Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art is located in New York, New York. It is a private not-for-profit, 4-year or above institution.
From Wikipedia: The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in France. The school was built on a radical new model of American higher education based on Cooper’s belief that an education “equal to the best technology schools established” should be accessible to those who qualify, independent of their race, religion, sex, wealth or social status, and should be “open and free to all”. The college is divided into three schools: the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, the School of Art, and the Albert Nerken School of Engineering. It offers undergraduate and master’s degree programs exclusively in the fields of architecture, fine arts (undergraduate only), and engineering. Cooper Union was one of very few American institutions of higher learning to offer a full-tuition scholarship to every admitted student, a practice it discontinued in 2014, instead offering a half-tuition scholarship to each admitted student. As of 2024, nearly half of its undergraduate students were attending on a tuition-free basis. In September 2024 the school announced that for the next four years, all students (including current students) would not pay tuition for their senior year.
Overview of institution
This, and the rest of the page, use info from the most recent year available, generally 2023.
Institution kind: Baccalaureate Colleges: Diverse Fields
Undergrad program: Professions plus arts & sciences, high graduate coexistence
Graduate program: Postbaccalaureate: Other-dominant, with Arts & Sciences
Enrollment profile: Very high undergraduate (see more details below)
Average net price for undergrads on financial aid: $26,194 (1.3 times the equivalent cost of Harvard).
Actual price for your family: Go here to see what your family may be asked to pay. It can be MUCH lower than the average price but also higher for some.
Size and setting: Four-year, very small, primarily nonresidential
In state percentage: 42% of first year students come from New York
In US percentage: 89% of first year students come from the US
Graduation rate (within 6 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 83.5% (this is what is usually reported as “graduation rate”)
Graduation rate (within 4 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 64.2%
Percent of students seeking a Bachelors who transfer out of this institution: 1.5%
Student to tenure-stream faculty ratio: 16.3 (undergrads to tenure-stream faculty) [Tenure explained]
Student to faculty ratio: 16.3 (undergrads to all faculty)
Degrees offered: Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree
Schedule: Semester
Institution provides on campus housing: Yes
Dorm capacity: There are enough dorm beds for 170 students
Freshmen required to live on campus: No
Advanced placement (AP) credits used: Yes
Disabilities: 12.01 percent of undergrads are registered as having disabilities.
Map
Comparisons
The sections below show this institution compared with others. The ones listed are ones it has identified as peers, who consider themselves peers, and/or who the federal government considers peers. If a comparison school has the same value as the focal school, its cell is grayed out. Arrows show where there is a signficant trend over time for a school. You can swipe across the table to see more of it; the focal school column is always visible.
- The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art lists these schools as ones to compare itself within federal IPEDS data, and they do the same back: Harvey Mudd College, Stevens Institute of Technology, Franklin W Olin College of Engineering, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Art Center College of Design, School of Visual Arts
- The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art compares itself to these institutions, but not vice versa: Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University in the City of New York, Princeton University, Brown University, University of California-Berkeley, New York University, Dartmouth College, Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus, Carnegie Mellon University, Rice University, California Institute of Technology, Swarthmore College, Purdue University-Main Campus, Lehigh University, Syracuse University, Lafayette College, Rhode Island School of Design, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Pratt Institute-Main, Bard College, California Institute of the Arts, Elizabethtown College, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Lebanon Valley College, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Kettering University, California College of the Arts, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Cedar Crest College, Marietta College, Franklin College, Maryland Institute College of Art, Elmira College
- These institutions compare themselves to The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, but not vice versa: United States Naval Academy, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Webb Institute, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach, Illinois Institute of Technology, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Prescott, Florida Institute of Technology, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Worldwide, Lawrence Technological University, Norwich University, Florida Polytechnic University, Bay Path University, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology
Enrollment
General
Teaching
Tenure track faculty are those who are eligible for tenure. This includes both pre-tenure and tenured faculty. Once faculty get tenure, they are (generally) protected from being fired for intellectual reasons, helping to ensure their freedom in teaching and research. They can still lose their positions for misconduct, financial problems, not fulfilling their duties, or other reasons.
Non-tenure track faculty are not eligible for tenure. Some are hired one semester at a time, some have multi-year contracts. They typically have a higher teaching load than tenure track faculty, leaving less time for research or other creative endeavors. They are also easier to fire than tenured faculty. Sometimes they are external experts (a noted musician, a former senator) who are hired to teach some classes without the expected permanence of a tenure-track position.
Note that this chart uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.
Having a low student to faculty ratio is considered a good thing by many, as it can mean more individual attention.
Geography
This has information on the location of the institution. See the about page for more information on what the metrics are and how they are calculated. The goal is to neutrally provide information: for example, some individuals want stringent gun control in an area, some want the opposite: the categories are meant to be descriptive.
Financial Aid
Graduation
Note these are bachelors graduation rates in six years, not four (this is standard). Sample sizes can be small for some demographic groups with few individuals in a school, leading to large year-to-year fluctuations and often extreme values for those groups (if there are two individuals in the class with a given identity, the possible graduation rates are 0%, 50%, or 100% depending on whether zero, one, or both students graduate within six years).
Library
Libraries are changing rapidly. Note that how institutions count digital collections may vary.
Diversity
The US Census Bureau has a diversity index that goes from 0 to 1. In their words, “A 0-value indicates that everyone in the population has the same racial and ethnic characteristics. A value close to 1 indicates that everyone in the population has different racial and ethnic characteristics.” This uses their formula, but with the resolution available for the federal IPEDS data (which does not separate for a given demographic group whether members identify as Hispanic or not). This metric is about heterogeneity within the population, not the proportion of the population that comes from historically excluded groups.
Following the practice of the census, the index is multiplied by 100 to give the percentage probability a random pair of individuals will have a different background. Most institutions argue that diversity is a benefit, so by default a higher number is listed as better, but there may be cases where this measure does not reflect the mission of a college (for example, 70% of the students at a tribal college or university may be American Indian: that could be low-scoring by this metric but should not be read as “bad” given the institution’s mission).
These numbers are based on the most recent year available, generally 2023, which predates effects of the US Supreme Court’s striking down of affirmative action. This has often changed, sometimes dramatically, the incoming student demographics at some institutions.
Overall diversity
Freshman profile
Demographic data for first time degree-seeking students. Note that this uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.
Freshman geography
Test scores
SAT scores
ACT scores
Majors
This presents information on the number of majors and the median earnings one and five years after graduation for people who got a degree from this institution in that field. The earnings are for those who are working and not enrolled in further education. The earnings data (from the federal college scorecard) also has information on earnings for those categorized as ‘MALE’ and ‘NOMALE’ – for readability, these are recategorized here as “Men” and “Women”, respectively, which adopts the gender binary used in other federal data. “W/M earnings ratio” is the median earnings of women divided by men, as a percentage.