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Introduction

Introduction: About Hunter College

Hunter College is part of The City University of New York (CUNY), the nation’s largest urban university. CUNY comprises 11 senior colleges, seven community colleges, a graduate school, a school of professional studies, a school of journalism, a school of public health and health policy, an honors college, and a law school.

Known for its rich and academically rigorous environment, Hunter College takes pride in a curriculum as diverse and wide-ranging as its community. Hunter faculty and students come from virtually every nation and culture in the world, enriching the Hunter community and the city with their myriad perspectives and experiences. The college seeks to help its students broaden their outlook on the world, achieve success in their chosen professions, and fulfill their personal, academic, and civic potential.

Originally called The Normal College, the school was founded in 1870 by Thomas Hunter to educate young women who wished to be teachers. Today Hunter is a coeducational, fully accredited college with a large, distinguished faculty in the liberal arts and sciences and in its professional schools. Hunter offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees and enrolls close to 23,000 students, making it the largest senior college in CUNY.

The college consists of six schools: the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Education, the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, the School of Urban Public Health, the School of Health Professions, and the Silberman School of Social Work. The schools offer more than 55 undergraduate programs, which lead to the degrees of bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, bachelor of fine arts, bachelor of music, and a bachelor of social work as well as 14 dual bachelor’s/master’s programs and scores of graduate programs. Each program of study provides students with skills to attain competence in a specialized field and a foundation of general knowledge. The fields of concentration may be chosen from the general areas of the fine arts, the humanities, the language arts, the sciences, the social sciences, and the applied arts and sciences, as well as in professional areas in accounting, education, health sciences, and nursing. A  post-baccalaureate program in health careers preparation is available for students interested in taking coursework required for admission to schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, veterinary science, etc.

Graduate students may matriculate in any one of over 70 master’s degree programs in the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Education, the  School of Urban Public Health, the School of Health Professions, the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, and the Silberman School of Social Work. In addition, the graduate programs in teacher education and nursing include courses leading to post master’s certificates in several different areas. Details of the graduate programs are available in the graduate catalog https://hunter-graduate.catalog.cuny.edu/ at the Hunter College Welcome Center (Room 100 North Building), in the offices of the deans of each area, in the Cooperman Library, and on the Web at www.hunter.cuny.edu.

The Hunter College Campus Schools are devoted to the education of gifted students who reside in New York City. Opportunities are provided for students to engage in critical thinking and creative endeavors in an atmosphere of intellectual inquiry. Educational research and teacher education projects are features of collaboration with the School of Education at Hunter College. The elementary school (K to Grade 6) and the high school (Grades 7-12) model different educational strategies and serve as demonstration schools for students and teachers. For additional information, contact Lisa Siegman,  Acting Director, at (212) 860-1291 or by e-mail at lsiegman@hccs.hunter.cuny.edu.

Manhattan Hunter Science High School is a science-focused early college high school funded in part by the Gates Foundation. It is a joint venture of Hunter and the New York City Department of Education. Students take college courses at Hunter during their junior and senior years. Many will pursue baccalaureate studies at Hunter and other City University colleges.