Hunter College High School
Encyclopedia
Hunter College High School is a New York City secondary school for intellectually gifted students located on Manhattan
's Upper East Side
. It is administered by Hunter College
, a senior college of the City University of New York
. Although it is not operated by the New York City Department of Education
, there is no tuition fee and it is publicly funded. The school's curriculum strives for a balance of achievement in the humanities and the sciences, and is widely revered as excelling in both fields. Hunter is noted for sending a very large percentage of students to the Ivy League
and other top-ranked colleges and universities. It has been ranked as the top public high school in America
by The Wall Street Journal several years running. Worth magazine also ranked Hunter as the nation's top public school. Newsweek
stated that Hunter is one of the top public schools in the nation.
Established in 1869 as "The Female Normal and High School," a private school
to prepare young women to become teachers, Hunter now offers a competitive college preparatory program for both genders. The original school was composed of an elementary and a high school. A kindergarten was added in 1887, and in 1888 the school was incorporated into a college. The high school was separated from what would become Hunter College
in 1903. In 1914, both schools were named after the Female Normal School's first president, Dr. Thomas Hunter
. Despite its success in teaching generations of gifted young women, it was almost closed by Hunter College President Jacqueline Wexler in the early 1970s.
Hunter was an all-girls school for the first 78 years of its existence. The prototypical Hunter girl was the subject of a song entitled "Sarah Maria Jones," who, the lyrics told, had "Hunter in her bones." The school became co-ed in 1974 as a result of a lawsuit by Hunter College Elementary School parents, a development which was described by the New York Daily News
with the headline "Girlie High Gets 1st Freshboys". In January 1982, the school was featured in a New York Magazine
article entitled "The Joyful Elite."
The high school has occupied a number of buildings throughout its history, including one at the East 68th Street campus of the College (1940–1970). For several years in the 1970s, it was housed on the 13th and 14th floors of an office building at 466 Lexington Avenue (at East 46th Street). Since 1977, it has existed in a nearly windowless structure at East 94th Street between Park
and Madison Avenues on the Upper East Side
. Formerly, this was the site of the 94th Street Armory
; today, part of the armory's empty shell (including two abandoned towers) stretches for the entire block of Madison Avenue in front of the school. The greater part of the armory building has been demolished. Designed to resemble the previous structure, the school is known for its near absence of sunlight, poor ventilation and low air quality. Because of its architectural peculiarities, Hunter is often called "The Brick Prison." Its "inmates" are housed in this building from grades K through 12, since it contains both the high school and Hunter College Elementary (collectively known as the Hunter College Campus Schools).
Dr. Tony Fisher is the acting principal of the high school. Randy Collins is the principal of the Elementary School and is the Interim Director of the Campus Schools. Sonya Mosco is the deputy director of the Campus Schools
, and is a dual-step procedure. About 3,000 students from the five boroughs
of New York City are eligible to take the Hunter College High School Entrance Exam in the January of their sixth grade
school year. Eligible students must first meet Hunter's standards in reading and mathematics
proficiency on fifth grade
standardized exams. For example, in 2011, sixth grade students who wished to enter Hunter during the 2011–2012 school year must have achieved scores of at least 689 out of 770 on the Reading test and 722 out of 780 on the Math test, that is, scores in the 90th-and-above percentile of all test takers.
The admissions test has thirty-five multiple-choice mathematics questions, sixty multiple-choice English questions, and an essay-writing portion. Out of about 3,000 test-takers, about 175 are offered admission on the basis of the exam. This 6.6% admissions rate, not considering the many students denied the chance to take the exam because they did not meet the state exam requirements, makes Hunter one of the most selective high schools in the nation.
Approximately 50 students from Hunter College Elementary School also enter the 7th grade class each year. Beginning with incoming students in the 2010–2011 school year, elementary school students must make 'satisfactory progress' by fifth grade in order to gain admission to the high school. Prior to this, students at Hunter College Elementary School were guaranteed admission into the high school. In total, entering 7th grade class contains approximately 225 students.
Most students, commonly known as "Hunterites," who enter the high school remain there through their senior year. In eighth grade
, some Hunter students take the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test
to transfer to other competitive public high schools
in New York City, although most choose to stay at Hunter. The graduating class usually retains about 200 students. The total enrollment from grades 7 through 12 is approximately 1,200 students.
Hunter is an open campus, allowing students to go outside during lunch and free periods. Although an easygoing, friendly and open environment, Hunter is a competitive and educational school.
All Hunter students (nerds)pursue an academically enriched six-year program of study. The curriculum is a rigorous college preparatory program that provides a liberal arts education. The majority of subjects are accelerated such that high school study begins in the 8th grade and state educational requirements are completed in the 11th. During the 12th grade, students take electives, have the option to attend courses at Hunter College
or Columbia University
(for transferable credit), undertake independent academic studies, and participate in internships around the city.
Students in grades 7 and 8 are required to take courses in Communications and Theater (a curriculum that includes drama, storytelling
, and theater). Students in grades 7–9 must take both art and music, each for half a year, and then choose one to take in tenth grade. One of the three available foreign language courses (French, Latin
, or Spanish) must be taken each year in grades 7–10, and AP language electives are offered through the 12th grade. A year each of biology
, chemistry
, and physics
must be completed in addition to the introductory science classes of life science and physical science
in the 7th and 8th grades, respectively. During 7th and 8th grades, students must also participate in the school's science fair
; the fair is optional for older students. After the introductory 7th grade social studies course, 5 semesters (spanning two and a half years) of global studies must be completed, then 3 semesters of American history. A series of English and mathematics
courses are taught from 7th through 11th grades. (The math curriculum is split into a track of "honors" and a track of "extended honors" classes for students of different strengths after 7th grade). Two semesters of physical education
are taught each year, including swimming in the 8th grade (held at Hunter College). In 9th grade, students are required to take a CPR course for one semester. Starting in their junior year, students are allowed to take a limited number of electives and Advanced Placement
courses. The senior year, however, is free of mandated courses except for a year of physical education electives and courses to fulfill leftover educational requirements.
Hunter has a strong English department, which incorporates reading dense novels and writing analytical papers beginning in the seventh grade. Students have historically graduated with strong writing and reading comprehension skills, reflected by the school's high average SAT scores in Critical Reading and Writing, and by the number of students who have earned recognition by the Scholastic Writing Awards.
Upper-level electives and Advanced Placement
courses are offered by all six academic departments. Advanced Placement courses include: AP Computer Science
, AP Calculus
AB and BC, AP Microeconomics
and Macroeconomics
, AP Psychology
, AP European History
, AP Chemistry
, AP Physics C
, AP Biology
, AP Statistics
, AP Spanish
, AP French
and AP Latin
(Regular and Vergil). The English Department previously offered AP English and Literature but has since replaced it with the elective Advanced Logic and Composition. Other electives include: Intro to African-American Studies, Race, Class, and Gender, International Relations
, US Constitutional Law, Classical Mythology, Photography, Astrophysics
, Advanced Art History I & II, Genes and Society, Creative Writing
, Joyce
's Ulysses
, Shakespeare's Comedies & Romance/Shakespeare's Tragedies & Histories, and Physiology
.
Hunter's AP offerings are currently being evaluated by the faculty and curriculum committee.
There are six guidance counselors serving the student population of 1200. Each junior and senior is assigned a college guidance counselor. In recent years (classes of 2002 through 2005), nearly 99% of Hunter's students have gone on to college, and about 25% of these students accept admission into an Ivy League
school. In 2006–2007, 73 of the graduating seniors were accepted into the Ivy League schools, constituting approximately 40% of the whole grade.
Hunter students win many honors and awards during their high school careers, including numerous Scholastic Writing Awards. Hunter wins approximately 23% of all New York State Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Of particular fame are the winners of the Intel Science Talent Search
- the first-place winner in 2005 was Hunter senior David L. V. Bauer ('05), while the 1991 winner was Adam Cohen ('97, now a professor in the chemistry and physics departments at Harvard). In addition, two of New York State's four 2005 Presidential scholars were Hunter College High School seniors. Sandra Fong ('08) represented the United States in the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing. She competed in the female's rifle shooting competition.
In light of its academic excellence, The Wall Street Journal
recently identified Hunter College High School as one of the top public schools in the nation and a feeder to Ivy League
and other leading colleges. Newsweek
has also stated that Hunter College High School is one of the top public schools with the high performers on the SAT and ACT tests.
According to the National Center of Education Statistics, the average SAT score (verbal and mathematics) in the 2001–2002 school year was a 1390. The 2400-scale average for the class of 2007 was a 2156 (1436 on a 1600-point scale).
. Clubs and organizations at Hunter are all student-run, with faculty members as advisers. Hunter has many extracurricular programs to offer. There is also something called a club open house where the members of the student body have the opportunity to spend a few minutes of their lunch time and sign up for different clubs. Each club would be in the auditorium to persuade people to join.
These officers organize school activities and communicate with the administration and faculty, frequently becoming involved in school policy. The G.O. organizes school-wide events such as Spirit Day, a school-wide outdoor recreation day usually held in October, and Carnival, held at the end of the school year.
Term Councils are grade governing bodies. They elect two senators for each grade to represent their ideas to the General Organization. They plan grade-wide events such as dances and fundraisers, as well as Semiformal and Prom
.
, Debate
Team, Math Team, the Hunter Chess
and Go
Team and the Washington Seminar. The Hunter Chess Team is famous nationwide for winning numerous tournaments and championships. The Washington Seminar on Government in Action was introduced in the 1950s; students selected for this program research public policy
issues throughout the year. They arrange meetings with various public figures in Washington, D.C., and then meet with them for questioning and discussion regarding their researched issue during a three-day trip in May. The debate team is completely student run and yet is still nationally recognized and attends various tournaments throughout the year including tournaments at prestigious universities such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton
. Hunter's Quiz Bowl Team, started in 2006, does similarly well, and was nationally ranked in its inaugural year.
Ensembles, Band, and/or Chorus
groups. In 2002, the music groups toured in Spain, performing a number of collaborative pieces. They toured Greece in 2006 and Budapest in 2008.
The string ensembles are divided into "Strings" and "Chamber Orchestra," the latter being a much more selective group. They have performed a number of both contemporary and traditional
pieces. The band is a woodwind-brass
-percussion ensemble, and their focus is mainly on contemporary music, though they sometimes branch off into classical pieces such as Mozart
's horn concerto in E flat. Chorus is divided into the concert choir and the chamber choir. The concert choir is a larger group than the chamber choir, and consists of members from the tenth to twelfth grades. There is also a selective jazz
chorus, founded by former music teacher Campbell Austin, which focuses solely on jazz and pop. The Jazz band performs arrangements of jazz music.
One may also audition for Junior Orchestra (grades 7–8, except in special cases) or Senior Orchestra (grades 9–12, except in special cases), which perform in the two semi-annual concerts at Hunter, the Winter Concert and the Spring Concert. The concerts for the Junior Orchestra and Senior Orchestra are divided into two distinct concerts, the "Middle School Concert" and the "Winter (or Spring) concert", respectively.
is a hawk
. Some exceptions, however, are the boys' volleyball team (Hunter Hitmen), the girls' volleyball team (Headhunters), the girls' swim team (Hunter Duckies), and the co-ed Ultimate Frisbee team (Hunter Halcyons).
Hunter has several sports teams that compete in the Public Schools Athletic League
(PSAL
). These sports are bowling
(co-ed varsity), cross-country
(boys' and girls' varsity), fencing (boys' and girls' varsity), soccer (boy's and girl's varsity and middle school), swimming (boys' and girls' varsity), volleyball (boys' varsity and girls' varsity and middle school), basketball (boys' have two middle school teams, one junior varsity team, and one varsity team, while the girls' have one middle school and one varsity team), indoor track (boys' and girls' varsity, middle school, and recently it was extended to the elementary school as well), outdoor track (boys' and girls' varsity, middle school and elementary), baseball (boys' middle school and varsity), softball
(girls' middle school and varsity), and tennis (boys' and girls' varsity). In 2006, an ultimate
team, co-ed middle school swimming and a co-ed middle school wrestling
team were added to Hunter's athletic curriculum. A handball
team was also added in 2008. Hunter's sports teams are surprisingly competitive given the school's size; several, including both Girls and Boys Volleyball, Swimming, Fencing, and Tennis are usually among the top 10 in the city.
In 1988 and 1995, the boys' volleyball team won the New York City PSAL
title. In more recent years, a few teams have made runs at the city championship. During the 1998–2001 era, an unusual concentration of athletic talent led the basketball team deep into the PSAL playoffs for 3 consecutive seasons. In 2005, the boys' volleyball team finished 4th in the city, the girls' soccer team reached the playoff semifinals, and co-ed fencing finished 3rd in the city. In 2008 the girls middle school soccer team were undefeated in the entire season and won the league. In the winter of 2005, co-ed fencing captured the city title. This was quickly followed, on November 22, 2005, with the Hunter Girls Varsity Volleyball team's defeat of JFK High School to become the New York City Champions.
Boys' and girls' swimming were also successful in 2005. The boys' swimming team defeated its rival, Bronx Science
, breaking a 15 year dry spell against the school. The girls had the first ever tie in PSAL Playoff history against Brooklyn Technical High School
(47–47). The win was later awarded to Hunter. In 2009 Hunter's girls swim team beat rival school Bronx Science for the first time in nine years by six points.
During the 2005–2006 school year, the girls' volleyball team won the PSAL city championship after many years of falling short of the championship, losing in the semifinals and finals.
The girls' and boys' tennis teams also did well in the 2006 season, with the girls' team ranked 4th in the city, and the boys' team ranked 7th. In 2008, the tennis team reached the A division finals but lost to top-seeded Beacon. The finals were played at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Flushing, Queens
.
In the winter of 2006 the boys' fencing team won the PSAL city championship for the second year in a row, beating rival school Stuyvesant
in the finals. It has since captured the silver medal in winter 2008, losing to Stuyvesant in the final, and the bronze medal in winter 09, again losing to Stuyvesant, after beating them twice during an undefeated regular season to win the division championship.
Hunter's varsity baseball and basketball teams were relegated to the B Division at the beginning of the 2006–07 school year, and reacted well to these changes. Both teams made deep playoff runs, with basketball losing in the second round, and baseball upsetting the second seeded team and losing in the quarterfinals. In the spring of 2008, the baseball team lost in the second round of the playoffs to eventual finalist and top-seeded Bayard Rustin. In the 2008–2009 school year, the varsity basketball team rejoined the A division and achieved an impressive undefeated record.
At the beginning of the 2007–08 school year, Hunter's boys varsity soccer team also moved to the B Division of the PSAL, and finished the season with a 7–1 record, culminating in a heartbreaking playoff loss.
In 2010, Hunter's boys varsity soccer team, under the lead of returning Coach Asumana Randolph, defied all odds by winning their division, and winning the first round of playoffs in overtime, a game which in past seasons has been the last. They went on to win the quarter finals, playing the defending champion, Queens Vocational, and also to win semi-finals. Hunter continued their streak to the championship, where they played Monroe Campus and won in a shut out; 3–0, becoming the first Hunter Boys soccer team to win the PSAL
championship. A rough game, the championship was won at the cost of broken leg of Captain Emmett Kim, who was injured while scoring a goal. Coach Randolph, ecstatic about the magnificent season, promised the team an African dinner; motivation which helped them push through each playoff round.
In 2011, both the Boys' and Girls' varsity lacrosse teams won the PSAL Bowl Division Championships.
In the 1983–84 school year, the Hunter Heat, Hunter's bowling team, finished as the top team in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx, losing to Cordozo High School (number one team in Queens and Brooklyn) in the PSAL city championship. In recent years, the bowling team has finished first in the division from the 2004–2005 season to the 2008–2009 season, and is consistently a top team in Manhattan. However, they have yet to pass the second round of the playoffs.
In 1984 the boys cross country team, in its second year in existence, defeated George Washington High School for the Manhattan Championship. The boy's X-C team upset a George Washington squad that had not lost the Manhattan X-C championship in twelve years. The girls' track team for the 08-09 seasons of Indoor and Outdoor Track placed third in Manhattan for both seasons, as well as having sent numerous athletes to City Championships.
The Athletic Association (AA) is an organization of varsity athletes that promotes school spirit and the interests of student athletes. The AA organizes intramural
tournaments, sells Hunter apparel, and promotes sporting events. The AA coordinates and executes Sports Banquet and the annual Junior-Senior Football games at Spirit Day as well.
Several formal dances are arranged throughout the year:
Several classes and extracurricular groups hold annual trips outside of New York City. International trips include the bi-annual AP Art History
trip, the Shakespeare Etc. club trip, and trips taken by various school-run musical groups (such as Jazz Band or Chorus).
Years Unknown: Girafftafarian, Whale of Fortune
In addition to these, there have been several mascot names that, though popular, were not selected. These include: Mortal Wombat, Zoo Tang Clan, Giraffic Park, Wu Tang Clam, Unchaperoned Partridge, Unprotected Rex, Busta Moose, and Twin Beaks.
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
's Upper East Side
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
. It is administered by Hunter College
Hunter College
Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...
, a senior college of the City University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
. Although it is not operated by the New York City Department of Education
New York City Department of Education
The New York City Department of Education is the branch of municipal government in New York City that manages the city's public school system. It is the largest school system in the United States, with over 1.1 million students taught in more than 1,700 separate schools...
, there is no tuition fee and it is publicly funded. The school's curriculum strives for a balance of achievement in the humanities and the sciences, and is widely revered as excelling in both fields. Hunter is noted for sending a very large percentage of students to the Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
and other top-ranked colleges and universities. It has been ranked as the top public high school in America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
by The Wall Street Journal several years running. Worth magazine also ranked Hunter as the nation's top public school. Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
stated that Hunter is one of the top public schools in the nation.
History
Laboratory school
A laboratory school or demonstration school is an elementary or secondary school operated in association with a university, college, or other teacher education institution and used for the training of future teachers, educational experimentation, educational research, and professional...
to prepare young women to become teachers, Hunter now offers a competitive college preparatory program for both genders. The original school was composed of an elementary and a high school. A kindergarten was added in 1887, and in 1888 the school was incorporated into a college. The high school was separated from what would become Hunter College
Hunter College
Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...
in 1903. In 1914, both schools were named after the Female Normal School's first president, Dr. Thomas Hunter
Thomas Hunter (school founder)
Thomas Hunter was an immigrant from Ireland to the United States. He is most famous for founding the Female Normal and High School in New York City, now known as Hunter College. The school is today considered one of the most valuable assets of the City University of New York, one of the world's...
. Despite its success in teaching generations of gifted young women, it was almost closed by Hunter College President Jacqueline Wexler in the early 1970s.
Hunter was an all-girls school for the first 78 years of its existence. The prototypical Hunter girl was the subject of a song entitled "Sarah Maria Jones," who, the lyrics told, had "Hunter in her bones." The school became co-ed in 1974 as a result of a lawsuit by Hunter College Elementary School parents, a development which was described by the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
with the headline "Girlie High Gets 1st Freshboys". In January 1982, the school was featured in a New York Magazine
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
article entitled "The Joyful Elite."
The high school has occupied a number of buildings throughout its history, including one at the East 68th Street campus of the College (1940–1970). For several years in the 1970s, it was housed on the 13th and 14th floors of an office building at 466 Lexington Avenue (at East 46th Street). Since 1977, it has existed in a nearly windowless structure at East 94th Street between Park
Park Avenue (Manhattan)
Park Avenue is a wide boulevard that carries north and southbound traffic in New York City borough of Manhattan. Through most of its length, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenue to the east....
and Madison Avenues on the Upper East Side
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
. Formerly, this was the site of the 94th Street Armory
Armory (military)
An armory or armoury is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, issued to authorized users, or any combination of those...
; today, part of the armory's empty shell (including two abandoned towers) stretches for the entire block of Madison Avenue in front of the school. The greater part of the armory building has been demolished. Designed to resemble the previous structure, the school is known for its near absence of sunlight, poor ventilation and low air quality. Because of its architectural peculiarities, Hunter is often called "The Brick Prison." Its "inmates" are housed in this building from grades K through 12, since it contains both the high school and Hunter College Elementary (collectively known as the Hunter College Campus Schools).
Dr. Tony Fisher is the acting principal of the high school. Randy Collins is the principal of the Elementary School and is the Interim Director of the Campus Schools. Sonya Mosco is the deputy director of the Campus Schools
Admissions
Admission to the high school is only granted in seventh gradeSeventh grade
Seventh grade is a year of education in the United States and many other nations. The seventh grade is the seventh school year after kindergarten. Students are usually 12–13 years old. Traditionally, seventh grade was the next-to-last year of elementary school...
, and is a dual-step procedure. About 3,000 students from the five boroughs
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
of New York City are eligible to take the Hunter College High School Entrance Exam in the January of their sixth grade
Sixth grade
Sixth grade is a year of education in the United States and some other nations. The sixth grade is the sixth school year after kindergarten. Students are usually 11 – 12 years old...
school year. Eligible students must first meet Hunter's standards in reading and mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
proficiency on fifth grade
Fifth grade
Fifth grade is a year of education in the United States and many other nations. The fifth grade is the fifth school year after kindergarten. Students are usually 10 – 11 years old, and are preteens...
standardized exams. For example, in 2011, sixth grade students who wished to enter Hunter during the 2011–2012 school year must have achieved scores of at least 689 out of 770 on the Reading test and 722 out of 780 on the Math test, that is, scores in the 90th-and-above percentile of all test takers.
The admissions test has thirty-five multiple-choice mathematics questions, sixty multiple-choice English questions, and an essay-writing portion. Out of about 3,000 test-takers, about 175 are offered admission on the basis of the exam. This 6.6% admissions rate, not considering the many students denied the chance to take the exam because they did not meet the state exam requirements, makes Hunter one of the most selective high schools in the nation.
Approximately 50 students from Hunter College Elementary School also enter the 7th grade class each year. Beginning with incoming students in the 2010–2011 school year, elementary school students must make 'satisfactory progress' by fifth grade in order to gain admission to the high school. Prior to this, students at Hunter College Elementary School were guaranteed admission into the high school. In total, entering 7th grade class contains approximately 225 students.
Most students, commonly known as "Hunterites," who enter the high school remain there through their senior year. In eighth grade
Eighth grade
Eighth grade is a year of education in the United States, Canada, Australia and other nations. Students are usually 13 - 14 years old. The eighth grade is typically the final grade before high school, and the ninth grade of public and private education, following kindergarten and subsequent grades...
, some Hunter students take the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test
Specialized High Schools Admissions Test
The Specialized High Schools Admissions Test is an examination administered to eighth and ninth grade students residing in New York City and used to determine admission to all but one of the city's Specialized High Schools.The results come in February. The test is given in the autumn for admission...
to transfer to other competitive public high schools
Specialized High Schools of New York City
The specialized high schools of New York City are selective public high schools, established and run by the New York City Department of Education to serve the needs of academically and artistically gifted students...
in New York City, although most choose to stay at Hunter. The graduating class usually retains about 200 students. The total enrollment from grades 7 through 12 is approximately 1,200 students.
Hunter is an open campus, allowing students to go outside during lunch and free periods. Although an easygoing, friendly and open environment, Hunter is a competitive and educational school.
Academics
Hunter College
Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...
or Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
(for transferable credit), undertake independent academic studies, and participate in internships around the city.
Students in grades 7 and 8 are required to take courses in Communications and Theater (a curriculum that includes drama, storytelling
Storytelling
Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values...
, and theater). Students in grades 7–9 must take both art and music, each for half a year, and then choose one to take in tenth grade. One of the three available foreign language courses (French, Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, or Spanish) must be taken each year in grades 7–10, and AP language electives are offered through the 12th grade. A year each of biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
, chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
, and physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
must be completed in addition to the introductory science classes of life science and physical science
Physical science
Physical science is an encompassing term for the branches of natural science and science that study non-living systems, in contrast to the life sciences...
in the 7th and 8th grades, respectively. During 7th and 8th grades, students must also participate in the school's science fair
Science fair
A science fair is generally a competition where contestants present their science project results in the form of a report, display board, and models that they have created. Science fairs allow students in grade schools and high schools to compete in science and/or technology activities...
; the fair is optional for older students. After the introductory 7th grade social studies course, 5 semesters (spanning two and a half years) of global studies must be completed, then 3 semesters of American history. A series of English and mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
courses are taught from 7th through 11th grades. (The math curriculum is split into a track of "honors" and a track of "extended honors" classes for students of different strengths after 7th grade). Two semesters of physical education
Physical education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
are taught each year, including swimming in the 8th grade (held at Hunter College). In 9th grade, students are required to take a CPR course for one semester. Starting in their junior year, students are allowed to take a limited number of electives and Advanced Placement
Advanced Placement Program
The Advanced Placement program is a curriculum in the United States and Canada sponsored by the College Board which offers standardized courses to high school students that are generally recognized to be equivalent to undergraduate courses in college...
courses. The senior year, however, is free of mandated courses except for a year of physical education electives and courses to fulfill leftover educational requirements.
Hunter has a strong English department, which incorporates reading dense novels and writing analytical papers beginning in the seventh grade. Students have historically graduated with strong writing and reading comprehension skills, reflected by the school's high average SAT scores in Critical Reading and Writing, and by the number of students who have earned recognition by the Scholastic Writing Awards.
Upper-level electives and Advanced Placement
Advanced Placement Program
The Advanced Placement program is a curriculum in the United States and Canada sponsored by the College Board which offers standardized courses to high school students that are generally recognized to be equivalent to undergraduate courses in college...
courses are offered by all six academic departments. Advanced Placement courses include: AP Computer Science
AP Computer Science
Advanced Placement Computer Science is the name of two distinct Advanced Placement courses and examinations offered by the College Board to high school students as an opportunity to earn college credit for a college-level computer science course...
, AP Calculus
AP Calculus
Advanced Placement Calculus is used to indicate one of two distinct Advanced Placement courses and examinations offered by the College Board, AP Calculus AB and AP Calculus BC....
AB and BC, AP Microeconomics
AP Microeconomics
Advanced Placement Microeconomics is a course for students interested in college-level work in microeconomics and/or gaining advanced standing in college. The course begins with a study of fundamental economic concepts such as scarcity, opportunity costs, production possibilities, specialization,...
and Macroeconomics
AP Macroeconomics
Advanced Placement Macroeconomics is a course offered by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program for high school students interested in college-level work in economics...
, AP Psychology
AP Psychology
The Advanced Placement Psychology course and corresponding exam is part of the College Board's Advanced Placement Program. This course is tailored for students interested in the field of psychology and as an opportunity to earn placement credit or exemption from a college-level psychology course...
, AP European History
AP European History
Advanced Placement European History is a course and examination offered by the College Board through the Advanced Placement Program...
, AP Chemistry
AP Chemistry
Advanced Placement Chemistry is a course and examination offered by the College Board as a part of the Advanced Placement Program to give American and Canadian high school students the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities and earn college-level credit.-The course:AP Chemistry is a course...
, AP Physics C
AP Physics C
Part of the College Board's Advanced Placement Program, consisting of two separate courses:*AP Physics C: Mechanics*AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism...
, AP Biology
AP Biology
In the United States, Advanced Placement Biology , is a course and examination offered by the College Board to high school students as an opportunity to earn placement credit for a college-level biology course....
, AP Statistics
AP Statistics
Advanced Placement Statistics is a college-level high school statistics course offered in the United States through the College Board's Advanced Placement program...
, AP Spanish
AP Spanish Language
Advanced Placement Spanish Language is a course and examination offered by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program.-The course:...
, AP French
AP French Language
Advanced Placement French Language and Culture is a course offered by the College Board to high school students in the United States as an opportunity to earn placement credit for a college-level French course...
and AP Latin
AP Latin
AP Latin can refer to either of the following Advanced Placement exams:* AP Latin Literature* AP Latin: Vergil...
(Regular and Vergil). The English Department previously offered AP English and Literature but has since replaced it with the elective Advanced Logic and Composition. Other electives include: Intro to African-American Studies, Race, Class, and Gender, International Relations
International relations
International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...
, US Constitutional Law, Classical Mythology, Photography, Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior...
, Advanced Art History I & II, Genes and Society, Creative Writing
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
, Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
's Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
, Shakespeare's Comedies & Romance/Shakespeare's Tragedies & Histories, and Physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
.
Hunter's AP offerings are currently being evaluated by the faculty and curriculum committee.
There are six guidance counselors serving the student population of 1200. Each junior and senior is assigned a college guidance counselor. In recent years (classes of 2002 through 2005), nearly 99% of Hunter's students have gone on to college, and about 25% of these students accept admission into an Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
school. In 2006–2007, 73 of the graduating seniors were accepted into the Ivy League schools, constituting approximately 40% of the whole grade.
Hunter students win many honors and awards during their high school careers, including numerous Scholastic Writing Awards. Hunter wins approximately 23% of all New York State Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Of particular fame are the winners of the Intel Science Talent Search
Intel Science Talent Search
The Intel Science Talent Search , known for its first 57 years as the Westinghouse Science Talent Search is a research-based science competition in the United States for high school seniors. It has been referred to as "the nation's oldest and most prestigious" science competition. In his speech...
- the first-place winner in 2005 was Hunter senior David L. V. Bauer ('05), while the 1991 winner was Adam Cohen ('97, now a professor in the chemistry and physics departments at Harvard). In addition, two of New York State's four 2005 Presidential scholars were Hunter College High School seniors. Sandra Fong ('08) represented the United States in the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing. She competed in the female's rifle shooting competition.
In light of its academic excellence, The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
recently identified Hunter College High School as one of the top public schools in the nation and a feeder to Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
and other leading colleges. Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
has also stated that Hunter College High School is one of the top public schools with the high performers on the SAT and ACT tests.
According to the National Center of Education Statistics, the average SAT score (verbal and mathematics) in the 2001–2002 school year was a 1390. The 2400-scale average for the class of 2007 was a 2156 (1436 on a 1600-point scale).
Extracurricular activities
The dozens of clubs and organizations at Hunter cater to a variety of interests, from politics to film and music to knittingKnitting
Knitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth or other fine crafts. Knitted fabric consists of consecutive rows of loops, called stitches. As each row progresses, a new loop is pulled through an existing loop. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can...
. Clubs and organizations at Hunter are all student-run, with faculty members as advisers. Hunter has many extracurricular programs to offer. There is also something called a club open house where the members of the student body have the opportunity to spend a few minutes of their lunch time and sign up for different clubs. Each club would be in the auditorium to persuade people to join.
Student government
The General Organization (G.O.) represents the student body. The executive board is made up of tenth through twelfth graders, elected by the student body, and comprises six members: President, Administrative Vice President, Activities Vice President, Treasurer, Publicity Secretary, and Recording Secretary.These officers organize school activities and communicate with the administration and faculty, frequently becoming involved in school policy. The G.O. organizes school-wide events such as Spirit Day, a school-wide outdoor recreation day usually held in October, and Carnival, held at the end of the school year.
Term Councils are grade governing bodies. They elect two senators for each grade to represent their ideas to the General Organization. They plan grade-wide events such as dances and fundraisers, as well as Semiformal and Prom
Prom
In the United States and Canada, a prom, short for promenade, is a formal dance, or gathering of high school students. It is typically held near the end of the senior year. It figures greatly in popular culture and is a major event among high school students...
.
Co-curricular activities
Students can choose to further pursue their academic interests through school activities such as the Hunter United Nations Society (HUNS), Fed Challenge (economics), Mock TrialMock trial
A Mock Trial is an act or imitation trial. It is similar to a moot court, but mock trials simulate lower-court trials, while moot court simulates appellate court hearings. Attorneys preparing for a real trial might use a mock trial consisting of volunteers as role players to test theories or...
, Debate
Debate
Debate or debating is a method of interactive and representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion...
Team, Math Team, the Hunter Chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
and Go
Go (board game)
Go , is an ancient board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,000 years ago...
Team and the Washington Seminar. The Hunter Chess Team is famous nationwide for winning numerous tournaments and championships. The Washington Seminar on Government in Action was introduced in the 1950s; students selected for this program research public policy
Public policy
Public policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and...
issues throughout the year. They arrange meetings with various public figures in Washington, D.C., and then meet with them for questioning and discussion regarding their researched issue during a three-day trip in May. The debate team is completely student run and yet is still nationally recognized and attends various tournaments throughout the year including tournaments at prestigious universities such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
. Hunter's Quiz Bowl Team, started in 2006, does similarly well, and was nationally ranked in its inaugural year.
Musical extracurriculars
Students with substantial musical training can choose to enroll in the StringString instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
Ensembles, Band, and/or Chorus
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
groups. In 2002, the music groups toured in Spain, performing a number of collaborative pieces. They toured Greece in 2006 and Budapest in 2008.
The string ensembles are divided into "Strings" and "Chamber Orchestra," the latter being a much more selective group. They have performed a number of both contemporary and traditional
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
pieces. The band is a woodwind-brass
Brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...
-percussion ensemble, and their focus is mainly on contemporary music, though they sometimes branch off into classical pieces such as Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's horn concerto in E flat. Chorus is divided into the concert choir and the chamber choir. The concert choir is a larger group than the chamber choir, and consists of members from the tenth to twelfth grades. There is also a selective jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
chorus, founded by former music teacher Campbell Austin, which focuses solely on jazz and pop. The Jazz band performs arrangements of jazz music.
One may also audition for Junior Orchestra (grades 7–8, except in special cases) or Senior Orchestra (grades 9–12, except in special cases), which perform in the two semi-annual concerts at Hunter, the Winter Concert and the Spring Concert. The concerts for the Junior Orchestra and Senior Orchestra are divided into two distinct concerts, the "Middle School Concert" and the "Winter (or Spring) concert", respectively.
Sports
Many teams are called "Hunter Hawks" because the school mascotMascot
The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...
is a hawk
Hawk
The term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Australia and Africa, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis. The large and widespread Accipiter genus includes goshawks,...
. Some exceptions, however, are the boys' volleyball team (Hunter Hitmen), the girls' volleyball team (Headhunters), the girls' swim team (Hunter Duckies), and the co-ed Ultimate Frisbee team (Hunter Halcyons).
Hunter has several sports teams that compete in the Public Schools Athletic League
(PSAL
PSAL
The Public Schools Athletic League, known by the acronym PSAL, is an organization that promotes student athletics in the public schools of New York City. It was founded in 1903 to provide and maintain a sports program for students enrolled in New York City public schools. The PSAL serves both boys...
). These sports are bowling
Bowling
Bowling Bowling Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule...
(co-ed varsity), cross-country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
(boys' and girls' varsity), fencing (boys' and girls' varsity), soccer (boy's and girl's varsity and middle school), swimming (boys' and girls' varsity), volleyball (boys' varsity and girls' varsity and middle school), basketball (boys' have two middle school teams, one junior varsity team, and one varsity team, while the girls' have one middle school and one varsity team), indoor track (boys' and girls' varsity, middle school, and recently it was extended to the elementary school as well), outdoor track (boys' and girls' varsity, middle school and elementary), baseball (boys' middle school and varsity), softball
Softball
Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...
(girls' middle school and varsity), and tennis (boys' and girls' varsity). In 2006, an ultimate
Ultimate (sport)
Ultimate is a sport played with a 175 gram flying disc. The object of the game is to score points by passing the disc to a player in the opposing end zone, similar to an end zone in American football or rugby...
team, co-ed middle school swimming and a co-ed middle school wrestling
Scholastic wrestling
Scholastic wrestling, sometimes known in the United States as Folkstyle wrestling, is a style of amateur wrestling practised at the high school and middle school levels in the United States. This wrestling style is essentially Collegiate wrestling with some slight modifications. It is currently...
team were added to Hunter's athletic curriculum. A handball
American handball
American handball is a sport in which players hit a small rubber ball against a wall using their hands.- History :...
team was also added in 2008. Hunter's sports teams are surprisingly competitive given the school's size; several, including both Girls and Boys Volleyball, Swimming, Fencing, and Tennis are usually among the top 10 in the city.
In 1988 and 1995, the boys' volleyball team won the New York City PSAL
PSAL
The Public Schools Athletic League, known by the acronym PSAL, is an organization that promotes student athletics in the public schools of New York City. It was founded in 1903 to provide and maintain a sports program for students enrolled in New York City public schools. The PSAL serves both boys...
title. In more recent years, a few teams have made runs at the city championship. During the 1998–2001 era, an unusual concentration of athletic talent led the basketball team deep into the PSAL playoffs for 3 consecutive seasons. In 2005, the boys' volleyball team finished 4th in the city, the girls' soccer team reached the playoff semifinals, and co-ed fencing finished 3rd in the city. In 2008 the girls middle school soccer team were undefeated in the entire season and won the league. In the winter of 2005, co-ed fencing captured the city title. This was quickly followed, on November 22, 2005, with the Hunter Girls Varsity Volleyball team's defeat of JFK High School to become the New York City Champions.
Boys' and girls' swimming were also successful in 2005. The boys' swimming team defeated its rival, Bronx Science
Bronx High School of Science
The Bronx High School of Science is a specialized New York City public high school often considered the premier science magnet school in the United States. Founded in 1938, it is now located in the Bedford Park section of the Bronx...
, breaking a 15 year dry spell against the school. The girls had the first ever tie in PSAL Playoff history against Brooklyn Technical High School
Brooklyn Technical High School
Brooklyn Technical High School, commonly called Brooklyn Tech or just Tech, and also administratively as High School 430, is a New York City public high school that specializes in engineering, math and science and is the largest specialized high school for science, technology, engineering, and...
(47–47). The win was later awarded to Hunter. In 2009 Hunter's girls swim team beat rival school Bronx Science for the first time in nine years by six points.
During the 2005–2006 school year, the girls' volleyball team won the PSAL city championship after many years of falling short of the championship, losing in the semifinals and finals.
The girls' and boys' tennis teams also did well in the 2006 season, with the girls' team ranked 4th in the city, and the boys' team ranked 7th. In 2008, the tennis team reached the A division finals but lost to top-seeded Beacon. The finals were played at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Flushing, Queens
Flushing, Queens
Flushing, founded in 1645, is a neighborhood in the north central part of the City of New York borough of Queens, east of Manhattan.Flushing was one of the first Dutch settlements on Long Island. Today, it is one of the largest and most diverse neighborhoods in New York City...
.
In the winter of 2006 the boys' fencing team won the PSAL city championship for the second year in a row, beating rival school Stuyvesant
Stuyvesant High School
Stuyvesant High School , commonly referred to as Stuy , is a New York City public high school that specializes in mathematics and science. The school opened in 1904 on Manhattan's East Side and moved to a new building in Battery Park City in 1992. Stuyvesant is noted for its strong academic...
in the finals. It has since captured the silver medal in winter 2008, losing to Stuyvesant in the final, and the bronze medal in winter 09, again losing to Stuyvesant, after beating them twice during an undefeated regular season to win the division championship.
Hunter's varsity baseball and basketball teams were relegated to the B Division at the beginning of the 2006–07 school year, and reacted well to these changes. Both teams made deep playoff runs, with basketball losing in the second round, and baseball upsetting the second seeded team and losing in the quarterfinals. In the spring of 2008, the baseball team lost in the second round of the playoffs to eventual finalist and top-seeded Bayard Rustin. In the 2008–2009 school year, the varsity basketball team rejoined the A division and achieved an impressive undefeated record.
At the beginning of the 2007–08 school year, Hunter's boys varsity soccer team also moved to the B Division of the PSAL, and finished the season with a 7–1 record, culminating in a heartbreaking playoff loss.
In 2010, Hunter's boys varsity soccer team, under the lead of returning Coach Asumana Randolph, defied all odds by winning their division, and winning the first round of playoffs in overtime, a game which in past seasons has been the last. They went on to win the quarter finals, playing the defending champion, Queens Vocational, and also to win semi-finals. Hunter continued their streak to the championship, where they played Monroe Campus and won in a shut out; 3–0, becoming the first Hunter Boys soccer team to win the PSAL
PSAL
The Public Schools Athletic League, known by the acronym PSAL, is an organization that promotes student athletics in the public schools of New York City. It was founded in 1903 to provide and maintain a sports program for students enrolled in New York City public schools. The PSAL serves both boys...
championship. A rough game, the championship was won at the cost of broken leg of Captain Emmett Kim, who was injured while scoring a goal. Coach Randolph, ecstatic about the magnificent season, promised the team an African dinner; motivation which helped them push through each playoff round.
In 2011, both the Boys' and Girls' varsity lacrosse teams won the PSAL Bowl Division Championships.
In the 1983–84 school year, the Hunter Heat, Hunter's bowling team, finished as the top team in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx, losing to Cordozo High School (number one team in Queens and Brooklyn) in the PSAL city championship. In recent years, the bowling team has finished first in the division from the 2004–2005 season to the 2008–2009 season, and is consistently a top team in Manhattan. However, they have yet to pass the second round of the playoffs.
In 1984 the boys cross country team, in its second year in existence, defeated George Washington High School for the Manhattan Championship. The boy's X-C team upset a George Washington squad that had not lost the Manhattan X-C championship in twelve years. The girls' track team for the 08-09 seasons of Indoor and Outdoor Track placed third in Manhattan for both seasons, as well as having sent numerous athletes to City Championships.
The Athletic Association (AA) is an organization of varsity athletes that promotes school spirit and the interests of student athletes. The AA organizes intramural
Intramural sports
Intramural sports or intramurals are recreational sports organized within a set geographic area. The term derives from the Latin words intra muros meaning "within walls", and was used to indicate sports matches and contests that took place among teams from "within the walls" of an ancient city...
tournaments, sells Hunter apparel, and promotes sporting events. The AA coordinates and executes Sports Banquet and the annual Junior-Senior Football games at Spirit Day as well.
Student publications
Hunter has many student publications, including What's What, the official school newspaper since 1922, and its rival independent paper, The Observer. Weekly circulations include "What's G.O.ing On", a joint presentation of the G.O. and What's What. The Eclectic is Hunter's fully online student publication. Student-produced magazines include The Hunter Economist (political and economic commentary), Chapter 11 (satire), Tapestry (science fiction and fantasy), Radicals (math), The Desk (literary magazine for lower-termers), Argus (poetry and prose), Annals (the school's yearbook), Biosphere (science), F-Stop (photography), Hunter Political Magazine, E magazine (popular culture and fashion magazine), Playback (music magazine), "Storyboard" (graphic stories), "Artillery" (student art), and T.H.A.T. Theatre Review (theater).Theater productions
The Hunter theater program is an active one, often with a season of four or five main-stage productions and many other showcase productions. In a season of five main-stage productions, they normally fall into these categories: a Shakespeare play; a Straight Play; a Musical (Musical REP); Hunter Classics, for students in grades 7 through 9; and the Brick Prison Playhouse, showcasing several student-written plays. There are likewise two Theater Production Practicum (TPP) showcases, with student-directed one-act plays (through the class TPP), as well as a 7th grade play festival. Many cultural clubs also produce performances highlighting their culture.School events and traditions
Students at Hunter often enjoy various social events that are sponsored by the school administration, faculty and the student-run General Organization. These include:- Seventh Grade Picnic: an orientation and welcoming event held in Central ParkCentral ParkCentral Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
in September. Seventh-graders play various sports and become more familiar with each other under the supervision of 11th grade "Big Sibs." - Spirit Week: a week in October in which each day consists of activities centered around a "theme" (e.g. retroRetroRetro is a culturally outdated or aged style, trend, mode, or fashion, from the overall postmodern past, that has since that time become functionally or superficially the norm once again. The use of "retro" style iconography and imagery interjected into post-modern art, advertising, mass media, etc...
) as designated by the G.O. It was created in the 1990s as a replacement for a spring "Field Day", which was once organized by the Athletic Association. - Spirit Day: the second to last day of Spirit Week. (Unless it rains, then Spirit Day is held sometime in the spring.) It is a day-long school-wide excursion to a recreation spot. The trip is often to Bear Mountain State ParkBear Mountain State ParkBear Mountain State Park is located on the west side of the Hudson River in Orange and Rockland counties of New York. The park offers biking, hiking, boating, picnicking, swimming, cross-country skiing, cross-country running, sledding and ice skating...
, but in certain years, the destination has been Belmont Lake State ParkBelmont Lake State ParkBelmont Lake State Park is located in Babylon , New York on Long Island in Suffolk County, New York. The park has boating and picnicking facilities and playing fields for popular sports...
, PlaylandPlayland (New York)Playland, often called Rye Playland and also known as Playland Amusement Park, is an amusement park located in Rye, New York. Run by Westchester County, it is the only government owned-and-operated amusement park in the United States.-History:...
, or Central ParkCentral ParkCentral Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
. It includes the annual Senior-Junior footballAmerican footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
game. - HomecomingHomecomingHomecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni of a school. It most commonly refers to a tradition in many universities, colleges and high schools in North America...
: a day in which the previous year's graduates return to the school to revisit current students in December. A Varsity Basketball game is usually scheduled on this day. - Senior Walkout: carried out on the first day of snowfall. Seniors leave class for the day to engage in snowball fights or pursue other activities outside of the school. Often these snowball fights will take place in the school courtyard. During years without snowfall, Senior Walkout is transferred to the first day of the year in which the temperature tops 90° Fahrenheit. In recent years, the Hunter Administration has attempted to restrict and even ban Senior Walkout by enforcing unjust policies. Differing from the past, Hunter's Term Council is now forced to check with the Hunter Administration for an appropriate day to have a sanctioned Senior Walkout, essentially surrendering the spontaneity from the event. After 2008, Hunter seniors were forced to remain in the courtyard during walkout, and prohibited to leave the school grounds, unlike in all previous years. In the winter of 2010, the Hunter administration suspended two senior students for "interrupting the school community." No specific charges were brought or announced. For the upcoming Class of 2011, however, the Hunter Administration has cancelled Senior Walkout indefinitely. The egalitarian spirit of Senior Walkout, however, will forever endure.
- Ski trips: one is run by Action Tours and takes place in the last weekend of January.
- CarnivalCarnivalCarnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
: a major end-of-year event for the student body. It usually has a theme, features both live and recorded music, and stalls run by various school clubs that showcase games, food, or other items of interest. - Senior Week: traditionally the week after Carnival and before graduation. During this week, there are events designed to say goodbye to the graduating seniors. They include:
- Senior Tea: students of the graduating class are presented with white carnations and served refreshments by their teachers.
- Senior Barbecue: graduating students serve lunch to the faculty.
- "Intel Trip:" A trip run by the Hunter Science department that takes students to Washington D.C. to view Intel Science Project finalists and sightseeing in surrounding areas.
Several formal dances are arranged throughout the year:
- PromPromIn the United States and Canada, a prom, short for promenade, is a formal dance, or gathering of high school students. It is typically held near the end of the senior year. It figures greatly in popular culture and is a major event among high school students...
is a similar event to many proms held all across the United States, consisting of formal dressFormal wearFormal wear and formal dress are the general terms for clothing suitable for formal social events, such as a wedding, formal garden party or dinner, débutante cotillion, dance, or race...
and a sit-down dinner. The event is usually followed by an after-party at a student's house. In June 2001, Prom was held at the World Trade Center (Windows on the World). - Semi-formal is the "junior prom", held for eleventh graders.
- Lower-termers have their own annual dances, including dances for Valentine's DayValentine's DaySaint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496...
and HalloweenHalloweenHallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
for the seventh and eighth graders, as well as ninth and tenth grade dances. In some years, there may also be themed dances; for example, in 2006, dances included the Halloween and Valentines' Dances as well as a "Black, White, and Silver Dance" for seventh and eighth graders.
Several classes and extracurricular groups hold annual trips outside of New York City. International trips include the bi-annual AP Art History
AP Art History
AP Art History is a course offered in high school through the Advanced Placement Program that gives college level material at the high school level. This class is operated by College Board...
trip, the Shakespeare Etc. club trip, and trips taken by various school-run musical groups (such as Jazz Band or Chorus).
Senior Mascots
While the official mascot of the school is a hawk, every spring, the rising senior class selects a mascot of their own that they present to the rest of the school at Carnival. The class makes t-shirts and rents a costume for a student to wear for the presentation.| Year of Graduation | Mascot |
|---|---|
| 1977 | (Tiger) |
| 1978 | Chocolate Moose |
| 1981 | (Goat) |
| 1982 | Rasputin Raccoon |
| 1983 | Null and Void, the Pushme-Pullyu |
| 1984 | Orville the Rat |
| 1985 | Wham Bam Thank You Clam |
| 1986 | Felix the Plat(ypus) |
| 1987 | Cuff the Missing Lynx |
| 1988 | Squid Vicious |
| 1989 | Stork Naked |
| 1991 | Me, Myself & Fly |
| 1994 | Grand Puma |
| 1995 | Pinball Lizard |
| 1996 | Institutionalized Mole-Rat |
| 1997 | Karate Squid |
| 1998 | Chimp Daddy |
| 1999 | The Codfather |
| 2000 | Apocalypse Cow |
| 2001 | Quantum Sheep |
| 2002 | Crocafella |
| 2003 | MC Hamster |
| 2004 | Squirrels Gone Wild |
| 2005 | Cuban Mascot Crisis: Swan F. Kennedy, Fidel Bastro, Nicheetah Kruschev |
| 2006 | Fight Cub |
| 2007 | Habeas Porpoise |
| 2008 | Duck Norris |
| 2009 | Darth Gator |
| 2010 | Bearistotle |
| 2011 | Shark Kent |
| 2012 | Moose Lee |
Years Unknown: Girafftafarian, Whale of Fortune
In addition to these, there have been several mascot names that, though popular, were not selected. These include: Mortal Wombat, Zoo Tang Clan, Giraffic Park, Wu Tang Clam, Unchaperoned Partridge, Unprotected Rex, Busta Moose, and Twin Beaks.
Alumnae and alumni
Notable alums include:| Name | Year of graduation | | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Shirley Abrahamson Shirley Abrahamson Shirley S. Abrahamson is the Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. She was appointed to the court in 1976 by Governor of Wisconsin Patrick Lucey. Upon her appointment she was the first woman to serve on Wisconsin's high court. She served as the only woman on the court from 1976 until 1993... |
1950 | Wisconsin Supreme Court Wisconsin Supreme Court The Wisconsin Supreme Court is the highest appellate court in the state of Wisconsin. The Supreme Court has jurisdiction over original actions, appeals from lower courts, and regulation or administration of the practice of law in Wisconsin.-Location:... Chief Justice |
| Randy Altschuler Randy Altschuler Randolph "Randy" Brody Altschuler is a businessman and politician on Long Island, New York. He was the Republican Party and Conservative Party candidate for Congress in New York's 1st Congressional District in 2010.... |
1989 | co-founder, OfficeTiger; U.S. Congressional Candidate, New York's 1st congressional district New York's 1st congressional district The 1st Congressional District of New York is a congressional district for the United States House of Representatives in eastern Long Island. It includes most of Central and Eastern Suffolk County, including most of Smithtown, as well as the entirety of the towns of Brookhaven, Riverhead, Southold,... |
| Birdie Amsterdam Birdie Amsterdam Birdie Amsterdam was a lawyer and judge in New York City, who became the first woman to serve as a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court.... |
1918 | first female New York State Supreme Court Justice |
| Charles Ardai Charles Ardai Charles Ardai is an entrepreneur, writer, editor, and television producer. He is best known as founder and CEO of Juno, an Internet company, and founder and editor of Hard Case Crime, a line of pulp-style paperback crime novels.-Biography:... |
1987 | founder and CEO, Juno; managing director, D.E. Shaw; author |
| Eli Attie Eli Attie Eli Attie is a writer and political operative. He served as chief speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore from 1997 until Gore's concession of the 2000 election, and before that worked for President Bill Clinton and House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt.... |
1985 | TV writer, House and West Wing, and political speechwriter |
| Kyle Baker Kyle Baker Kyle John Baker is an American cartoonist, comic book writer-artist, and animator known for his graphic novels and for a 2000s revival of the series Plastic Man.... |
1983 | comic book artist/writer, cartoonist, animator and satirist |
| Phyllis Beck | unknown | former Vice-Dean, University of Pennsylvania Law School University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Law School, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania. A member of the Ivy League, it is among the oldest and most selective law schools in the nation. It is currently ranked 7th overall by U.S. News & World Report,... |
| Etel Billig Etel Billig Etel Billig is an American actress, singer, teacher and director; her career has spanned over 60 years. She founded Illinois Theatre Center in 1976 with her late husband Steven. Over the past 36 years, she has appeared in, as well as directed over 100 productions at ITC... |
unknown | actress and founder of Illinois Theatre Center Illinois Theatre Center The Illinois Theatre Center is a theater in the southern Chicago suburb of Park Forest which began operation in 1976. In 1999, ITC moved to a state-of-the-art facility in downtown Park Forest, Illinois from their previous location in the basement of the Park Forest Public Library... |
| Jeremy Blachman | 1996 | author, Anonymous Lawyer |
| Angela Bofill Angela Bofill Angela Bofill is an American R&B vocalist and songwriter.Bofill was born to a Cuban father and a Puerto Rican mother; one of the first Latina singers to find success in the R&B market.She performed with Ricardo Marrero & the Group and Dance Theater of Harlem chorus prior to her 1978 debut album,... |
1972 | jazz singer |
| Michael A. Burstein Michael A. Burstein Michael A. Burstein is an American writer of science fiction. He was born in New York City, and grew up in the neighborhood of Forest Hills in the borough of Queens. He attended Hunter College High School in Manhattan... |
1987 | science fiction writer |
| Hortense Calisher Hortense Calisher Hortense Calisher was an American writer of fiction.-Personal life:Born in New York City, New York, and a graduate of Hunter College High School and Barnard College , Calisher was the daughter of a young German Jewish immigrant mother and a somewhat older Jewish father from Virginia whose family... |
1928 | novelist, President American Academy of Arts and Letters |
| Sewell Chan Sewell Chan Sewell Chan is an American journalist who has worked for The New York Times since 2004. In February 2011 he was named deputy opinion page editor of the Times. He was previously a Washington correspondent covering economic policy... |
1994 | deputy editor, New York Times |
| Christopher Collet Christopher Collet Christopher Collet is an American actor who is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Jake Livingston in the 1984 movie Firstborn, and for his lead role in the 1986 film The Manhattan Project.... |
1986 | actor |
| Olivia Cole Olivia Cole Olivia Cole is an American actress.-Biography:Cole was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the daughter of Arvelia and William Cole. She was the first African-American actress to be nominated for and subsequently win an Emmy Award... |
1960 | actress, first African-American Emmy winner |
| Jon Daniels Jon Daniels Jon Daniels is the current General Manager of the Texas Rangers, a Major League Baseball. When hired, at age 28, he was the youngest GM in Major League Baseball history. And as of 2011 was still the youngest GM.-Biography:... |
1995 | Texas Rangers Texas Rangers (baseball) The Texas Rangers are a professional baseball team in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, based in Arlington, Texas. The Rangers are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League, and are the reigning A.L. Western Division and A.L. Champions. Since , the Rangers have... General Manager |
| Lucy Dawidowicz Lucy Dawidowicz Lucy Schildkret Dawidowicz was an American historian and an author of books on modern Jewish history, in particular books on the Holocaust.-Life:... |
1932 | Holocaust historian |
| Manohla Dargis Manohla Dargis Manohla Dargis is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with A.O. Scott. She was formerly a chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times, the film editor at the LA Weekly, and a film critic at The Village Voice. She has written for a variety of publications, including Film Comment and... |
1979 | film critic, New York Times |
| Ruby Dee Ruby Dee Ruby Dee is an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and activist, perhaps best known for co-starring in the film A Raisin in the Sun and the film American Gangster for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.-Early years:Dee was born Ruby... |
1939 | actress, African American rights activist |
| Desmond Devlin Desmond Devlin Desmond Devlin is an American comedy writer. His work has appeared in the pages of MAD for a quarter-century, and he ranks as one of the magazine's ten most frequent non-illustrating writers... |
1982 | writer, MAD Magazine |
| Ophelia Devore Ophelia Devore Madame Ophelia DeVore was the first mixed-race model in the United States. In 1946, she helped establish the Grace Del Marco Agency, one of the first modeling agencies in America.- Life :... |
c.1936 | first mixed-race model, founder-Grace Del Marco agency. |
| Diane di Prima Diane di Prima Diane Di Prima is an American poet.-Early life:Di Prima was born in Brooklyn. She attended Hunter College High School and Swarthmore College before dropping out to be a poet in Manhattan... |
1951 | poet |
| Mark Jason Dominus Mark Jason Dominus Mark•Jason Dominus is one of the founders of Kibology and a leading Perl programmer. He was the managing editor of and was a columnist for The Perl Journal for several years. Mark's other Perl-related articles have appeared in magazines such as Wired and IEEE Software... |
1986 | Perl programmer |
| Mildred S. Dresselhaus | 1947 | Institute Professor of physics and electrical engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in... , National Medal of Science winner |
| Sandi Simcha DuBowski Sandi Simcha DuBowski Sandi Simcha DuBowski is an American director and producer. Best known for his work on homosexuality and religion, DuBowski directed the 2001 documentary Trembling Before G-d and is the producer of Parvez Sharma's documentary A Jihad for Love .-Personal life:DuBowski was born in Brooklyn in 1970... |
1988 | filmmaker |
| Dujeous Dujeous Dujeous is a live hip-hop band based in New York City. Dujeous songs are a diverse mix of topics, but they often talk about life in New York City , post-millennial paranoia , and sometimes, just having a good time... |
1995 | (original members), hip-hop group |
| Helen Epstein Helen Epstein Helen Epstein is a writer of memoir, journalism and biography who lives in Massachusetts, United States. She was born November 27, 1947 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, raised in New York City, and graduated from Hunter College High School in 1965.-Life:... |
1965 | journalist and author |
| Jewlia Eisenberg Jewlia Eisenberg Jewlia Eisenberg is an American composer. As founder and bandleader of Charming Hostess she coined the term "Nerdy-Sexy-Commie-Girly" to describe her genre of music which spans an eclectic range of styles.... |
1988 | composer and musician |
| a female faust | 1983 | poet , augur , activist, vocalist |
| Mark Feinsand | 1992 | sportswriter, "New York Daily News New York Daily News The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011.... " |
| Sandy Fong | 2008 | Olympic athlete (shooting) |
| Richard (DiMasi) Fontana Richard Fontana Richard Fontana is a free software and open source lawyer in the United States. Fontana served as legal counsel at the Software Freedom Law Center from December 5, 2005 until February 2008... |
1986 | free software and open source lawyer |
| Rose Fox | 1996 | journalist and editor, Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents... |
| Michael C. Frank Michael C. Frank Michael C. Frank is a developmental psychologist at Stanford University who proposed that infants' language development may be thought of as a process of Bayesian inference. He has also studied the role of language in numerical cognition by comparing the performance of native Pirahã language... |
1999 | developmental psychologist, Stanford Stanford University The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San... |
| Linda P. Fried | 1966 | Dean, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the... |
| Susan Fuhrman Susan Fuhrman Susan Fuhrman is the tenth president of Teachers College, Columbia University. Fuhrman earned her doctorate in political economy from Teachers College. She became very engaged in issues of educational equity, and became an authority on school reform... |
1961 | President, Teachers College, Columbia University Teachers College, Columbia University Teachers College, Columbia University is a graduate school of education located in New York City, New York... ; former Dean, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education The University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, commonly known as Penn GSE, is one of the leading educational research schools in the United States... |
| Joshua Geltzer | 2001 | Editor-in-Chief of Yale Law Journal Yale Law Journal The Yale Law Journal is a student-run law review affiliated with the Yale Law School. Published continuously since 1891, it is the most widely known of the eight law reviews published by students at Yale Law School... |
| Eleanor Glueck Eleanor Glueck Eleanor Touroff Glueck was a social worker and a criminologist.She was born Leonia Touroff in Brooklyn, New York, the only daughter of Russian immigrant Bernard Leo and Polish immigrant Anna Wodzislawska, although she had two brothers... |
1916 | criminologist, Harvard University Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country... |
| Jamal Greene | 1995 | professor, Columbia Law School Columbia Law School Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in... |
| Jeffrey Greenfield | 1990 | professor of neurosurgery, Cornell Medical School |
| Brett Haber Brett Haber Brett Haber is an American sportscaster. He is currently a play-by-play commentator and host for Tennis Channel and several other national and regional sports outlets. Haber is also Editor-at-Large/Sports Editor for Washingtonian Magazine. In July of 2011 Haber announced his resignation as Sports... |
1987 | television sportscaster |
| Evelyn Handler Evelyn Handler Evelyn Erika Handler served from 1980 to 1983 as the University of New Hampshire's fourteenth and first female president. In 1983, Handler was inaugurated as President of Brandeis University, where she was also the first woman to hold that position... |
1950 | President, University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire is a public university in the University System of New Hampshire , United States. The main campus is in Durham, New Hampshire. An additional campus is located in Manchester. With over 15,000 students, UNH is the largest university in New Hampshire. The university is... and Brandeis University Brandeis University Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it... |
| Anne Harrington | 1977 | chair, history of science dept., Harvard University Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country... |
| Christopher Hayes Christopher Hayes (journalist) Christopher L. "Chris" Hayes is an American broadcaster, journalist and liberal political commentator. Hayes hosts Up with Chris Hayes, a weekend news and opinion television show on MSNBC. Hayes had formerly been a frequent guest host and commentator on shows such as The Rachel Maddow Show and... |
1997 | syndicated journalist |
| Bernadine Healy Bernadine Healy Bernadine Patricia Healy was an American physician, cardiologist, academic and a former head of the National Institutes of Health . She was a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, professor and dean of the College of Medicine and Public Health at the Ohio State University, and served... |
1962 | former NIH National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation... director and Red Cross president |
| Carrie Kei Heim Carrie Kei Heim Carrie Kei Heim is an attorney and former child actress currently working in Boston.-Acting filmography:-Education:... |
1991 | actress |
| Taina Hernandez Taina Hernandez Tai Hernandez is a reporter for WNYW and a former correspondent for ABC News.A native of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, Hernandez joined ABC News in 2001 as a correspondent for NewsOne, ABC's affiliate news service... |
1992 | broadcaster |
| Jonathan Hoefler Jonathan Hoefler Jonathan Hoefler is an American typeface designer. Hoefler founded Hoefler & Frere-Jones , a type foundry in New York that Hoefler shares with fellow type designer Tobias Frere-Jones.Hoefler has designed original typefaces for Rolling Stone Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, The New York Times Magazine,... |
1988 | typeface designer |
| Steve Hofstetter Steve Hofstetter Steve Hofstetter is an author, columnist and comedian, who started with material particularly pertaining to college life, and has since become a social commentator... |
1997 | comedian/radio personality |
| Ashok Bhalla aka Dead Air Dave Dead Air Dave Dead Air Dave is a radio personality who got his start as an intern at WXRK New York in 1994. He has used the name A.B. Love on the radio in the past.Dave's first on-air gig was at WPDH Poughkeepsie... |
1994 | radio personality |
| Adam Horowitz | 1990 | TV writer/producer |
| Florence Howe Florence Howe Florence Howe, American author, publisher, literary scholar and historian, is understood to be a nationally recognised leader of the contemporary feminist movement.... |
1946 | feminist activist |
| Immortal Technique Immortal Technique Felipe Andres Coronel , better known by the stage name Immortal Technique, is an American rapper of Afro-Peruvian descent as well as an urban activist. He was born in Lima, Peru and raised in Harlem, New York. Most of his lyrics focus on controversial issues in global politics... |
1996 | rapper/political activist |
| Elena Kagan Elena Kagan Elena Kagan is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving since August 7, 2010. Kagan is the Court's 112th justice and fourth female justice.... |
1977 | United States Supreme Court Justice, former United States Solicitor General United States Solicitor General The United States Solicitor General is the person appointed to represent the federal government of the United States before the Supreme Court of the United States. The current Solicitor General, Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 6, 2011 and sworn in on June... and Dean of Harvard Law School Harvard Law School Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S... |
| Eric Kaplan Eric Kaplan Eric Kaplan is an American television writer, producer, and story editor. His work has included such shows as The Late Show with David Letterman, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Malcolm in the Middle, and Futurama... |
1985 | TV writer/producer |
| Max Kellerman Max Kellerman Max Kellerman is an American boxing commentator and sports talk radio host based in Los Angeles. He currently appears as a color commentator on HBO World Championship Boxing and HBO Boxing After Dark and as of January 3, 2011, is hosting a midday talk show on 710 ESPN radio in Los Angeles.Prior... |
1991 | broadcaster |
| Peter Kimelman | 1991 | architect, large-scale artist |
| Jonathan Kirschner | 1982 | professor and director, Reddy Institute, Cornell University Cornell University Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions... , former chair, Economics and National Security Program, Harvard University Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country... |
| Karen Kornbluh Karen Kornbluh Karen Kornbluh is an American government official, and expert on communications policy, international trade and issues affecting working families... |
1981 | U.S. Ambassador to OECD |
| Jean Kwok Jean Kwok Jean Kwok is a contemporary Chinese American writer and the author of the national bestseller Girl in Translation.-Biography:Jean Kwok was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to Brooklyn, New York when she was five years old. While living in a roach-infested apartment without central heating, she... |
1986 | novelist |
| Evelyn Lauder Evelyn Lauder Evelyn Lauder was an American socialite and philanthropist who has been credited as one of the creators and popularizers of the pink ribbon as a symbol for awareness of breast cancer.... |
1954 | philanthropist |
| Jennifer 8. Lee Jennifer 8. Lee Jennifer 8. Lee is an American journalist. She has written for various sections of The New York Times for several years.- Early life and career :... |
1994 | New York Times journalist and author |
| Judy Lewent Judy Lewent Judith C. Lewent was, until July 2007, the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Merck, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world.-Early life:... |
1966 | director of Dell, GlaxoSmithKline, Motorola and MIT and former Exec. VP and CFO of Merck Merck & Co. Merck & Co., Inc. , also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme or MSD outside the United States and Canada, is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. The Merck headquarters is located in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, an unincorporated area in Readington Township... |
| Robert Lopez Robert Lopez Robert Lopez is an American composer and lyricist of musicals best known for co-writing the Broadway musical Avenue Q and for co-creating the musical The Book of Mormon, receiving Tony Awards for both works.... |
1993 | Avenue Q Avenue Q Avenue Q is a musical in two acts, conceived by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who wrote the music and lyrics. The book was written by Jeff Whitty and the show was directed by Jason Moore and produced by Kevin McCollum, Robyn Goodman, and Jeffrey Seller... and Book of Mormon Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr... composer-lyricist |
| Audre Lorde Audre Lorde Audre Lorde was a Caribbean-American writer, poet and activist.-Life:... |
1951 | poet, professor |
| Nava Lubelski Nava Lubelski Nava Lubelski is a contemporary artist who currently works and lives in Asheville, NC.-Background:Nava Lubelski was born and grew up in the SoHo section of New York City. She graduated from Hunter College High School in Manhattan in 1986 and earned a BA in Russian Literature and History from... |
1986 | artist and author |
| Donna Minkowitz Donna Minkowitz Donna Minkowitz is a writer and journalist from Brooklyn, New York, United States. She is an advocate for gay and lesbian rights and has written extensively on the subject for publications such as The Village Voice , New York Magazine, The Advocate, Ms. magazine, The Nation and Salon.com.She is... |
1981 | writer and journalist |
| Lin-Manuel Miranda | 1998 | writer/actor In The Heights In the Heights In the Heights is a musical with music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes. The story explores three days in the characters' lives in the New York City Dominican-American neighborhood of Washington Heights.... , interpreter for West Side Story West Side Story West Side Story is an American musical with a script by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and choreographed by Jerome Robbins... |
| Thisbe Nissen | 1990 | novelist |
| Cynthia Nixon Cynthia Nixon Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City . She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award.... |
1984 | actress 'Sex & the City' |
| Mollie Orshansky Mollie Orshansky Mollie Orshansky, , was an American economist and statistician who, in 1963–65, developed the Orshansky Poverty Thresholds, which are used in the United States as a measure of the income that a household must not exceed to be counted as poor.-Life and career:Miss Orshansky was born January 9, 1915,... |
1931 | statistician |
| Cynthia Ozick Cynthia Ozick Cynthia Ozick is an American short story writer, novelist, and essayist. She is the niece of the Hebraist Abraham Regelson.-Background:Cynthia Shoshana Ozick was born in New York City, the second of two children... |
1946 | novelist |
| Ellen Ash Peters Ellen Ash Peters Ellen Ash Peters was appointed to the Connecticut Supreme Court in 1978. She was the first woman appointed to that court.At age nine she emigrated to the United States with her parents from Nazi Germany... |
1947 | Connecticut Supreme Court Connecticut Supreme Court The Connecticut Supreme Court, formerly known as the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, is the highest court in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It consists of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices. The seven justices sit in Hartford, across the street from the Connecticut State Capitol... Chief Justice |
| Pearl Primus Pearl Primus Pearl Primus was a dancer, choreographer and anthropologist. Primus played an important role in the presentation of African dance to American audiences. Early in her career she saw the needs to promote African dance as an art form worthy of study and performance... |
1936 | choreographer/dancer |
| Jennifer Raab Jennifer Raab Jennifer J. Raab is the 13th and current president of Hunter College of the City University of New York holding this position since June 2001. She is responsible for overseeing the functions of CUNY's largest college and its various affiliates such as the Hunter College High School for gifted... |
unknown | President, Hunter College Hunter College Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized... |
| Mina Rees Mina Rees Mina Spiegel Rees was an American mathematician. She was the first female President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and head of the mathematics department... |
ca. 1919 | King's Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom (UK) winner; President, Graduate School and University Center at CUNY; first female President of American Association for the Advancement of Science American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the... |
| Vivian Reiss Vivian Reiss -Bio for artist Vivian Reiss:Artist Vivian Reiss has been living and working in Toronto, Canada since 1975. She still spends time in New York City.Reiss is a painter, creator of multimedia performance events and installations, designer of architectural projects, costumes, gardens and furniture; and... |
1970 | artist |
| Christopher Rojas Christopher Rojas Christopher Rojas is a multi-platinum composer, musician, songwriter, and record producer-Biography:Rojas grew up in Flushing, Queens and attended Hunter College High School from 1994–2000, Hunter has been ranked the top public high school in America by The Wall Street Journal.He majored in violin... |
2000 | record producer/songwriter |
| Bruce Schneier Bruce Schneier Bruce Schneier is an American cryptographer, computer security specialist, and writer. He is the author of several books on general security topics, computer security and cryptography, and is the founder and chief technology officer of BT Managed Security Solutions, formerly Counterpane Internet... |
1981 | security expert |
| Susan Sheehan Susan Sheehan Susan Sheehan , is an American writer.Born in Vienna, Austria, she won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1983 for her book Is There No Place on Earth for Me?. The book details the experiences of a young New York woman diagnosed with schizophrenia... |
1954 | journalist, Pulitzer Prize Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City... winning author |
| Susi Snyder | 1995 | political activist, International Secretary-General of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Women's International League for Peace and Freedom The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom was established in the United States in January 1915 as the Woman's Peace Party... |
| Amy Sohn Amy Sohn Amy Sohn is a Brooklyn-based author, columnist and screenwriter. She wrote the novels Run Catch Kiss and My Old Man , both published by Simon & Schuster, and a companion guide to television’s Sex and the City, Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell .She is a contributing editor at New York magazine,... |
1991 | novelist |
| Brent Stockwell | 1989 | professor of biology and chemistry, Columbia University Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the... |
| Jeannie Suk | 1991 | professor, Harvard Law School Harvard Law School Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S... |
| Deborah Tannen | 1962 | professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States... , author, You Just Don't Understand You Just Don't Understand You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation is a 1990 non-fiction book on language and gender by Deborah Tannen, a professor of sociolinguistics at Georgetown University... |
| Judith Jarvis Thomson Judith Jarvis Thomson Judith Jarvis Thomson is an American moral philosopher and metaphysician, best known for her use of thought experiments to make philosophical points.- Career :... |
1946 | professor of philosophy, MIT |
| Michal Towber Michal Towber Michal Towber is an Israeli singer and composer. Signed to Columbia/Sony at the age of 17, she has released three CDs, Sky with Stars, Coma and Lovesick.... |
1998 | singer-songwriter |
| Alma S. Woolley Alma S. Woolley Alma S. Woolley was an American nurse, nurse educator, nursing historian, and author... |
1950 | nurse, nurse educator Nurse educator A nurse educator is a nurse who teaches and prepares licensed practical nurses and registered nurses for entry into practice positions. They can also teach in various patient care settings to provide continuing education to licensed nursing staff... , nursing historian, and author who led several schools of nursing |
| Marvin "Young MC Young MC Marvin Young , better known by his stage name Young MC, is an English-born American singer and actor. He is best known for his 1989 hit "Bust a Move"... " Young |
1985 | rapper, music producer and songwriter |
| Nnenna Lynch Nnenna Lynch Nnenna Lynch is a retired middle distance and long distance runner from the United States. She is best known for winning the gold medal at the 1997 Summer Universiade in Catania, Italy in the women's 5,000 metres event, when she defeated Canada's Lori Durward and Sarah Howell .Currently lives in... |
1990 | track and cross country runner |