Brooklyn College is an innovative liberal arts institution with a history of academic excellence on the undergraduate and graduate levels. Since 1930, the College has offered men and women – often immigrants or the children of immigrants and often the first in their families to go to college – the opportunity to receive an excellent and affordable education that allows them to build a richer life and a productive career. Noted for its stellar teaching faculty, beautiful campus and its commitment “to be the best,” Brooklyn College was designated by the Princeton Review in 2007 as one of the best overall values among the nation’s most academically outstanding colleges.

Over the last decade Brooklyn College has embarked on a program of unprecedented renewal with more than $750 million in capital construction projects either completed or in the planning stage. Since 2000, Brooklyn College has welcomed nearly 250 new fulltime faculty members – representing fully half of the College’s fulltime classroom instructors – and who have brought with them credentials from such universities as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, and Oxford. Two Pulitzer-Prize-winners are numbered among them: Michael Cunningham, author of “The Hours”, who teaches fiction in the M.F.A. creative writing program; and former New York Newsday city editor Paul Moses, a Brooklyn College graduate who returned to teach in CUNY’s oldest journalism program.

The number of undergraduates entering Brooklyn College in fall 2007 was greater than in 2006, and reflected the traditional college age student with more than 90% being twenty years old or younger. In keeping with the College’s ever increasing selectivity, nearly 300 high-achieving high school students last year applied to the CUNY Honors Program at Brooklyn College. Those enrolled become part of a federation of nine programs that serves outstanding students from diverse backgrounds.

The College's nationally renowned Core Curriculum was strengthened yet again in 2006 a year ago, and has been a central element of Brooklyn College’s educational offerings for a quarter of a century. The On-Course Advantage (TOCA) was initiated in 2001 to aid determined students who wanted to complete college within the traditional four-year span.

In 2008, TOCA’s enrollment exceeds 800 students. TOCA students receive priority registration, one-on-one advisement services and guaranteed availability of required courses. The College has furthered its goal of becoming a student-centered campus by expanding academic advising in the recently enhanced Center for Academic Advisement and Student Success.

As a public institution, Brooklyn College understands that it also has a responsibility to the borough of Brooklyn. The College has actively broadened its engagement with the surrounding neighborhood as well as Brooklyn’s cultural and social organizations. The College also regularly distributes a newsletter that highlights campus services and programs available to Brooklyn residents.

As mentioned previously, Brooklyn College is in the midst of a major capital improvement and building program. In fall 2008, the five-year West Quad project will reach completion, creating a second verdant green quadrangle and a new building that will house student services and state-of-the-art physical education and athletic facilities. In addition, planning for a new Performing Arts Center serving the Conservatory of Music, the Department of Theater and a new science building are well advanced.