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Queens College

Part of the City University of New York (CUNY) since its founding in 1961, Queens College is one of CUNY’s largest senior colleges. Often referred to as “the jewel of the CUNY system,” the college enjoys a national reputation for its liberal arts and sciences and pre-professional programs.

queens_college_of_the_city_university_of_new_york1.jpgQueens College was named one of the nation’s 25 “hottest” and “most interesting colleges” by the 2008 Kaplan/Newsweek How to Get into College Guide.The Princeton Review America’s Best Value Colleges (2008 ed.) praised Queens for its outstanding academics, generous financial aid packages, and relatively low costs. And on the graduate level, the 2008 U.S. News America's Best Colleges lists Queens College among the 15 “Top Public Universities-Master’s-North.”

The college is located on a beautiful 77-acre, tree-lined campus surrounding grassy open spaces and a traditional Quad. The completely renovated Powdermaker Hall, the major classroom building, reopened in fall 2003 with state-of-the-art technology throughout. The Benjamin Rosenthal Library, with its soaring, light-filled atrium and distinctive clock tower, features innovations in information retrieval. The college is also expanding its wireless capability, opening new cafés and dining areas, installing plasma boards, updating the Student Union and several other buildings, and embarking on a variety of campus-beautification projects.

queens_college_of_the_city_university_of_new_york2.jpgSince Queens is a commuter college, it is dedicated to making students feel that the college is their home away from home. There are more than 100 clubs and teams on campus, from the Science Organization of Minority Students to clubs for theatre, fencing, environmental science, and martial arts. The only CUNY college that participates in Division II sports, Queens sponsors 20 men’s and women’s teams and has some of the finest athletics facilities in the metropolitan area. A Child Development Center, staffed by professionals, offers inexpensive child-care services to students with children.

The college’s faculty consists of top scholars who are dedicated to teaching. There are 582 full-time faculty, 86% of whom have the terminal degree in their field (not all fields offer doctorates), and 69% have tenure. Many also teach in Ph.D. programs at the CUNY Graduate Center. Our faculty have received numerous research grants from such prestigious organizations as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. In recent years they have also received several Guggenheim awards and Fulbright grants.

The college offers over 115 undergraduate and graduate majors. Academic programs are organized into four divisions , which offer both day and evening courses: Arts and Humanities; Education; Mathematics and the Natural Sciences; and the Social Sciences. Classes are also offered during a winter session and four summer sessions.

The college recently introduced new degree programs in graphic design and neuroscience as well as a Bachelor of Business Administration degree that offers majors in Finance, International Business, and Actuarial Studies. New additions to the graduate curriculum include a unique Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and translation, a degree program in environmental geosciences, and two certificate programs: one in earth sciences for high school teachers and another in archives record management and conservation.

Interdisciplinary programs include Africana studies, American studies, business and liberal art, Honors in Mathematical and Natural Sciences, Honors in the Humanities, Honors in the Social Sciences, Latin American and Latino studies, journalism, and women’s studies. Special programs and advisement are also available in accounting, pre-engineering, pre-law, and the pre-health professions.

Queens College participates in the Macaulay Honors College. This challenging program for academically gifted students provides full tuition, an academic expense account, mentors, internships, a free laptop, special seminars, and study abroad programs. Queens College also offers its own Honors programs in the arts and humanities, sciences, and social sciences to qualified students.

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Queens College is the center for the arts in Queens. The Kupferberg Center for the Visual & Performing Arts—formed in recognition of Selma & Max Kupferberg’s gift of $10 million, the largest single gift received to date by Queens College—includes Kupferberg Center Performances, Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Queens College Art Center, Department of Drama, Theatre, and Dance, Department of Media Studies, the Aaron Copland School of Music, and Louis Armstrong House Museum and Archives.

The college regularly brings world-renowned writers to campus. Authors who have recently presented their works through our Evening Reading Series include Margaret Atwood, E.L. Doctorow, Norman Mailer, Frank McCourt, Salman Rushdie, and Nobel Laureates Orhan Pamuk, Toni Morrison, Doris Lessing, and V.S. Naipaul.

The Center for Jewish Studies offers thoughtful lectures, films, and music and dance performances throughout the year.

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