OUR STORY

College Now, a FREE college transition program for NYC DOE high school students, started in the spring of 1984 at Kingsborough Community College with 449 students. In 2000, a partnership was formed between CUNY and NYC DOE to expand to 17 CUNY undergraduate colleges, and today 22,587 students from over 470 NYCDOE high schools participate in College Now.

Over 40% of College Now students are in the academic mid-range as defined by their ELA Regents score. College Now is a diverse program, with 35% of students identifying as Hispanic, 21% identifying as Black, 21% identifying as Asian, 17% identifying as White and 6% identifying as other.

OUR MISSION

CUNY's College Now program empowers NYC DOE high school students to raise expectations for their future, envision options, make informed choices about college and learn how their education can lead to rewarding careers.

OUR GOALS

The goals of the program are to help students earn college credits or become college ready before graduating from high school and to learn about college and career process and access.

The main program offerings fall under these goals:

WHY TAKE COLLEGE NOW

Successful College Now students can start their first semester in college with up to twelve college credits, or at minimum start college without remediation. On average, when compared to students who didn't participate in College Now, College Now Alumni transfer more credits to CUNY (6.0 vs. 1.6) earn more credits in their first semester (11.7 vs. 9.1), and have a higher GPA after their first semester (2.71 vs. 2.18). The academic momentum they gain seems to stay with them because College Now alumni have an eight percent higher three-year associate degree and six-year bachelor's degree completion rate in CUNY than those who didn't participate in College Now.

For more information about the College Now initiative, or programs at other CUNY campuses, visit https://k16.cuny.edu/collegenow/.