A Message from the President
Welcome to Queens College! Our campus is beautiful, and also will be your portal to a rewarding future. Here you will be challenged and helped to learn, grow as a moral and thinking individual, and turn your dreams and aspirations into a career or advanced study path.
Your goals will be taken seriously here. We owe our very existence to the far-sighted vision of Queens leaders and residents who, in the depths of the Great Depression, successfully argued for establishing a public college in this borough. Since our doors opened in 1937, we have been guided by the core principles laid out by our first president, Paul Klapper. Under his guidance, Queens College became known for offering an excellent education at an affordable cost to a highly motivated student body. Today, we are listed every year in prestigious guides to both “best colleges” and “best-value” higher education. Queens College was my first choice, and I hope it is yours as well.
Our students are our inspiration. We serve a student body that reflects the economic, cultural, ethnic, and linguistic diversity of this borough and greater metropolitan area, hailing from over 100 countries and speaking more than 83 languages and dialects. Over one-third of them represent the first generation in their family to attend college. Historically our students have been leaders—serving in the Manhattan Project and armed forces during World War II, and embracing the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Today they are in tune with the demands of this generation for social change, racial equality, economic opportunity, and climate justice. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Queens College students have served their communities in countless ways as volunteers. In fact, our college motto is Discimus ut serviamus: We learn so that we may serve.
At the same time, our students are the pragmatic agents of their own personal and professional success. Queens College famously offers them a helping hand upward. Throughout the region and the nation, you will meet our alumni working in many career capacities—from doctors, lawyers, and scientists to artists, musicians, writers, scholars, teachers, business persons, administrators, planners, and community organizers. Many return as speakers and mentors in college programs that link generations of alumni.
Our extraordinary faculty—many of whom also chose to come here from other countries—are widely recognized for their scholarship. They offer a superior liberal arts and sciences education based on inquiry, critical reasoning, the skills to address complex problems, and innovative use of technology and information resources. Many maintain strong ties to the community through their research and advocacy.
Queens College provides many academic and other services to the student body. We also offer many competitive academic programs for high-achieving students, including the City University of New York’s Macaulay Honors College. We have honors programs in the humanities, mathematics and natural sciences, and social sciences, and an honors program for transfer students. We encourage internships and study abroad and, if you are in the sciences, you will be encouraged to work with the faculty on their research. Our QC in 4 program guarantees a degree in four years, and our accelerated master’s programs help students advance to graduate study quickly.
Your college studies will undoubtedly give you some of the most important, joyful years of your life. I invite you into our exceptional community of scholarship and service.
Frank H. Wu
President