Cooper Union

First-Year Profile

Our fall 2025 first-year students self-identify as follows:

41% Asian
2% Black or African-American
7% Hispanic/Latino
13% U.S. Nonresidents
7% Two or More Races
3% Unknown Race
27% White
47% Female
47% Male
2% Nonbinary
4% Unknown Gender

The acceptance rate for our fall 2025 entering class is 11% (based on the total number of Common Applications submitted).

We practice a holistic admission process. SAT and ACT scores are required for applicants to the School of Engineering. The School of Architecture and the School of Art remain test optional. Learn more.

Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.
“My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”
From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.
Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.