Reflections on the New Academic Year By Presidents & Experts
Hunter College
By President Jennifer J. Raab
As president of Hunter College, I have the great privilege each fall of witnessing some 20,000 students emerge on campus to live out nothing less than the American Dream. Hunter students speak over 100 languages and come from more than 150 countries—from Brazil to Zimbabwe to Uzbekistan. They are very likely the first in their families to go to college. As tuitions at most colleges rise astronomically, Hunter continues to provide its students with an affordable alternative, and an education second to none.
At Hunter, learning comes first. In addition to our low tuition rates, we do everything we can to ensure that students can spend more time in the classroom and less time working to pay the bills. We have had tremendous success—once again, Hunter was recognized by U.S. News & World Report as the master’s-granting university in the northeast that leaves its students with the least post-graduation debt.
In the 2007-08 academic year alone, we gave away $1,700,000 in student scholarships.
That does not include the dozens of scholarships donated by alumni and friends of the College, many of whom take part in our Mothers Day Scholarship program. In four short years, $1.8 million has been raised on behalf of the countless women who have graduated from Hunter over the years. It’s a wonderful way for sons and daughters to honor their Hunter mothers—and all they have taught us—by helping to make the same wonderful education available to the next generation.
Only one of every three applicants is accepted to Hunter College—and this year over 10,600 applicants named it their first choice among CUNY colleges. We are also welcoming 122 freshman into the Honors College, the largest in the CUNY system. The Honors College continues to draw top students from the best high schools; this year, seven students from Bronx Science, seven from Stuyvesant, and four from Hunter College High School are entering the program. Students are choosing Hunter over Columbia, Cornell, and NYU. They know that Hunter will further their big talents and ambitions without putting them into debt.
I look forward to another year of watching Hunter students shine in their classrooms, labs, and athletic arenas, knowing that we can offer them something that many never thought they could have—an outstanding college education, and the opportunity to succeed.#
