College profile
City College of New York (CUNY)
Listed in federal data as “CUNY City College”.
NY · Public · Large city · 31,988 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- The major moves the money more than the admit letter. Computer Engineering grads from here earn about $117,131 four years out; drama grads about $32,769 — a 3.6× spread on the same diploma. Have the major conversation before you deposit, not after.
- The payoff holds even at full price: roughly 11× over a decade. With no aid at all — the full in-state ~$14,403/yr — a decade of median earnings (~$66,039/yr) still runs about 11× the four-year cost. This payoff doesn't depend on qualifying for anything. (Out-of-state costs more.)
- Ask the submit question deliberately. This college is test-optional — but at many such colleges, applicants who submit strong scores are admitted at meaningfully higher rates. “Optional” is a strategy decision, not a pass.
Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.
Parent/student verdict
Moderately selectiveSolid match for academically prepared students. Affordable — net price averages ~$3,776/yr among aid recipients. Major value play for in-state residents.
Best for
- Strong academic profiles — students here cluster in the top test and GPA tiers (bands above)
- In-state residents (tuition ~$7,340 — major value play)
- Students drawn to Psychology or Engineering (the two biggest majors)
- Research-curious students (R2 — active research output)
The reality
- You'd be near the bottom of their admitted class if: SAT below 1220, or unweighted GPA below ~3.80 (where the school's own admitted students landed)
Verdict is composed from this college's structured data (admit rate, SAT bands, net price with aid and at full price, Carnegie classification, scholarship grids) using transparent rule thresholds — not a chat-bot's opinion.
What are your child's odds here?
Enter their numbers once — this and every college page shows their verdict, and the UC campus cards on California school pages light up with it too. Free, no email.
Weighted is the higher GPA, with honors/AP credit in it — pick whichever your school reports. PSAT scores work in the SAT box.
Institutional snapshot
What kind of college is this?
8% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score — this range describes students who submitted, not the whole class.
Source: federal IPEDS Admissions 2023 for scores + admit rate; federal College Scorecard (20260606 vintage) for earnings + outcomes. SAT/ACT bands are the 25th–75th percentile of enrolled submitters.
High-school GPA
3.40 avg unweightedGPA on the plain 4.0 scale, no honors/AP bonus. When a college publishes an "average admitted GPA of 3.9," it's often this scale — don't compare it to a weighted 4.3. GPA, enrolled first-years
unweighted 4.0 scale. Common Data Set 2024-2025 (The City College of New York, Office of Institutional Research) ↗
As published by the college in its Common Data Set / admissions data (2024-25) — independently verified 2026-07-23 (source linked above). GPA basis (weighted vs. unweighted vs. 4.0-scale) varies by college and is labeled above.
Outcomes & cost
What graduates actually earn, finish, and owe.
Federal College Scorecard data. Earnings are median annual income measured years after entering. Debt is for federal-aid borrowers only (cash-pay students aren't counted).
The real cost
What City College of New York (CUNY) actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by City College of New York (CUNY)'s own aid decision: the gap between its price and your family's finances.
City College of New York (CUNY)'s own published aid policy · 2026-27
Who qualifies: NY residents; state Excelsior program, tuition only.
The Excelsior Scholarship is a tuition-free program for eligible New York State residents pursuing their first undergraduate degree at a SUNY or CUNY college. ... Your household combined federal adjusted gross income must be $125,000 or less. ... Be a resident of New York State.
Income thresholds assume typical assets. Policy independently verified against the college's financial-aid pages ↗.
Your odds + estimated cost across your whole college list, side by side.
The payoffTen years of typical graduate pay minus four years of cost — how many dollars ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten. Check both the full-price and with-aid versions to see which applies to you; median pay reflects who a college admits and what they study as much as the college itself., both ways
+$603K ahead at full price +$645K with aidSource: College Scorecard (average net price among Title IV first-time, full-time undergraduates who received aid) and each college's published cost of attendance. We don't show the federal net-price-by-income brackets: their categories were fixed in 2008 and never adjusted, and none of the averages is your family's own number — the full story. Payoff = (10-yr median earnings × 10) − (4 years of cost), in dollars — how far ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten; medians travel with the students a college admits and the majors they choose as much as with the college itself. Full price is the published cost of attendance, largely in-state for publics; earnings are 10 years after enrollment, all majors combined.
What students study here
Most popular majors at City College of New York (CUNY)
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what City College of New York (CUNY) actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — City College of New York (CUNY)'s own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions. | $148,354 |
| Computer Engineering. | $117,131 |
| Computer Science. | $116,238 |
| Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering. | $97,698 |
| Mechanical Engineering. | $97,270 |
| Biomedical/Medical Engineering. | $95,685 |
| Chemical Engineering. | $88,659 |
| Civil Engineering. | $87,957 |
| Environmental/Environmental Health Engineering. | $87,804 |
| Mathematics. | $73,882 |
Sources: IPEDS Completions (C2023_a; bachelor's-level first majors, 2-digit CIP family — share is of the top 5 only) · College Scorecard program-level outcomes (PP-FOS). Full college-vs-major comparison: /college-outcomes →
Student body & economic mobility
Who attends here — and what the campus adds.
Opportunity Insights data. It measures two things at once: how many lower-income students a college enrols, and how many of them reach the top earnings quintile later. A high rate says the college does both — it does not establish that the campus caused the earnings, because the students it admits differ from the students it doesn't. Read it as a signal about access and destination, not as proof of value added.
Full leaderboards: /college-mobility →
AI program signal
AI + computing education at City College of New York (CUNY)
Full multi-lens comparison: /ai-colleges →
Alternatives to City College of New York (CUNY)
Matched not just by selectivity, but by strategic goal — what a family actually decides on.
Or compare any college side-by-side
Deciding on City College of New York (CUNY)?
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Feeder high schools
Which high schools send graduates to City College of New York (CUNY)?
4 high schools publish a numbered matriculation list — where their graduates actually enrolled, counted, in the school's own School Profile — and name City College of New York (CUNY) on it. Between them they printed 4 enrolled graduates. Ranked by graduates per class year enrolling at City College of New York (CUNY), from each school's own published list: the number that school printed, divided by the class years its list covers. The published total and the school's own years label are shown beside every school, so a one-year list and a five-year list can sit on the same page. A list whose class years we cannot read is not divided by a guess — it is listed below with its total instead.
All 4 feeder schools, ranked →
Counted from each school's own published document, linked on that school's page. A high school that is not here does not publish a numbered list we could read — that is all absence means, and it says nothing about its graduates. Where a school publishes both, the two lists are shown separately: an acceptances list is not a list of enrollments, and the two are never added together.
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At a glance
JSON · Using this page with an AI assistantCity College of New York (CUNY) is a public four-year college in NY. It admitted 58% of applicants (31,988 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted that test: SAT 1220–1460. 8% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score — this range describes students who submitted, not the whole class. Average enrolled GPA 3.4 (unweighted, 2024-25, as published by the college).
Cost: about $3,776 a year on average with aid, $14,403 a year at full price for in-state students.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $66,039 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $645,286 ahead with aid, $602,778 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions ($148,354); Computer Engineering ($117,131); Computer Science ($116,238).
Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 33% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 36% of those reached the top fifth as adults.
Aid pledge published by the college for 2026-27: families earning under $125,000 pay no tuition (NY residents; state Excelsior program, tuition only).
High schools that publish a numbered matriculation list and name City College of New York (CUNY): 4, 4 enrolled students between them — ranked by graduates per class year, most often Regis High School (NYC) (1.0 per class year, 1 over 1 class year, Class of 2022–2025, counted column "Class of '25"); Rye Country Day School (1.0 per class year, 1 over 1 class year, Class of 2026); Episcopal High School (0.2 per class year, 1 over 5 class years, Classes of 2022 through 2026). Each figure is the number that school printed divided by the class years its own list covers; the totals and years are shown. These are the schools that publish such a list, not every school that sends students; full list: https://highschoolreach.com/leaderboards/feeder-schools/cuny-city-college.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/cuny-city-college.json