and a Cultural Passport that provides access to more than 200 museums, libraries, and other treasures around New York City.

More than 60% of Macaulay’s graduates have continued their education in fine graduate and professional programs that include Harvard, Yale, MIT, Columbia, UC Berkeley, and the CUNY Graduate Center. Our alumni compete successfully for the most prestigious fellowships in the world: Rhodes, Fulbright, Mitchell, Truman, National Science Foundation, Goldwater, Salk, NYC Urban Fellowships, and others. Most Macaulay graduates who are working full-time are establishing their careers in New York, landing roles at Morgan Stanley, General Electric, Google, Booz Allen, Boeing, the World Bank, the U.S. Department of State, the NYC Department of Education, to name a few.

What started as an experiment has become a powerful story in public higher education: for our students, for CUNY, and for a country that must have a new generation of educated, compassionate, and innovative leaders. Macaulay has come to exemplify educational excellence and University-wide collaboration within CUNY and has become a beacon to some of the most promising and interesting bright minds in New York.

The admission of its tenth class, the Class of 2014, marked some major milestones for Macaulay. From the first class in 2001, Macaulay has doubled in size and the academic profile of its students has never been stronger: over 4,000 students applied to be one of the 400 students in the Class of 2014. Macaulay recently received the authority to grant degrees – the first honors college in the country to have this academic honor.

In these auspicious times, Macaulay is challenged and charged with reimagining the future of Macaulay Honors College. The energy and innovation of the Macaulay community will be critical to educating young people for the tough challenges they will face. Students are selected for their promise, their ability to transform the world around them and not accept what is, but to reimagine what could be. The future of New York and the world is literally in their hands.

With all this in mind, Macaulay inaugurated its tenth-year celebration at Convocation in May 2010 by unveiling the anniversary theme: Macaulay: Reimagine. The theme underscores a year of events and initiatives designed to transcend a self-congratulatory, retrospective celebration and to celebrate what lies ahead for Macaulay Honors College.