CUNY City College
CUNY City College is located in New York, New York. It is a public, 4-year or above institution.
From Wikipedia: The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, City College was the first free public institution of higher education in the United States. It is the oldest of CUNY’s 25 institutions of higher learning and is considered its flagship institution. The main campus is located in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood. City College’s 35-acre (14 ha) campus spans Convent Avenue from 130th to 141st Streets. It was initially designed by an architect George B. Post. City College’s satellite campus, City College Downtown in the Cunard Building has been in operation since 1981, offering degree programs for working adults. Among the precedents set by City College that helped shape the culture of American higher education are the following: the first student government in the nation (Academic Senate, 1867); the first national fraternity to accept members without regard to religion, race, color or creed (Delta Sigma Phi, 1899); the first degree-granting evening program (School of Education, 1907); and, with the objective of racially integrating the college dormitories, “the first general strike at a municipal institution of higher learning” led by students (1949). The college has a 48% graduation rate within six years. It is classified among “R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity.”
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Overview of institution
This, and the rest of the page, use info from the most recent year available, generally 2024.
Institution kind: Doctoral Universities: Higher Research Activity
Undergrad program: Arts & sciences plus professions, high graduate coexistence
Graduate program: Research Doctoral: Single program-Other
Enrollment profile: High undergraduate (see more details below)
Average net price for undergrads on financial aid: $4,599 . This is 30% the average 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, large, primarily nonresidential
In state percentage: 87% of first year students come from New York
In US percentage: 96% of first year students come from the US
Graduation rate (within 6 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 54.7% (this is what is usually reported as “graduation rate”)
Graduation rate (within 4 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 27.6%
Percent of students seeking a Bachelors who transfer out of this institution: 27.6%
Student to tenure-stream faculty ratio: 19.8 (undergrads to tenure-stream faculty) [Tenure explained]
Student to faculty ratio: 18.2 (undergrads to all faculty)
Degrees offered: Certificate of less than 1 year, Certificate of at least 12 weeks but less than 1 year, Certificate of at least 1 year but less than 2 years, Bachelor’s degree, Postbaccalaureate certificate, Master’s degree, Post master’s certificate, Doctor’s degree: research scholarship, Doctor’s degree: professional practice
Schedule: Semester
Institution provides on campus housing: Yes
Dorm capacity: There are enough dorm beds for 589 students
Freshmen required to live on campus: No
Advanced placement (AP) credits used: Yes
Disabilities: 3.85 percent of undergrads are registered as having disabilities.
Undergrad outcomes
This plot shows the outcomes for first time, full time undergraduates seeking Bachelor’s degrees (if the data are available).

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. In fields where there is a common view that higher (or lower) values are better, the best values are in blue, the worst values are in red. If there isn’t a sense of a particular value being better, values are shown in varying shades of green. 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.
- CUNY City College compares itself to these institutions, but not vice versa: North Carolina State University at Raleigh, California State University-Long Beach, Michigan State University, University of Arizona, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Texas A & M International University, California State University-Fullerton, San Jose State University, Rowan University, University at Albany, The University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, University of Massachusetts-Lowell, University of Mississippi, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Rutgers University-Newark, California State University-Fresno, The University of Texas at El Paso, University of Massachusetts-Boston, Kean University, University of Memphis, California State University-Dominguez Hills, California State University-Bakersfield, California State University-East Bay, University of North Texas at Dallas
- These institutions compare themselves to CUNY City College, but not vice versa: University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras, University of Vermont, West Chester University of Pennsylvania, CUNY Queens College, College of Charleston, St. John’s University-New York, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Pace University, Rutgers University-Camden, University of New Orleans, University of Northern Colorado, Berkeley College-Woodland Park, Berkeley College-New York, CUNY York College, University of Houston-Downtown, CUNY Graduate School and University Center, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, SUNY Old Westbury, Marymount Manhattan College
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.
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 2024, 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.
Bachelors
Masters
Doctorate
Certificate
Associates
Demographic cliff
There is a concern that giving changing US demographics, the number of students in the age groups who most commonly attend four year colleges will drop off, decreasing overall enrollment. This is often referred to as the “demographic cliff”, and it can be a concern for colleges concerned about the risk of falling enrollment. For this section, the analysis uses US census data on the number of people in each state by age, and the proportion of students that come from each state for this particular college, to crudely model what will happen if everything remains constant except the demographic change in the population of 18 year olds in each year – it does not account for things like the college increasing its admission rate, attracting more students from states without the same demographic changes or from other countries, or changes in the proportion of students who go to college.
