Queens College is one of the senior colleges of the City University of New York. It was established in 1937 to offer a strong liberal arts education to working-class people. Queens College has grown into a campus of 16,604 including 12,012 undergraduates and 4,592 graduate students. While popularly known as a liberal arts college, Queens College is, in fact, a comprehensive college with professional degrees at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Students from 120 different countries speaking 66 different native languages attend Queens College.

Queens College been called "World Class" by The Times and received a four-star rating in The New York Times "Selective Guide to Colleges." The College is ranked Tier 2, Northern Universities by U.S. News and World Report. In 1996, the college's ground-breaking Freshman Year Initiative received a Certificate of Excellence in the nationwide Theodore M. Hesburgh Award Competition.