Entity | Cooper Union

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union ) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in France. The school was built on a radical new model of American higher education based on Cooper's belief that an education "equal to the best technology schools established" should be accessible to those who qualify, independent of their race, religion, sex, wealth or social status, and should be "open and free to all." Cooper is considered to be one of the most prestigious colleges in the United States, with all three of its member schools consistently ranked among the highest in the country. The Cooper Union originally offered free courses to its admitted students, and when a four-year undergraduate program was established in 1902, the school granted each admitted student a full-tuition scholarship. Following its own financial crisis, the school decided to abandon this policy starting in the fall of 2014 with each incoming student receiving at least a half-tuition merit scholarship, with additional school financial support. The school plans to gradually reinstate full-tuition scholarships for undergraduates by the 2028–2029 academic year.