Cooper Union

First-Year Profile

Our fall 2024 first-year students self-identify as follows:

34% Asian
7% Black or African-American
1% Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
9% Hispanic/Latino
9% U.S. Nonresidents
9% Two or More Races
4% Unknown
28% White
49% Female
48% Male
3% Nonbinary

The acceptance rate for our fall 2024 entering class is 13%.

We practice a holistic admission process. Starting with the fall 2026 application cycle, SAT and ACT scores will be required for applicants to the School of Engineering. The School of Architecture and the School of Art will 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.