CUNY New York City College of Technology

Public · Moderately Selective · NY

Photo: Ajay Suresh (CC BY 2.0)

School data & stats

TypePublic

LocationNY · Northeast

SettingUrban

Undergrads13,580

Student:faculty16:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate7.5%

6-yr grad rate21.5%

Drop-out rate35.1%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$7k

Out-of-state tuition$15k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity91%

Gender diversity46.9%

International4.5%

Identity—

Overview

Known as City Tech, this CUNY college occupies a cluster of buildings in downtown Brooklyn, blocks from the Brooklyn Bridge, and is built almost entirely around applied, career-ready education rather than a traditional liberal-arts model. It is one of the few comprehensive colleges in the CUNY system that grants both associate and bachelor's degrees side by side, letting students start in a two-year technical program and continue directly into a four-year degree without transferring schools. The student body is highly diverse and largely working-class, drawing heavily from immigrant families across the five boroughs, and practical training that leads directly to a job is the organizing idea behind nearly everything the college does.

Academics

Programs run toward engineering technologies, computer systems, architectural technology, hospitality management, nursing, and communication design, most built around applied coursework, labs, and internships rather than a research-university curriculum. Faculty frequently bring direct industry backgrounds into fields like construction management and design, and the associate-to-bachelor's degree ladder is a defining structural feature — a computer systems technology student, for instance, can move from an AAS into a BS in the same department without losing momentum or credits.

Campus & student life

There is no residential tradition here; City Tech is a commuter school through and through, with students shuttling between classes, jobs, and often family responsibilities across the boroughs rather than living on or near campus. Campus life centers on major-specific clubs and professional societies — an engineering club, a design portfolio group — more than a conventional social scene, and the compact downtown Brooklyn footprint means most of student life happens between classes rather than after dark.

Getting in

Admission follows CUNY's broader access-oriented model: accessible and largely formula-driven, based on academic record and readiness for a specific technical program rather than heavy emphasis on essays or interviews. Some competitive programs, like nursing, layer additional requirements or a secondary review on top of general CUNY admission, so students should check program-specific requirements rather than assume general acceptance guarantees a seat in every major.

After graduation

Graduates move directly into New York City's technology, design, hospitality, and healthcare industries, often through internships arranged as part of the degree itself, and City Tech has a genuine reputation among city employers for producing job-ready technical graduates. The alumni network functions less as a prestige brand than as a practical hiring pipeline concentrated in the five boroughs.

Worth knowing

The associate-to-bachelor's ladder inside single departments is a real structural advantage for students who want to test out a technical field before committing to four years, and it's uncommon even within CUNY. The downtown Brooklyn location, steps from the Brooklyn Bridge and near the MetroTech tech-company cluster, is part of why so many programs lean on applied fieldwork and direct industry placement.

citytech.cuny.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate80.3%

Enrolled mid-50%SAT 900–1140

Test policyoptional

Rec letters0

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

Regular decisionFeb 1

AdmissionRolling

Applying