Queens College of CUNY is an urban, predominately undergraduate, liberal arts institution.  While Master’s degrees are offered in 28 programs, no doctorate degrees are granted directly by the College.  The CUNY Graduate School and University Center is directly responsible for all doctorates awarded by CUNY.   The student body is diverse, with 15% Hispanic, 20% Asian, 8% African-American and 58% representing a wide range of  backgrounds, including 10% from foreign countries.  Queens College and its sister schools within CUNY have traditionally been and continue to be the choice of New York City first-generation students for post-secondary education with over 25% of students reporting no college graduates in their family.   Graduates of  Queens College,  however, continue well beyond their undergraduate education, with approximately 5% of  the average graduating class achieving a doctorate in the last ten years.  From 1983-1992, Queens College undergraduates who earned doctorates totalled 932, putting the College on pace with institution such as New York University, Columbia University, and the University of Chicago. Between the years of 1987 and 1997, 349 Queens College alumni have been granted the doctorate in a science or medical/life science field, and Queens College undergraduate “pre-med” majors have enjoyed a 60-75% acceptance rate for medical school. 

Reasons for Queens College’s success include a commitment to involving undergraduate students in research.   For example, the Queens College undergraduate Science Honors program requires students to work with a faculty mentor on a research project, and almost all faculty in the sciences mentor at least one undergraduate student in their laboratories.  Undergraduates often receive stipend support through external and internal grants, such as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the PSC-CUNY Research Fund or the Queens College Undergraduate Research Mentoring program.  This program is open to all disciplines and provides support for smaller research projects that will engage undergraduate students in research.  AREA grants will help expand these efforts by allowing faculty to start new projects that require personnel beyond their current support levels.  

Faculty at Queens College are obligated to a teaching commitment of 21 hours.  Teaching loads may be reduced by supervising doctoral student theses, and mentoring both undergraduate and graduate students in active supported research laboratories.  Faculty who are supported by AREA grants and mentor new students may be granted credits toward his or her teaching commitment. 

During the last fiscal year, Queens College had 10 active NIH grants totaling $1.7 million.  Six of these grants are directed by investigators with over 5 years of external grant-fund experience.  Fifty percent of the faculty in the sciences are, however, supported by internal grants.  AREA grants will provide an excellent opportunity for those investigators to expand their research programs.