Brooklyn College - The Scholars Program

The Scholars Program

The Scholars Program was established in 1960 with support from the Ford Foundation. It was the first honors program in the City University of New York, and one of the earliest at any American college or university. The program received national recognition, became a model for honors programs elsewhere, and was the foundation of the Brooklyn College Honors Academy, which now includes nine federated programs.

Students in the program are distinguished by their strong writing ability. Applicants must score at least 680 on their SAT II Writing, and maintain a GPA over 3.50. Graduates of the Scholars Program enter such fields as medicine, law, speech therapy, public health, journalism, television, film producing and directing, and biochemistry. They are admitted to graduate programs at such schools as Harvard Law School, Princeton, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Berkeley, New York University, and London School of Economics and Political Science. Many are elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa, and have received awards, including Brooklyn College’s Tow Travel Fellowship and Furman Travel Fellowship for undergraduate international study and research, and the nationally competitive Beinecke Fellowship and Mellon Humanities Fellowship for graduate study. Limited to 15–20 new students per year, the Program offers a community much like a small residential college.