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Focus on The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art

Exclusively for , Art and majors, Cooper Union in City’s offers an outstanding education at an exceptional value. Committed to free tuition by its original charter in 1859, the university made a controversial decision to begin charging some tuition in 2012. However all students receive a half-tuition scholarship of approximately $20,000 per year, and many receive need-based and merit based scholarships to help cover the remaining costs.

With fewer than 1,000 students total, admission is highly competitive across the board but based on different criteria for different divisions. Eighty-five percent of the freshmen live in the university’s one residence hall, but after their first year everyone is off-campus, most sharing apartments in the neighborhood with classmates or students from other nearby colleges. There is no meal plan, even for those living in the dorm, which has apartment style units with kitchens, so although there is a school eatery, most end up doing their own food shopping and cooking. The upside of this, the students say, is that they quickly become so independent and habituated to the city that they feel much more mature and self-confident than their high school friends elsewhere.

Engineering

In each class, approximately thirty Cooper students pursue a degree in each of the four divisions, Chemical, Civil, Electrical or Mechanical Engineering, and ten to fifteen students pursue a in General Engineering with the intention of ultimately entering non-Engineering fields like Medicine or Law. High school students must apply directly to a specific track and are able to switch it later only if space permits and they have maintained a 3.0 average. Their studies are highly focused and largely proscribed by their track, but everyone takes the same four required humanities and social science classes (along with their peers in Art and Architecture) one semester at a time in their first two years and four electives before graduation. Each track occupies a separate floor in the modern building where all the Engineering classes and labs are held.

Cooper Union’s admissions office receives between 1,200 and 1,500 applications each year for the Engineering school, from which they aim to enroll approximately 150 students. Mechanical and Electrical are the most popular among applicants nationwide as well as those applying to Cooper. Especially in view of a projected need for more Civil and Chemical Engineers than are currently coming out of American universities, the admissions office encourages students to consider those programs. Also, since the Engineering school is currently approximately 80% male, they are eager to encourage female applicants.

To be competitive, applicants to Engineering should have at least 650 on the verbal section of the SAT and over 700 on the math section or 32 or 33 on the math and science sections of the ACT. They also need to submit SAT subject tests in Math (I or II) and either Chemistry or Physics, and to be competitive they must score at least 700 on these.

Cooper Engineering students say the work is extremely challenging and the grading quite tough, but even though exams are graded on a curve, the atmosphere is collaborative rather than competitive with classmates routinely working together and helping one another. It undoubtedly helps that when they seek employment after graduation, merely having a degree from Cooper is so prestigious that their grades are basically irrelevant.

Additionally, the faculty are supportive and really get to know their students, so many for whom high school work was easy now readily attend their professors’ office hours in pursuit of extra help. Many faculty members were Cooper Union students themselves, and the school has an active network of alumni eager to hire their recent graduates.

Approximately 40% of the Engineering graduates pursue more advanced Engineering degrees, some of them opting to remain at Cooper. For the 60% who join the work force upon graduation, the average starting salary is $65,000. To help them find jobs and the experiences that will make them most attractive to employers, the career center sends out weekly newsletters listing jobs, internships and research opportunities. Recruiters also come to campus for a career fair each semester.

Even though Engineering students don’t have a lot of free time, they participate in over 100 clubs. These range from professional engineering societies and a Formula team that builds a car to enter in annual international competitions, to traditional college activities they can participate in together with Art and Architecture students like a capella and Yoga. The clubs all perform together annually at a popular “Culture Show.” Cooper also has a number of club level sports teams that anyone can join.

ART

Cooper Union’s enrolls 60 to 70 students each year from approximately 1,000 applicants, and since their yield is almost 100%, they admit just about that many. Unlike their counterparts in the school of engineering, Cooper’s art students are trained to be generalists, explore many tracks and allow their interests to evolve. After four years they receive a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Art, with no mention of a specific concentration although if they wish to they may concentrate in one or more of the areas offered: Drawing, Film and Video, Graphic Design, Performance, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, and Sculpture.

Art students enjoy large, light studio spaces in their older Foundation building that features high ceilings and enormous windows. They also have multiple gallery spaces to show their work and lots of opportunities for internships around the city at museums and working with local artists curating and mounting exhibits. They participate in a career fair for jobs and internships together with students from several other schools in the neighborhood including NYU, and FIT.

Applications for admission to Cooper’s School of Art are evaluated by a Faculty Admissions Committee rather than by the Admissions Office although the latter looks over them to ensure the students can function in the mandatory humanities courses they must take together with all the other Cooper students. Applicants must submit one letter of recommendation from an art teacher in or out of their high school and their SAT or ACT, but their scores are barely significant, as admission is based almost entirely on artistic talent.

A physical portfolio is required, as Cooper does not use Slideroom. Approximately one week after the application is received, the applicant receives a “home test” in the mail to be completed and returned within three or four weeks. This test has both written and visual prompts for the applicant to respond to artistically. These prompts are deliberately vague to encourage creative thinking.

Applicants are encouraged to attend one of the five on-campus Portfolio Days offered in the fall, or if they can’t do that, one of the National Portfolio Days. Here a faculty member will review their portfolio prior to submission and give them advice.

Architecture

The School of Architecture is the smallest division of Cooper Union, enrolling only about thirty students each year from the 700 to 800 applicants. Cooper’s Architecture students pursue a five-year course of study culminating in a self- defined thesis project and leading to a degree. Their studies include history and theory as well as practice. They collaborate on projects, draw designs, build models, and receive critiques in the same iconic building that houses the art school. The program strives to nurture both individual creativity and collaboration.

Applicants to the Architecture school are not expected to have prior training in the field so no portfolio is required, but the Faculty Admissions Committee evaluates talent and potential based on a “Studio Test” that is mailed out after the common application is received and which must be completed within the next few weeks. Like the art school’s “Home Test,” it provides both written and visual prompts. Applicants must also submit their high school transcript, SAT or ACT scores, and a single teacher recommendation that can be from any subject. Math courses at the pre-Calculus level or higher are generally desirable but not absolutely mandatory. High school students who think they might be interested in studying Architecture are dissuaded from taking courses in Computer Aided Design (CAD) which they will learn eventually anyway, and encouraged instead to take art courses to hone their drawing skills and any other courses that teach creative and analytical thinking.

Applicants to all of Cooper Union’s program may apply either Early Decision by December 1st or Regular Decision by January 8th .