The City College of New York was originally located at 23rd Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. In 1907 the College moved to its present location on St. Nicholas Heights in Northern Manhattan. The campus occupies 35 acres along Convent Avenue from 131st Street to 141st Street.

The Landmark neo-Gothic buildings of the North Campus Quadrangle were designed by the noted architect George Browne Post. They are superb examples of English Perpendicular Gothic style and are among the first buildings, as an entire campus, to be built in the U.S. in this style. Groundbreaking for the Gothic Quadrangle buildings took place in 1903. Five of the buildings opened in 1908. The sixth, Goethals Hall, was completed in 1930. The buildings feature 600 grotesques custom designed to represent the practical and the fine arts.  

The North Campus Quadrangle also includes four great arches on the main avenues leading to the campus: the Hudson Gate on Amsterdam Avenue, the George Washington Gate at 138th Street and Convent Avenue, the Alexander Hamilton Gate at the northern edge of Convent Avenue and the Peter Stuyvesant Gate at St. Nicholas Terrace.  

In 1981 the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission dedicated as a Landmark the North Campus Quadrangle buildings, and the College Gates. In 1984 the Quadrangle buildings were placed on the State and National Register of Historic Places.

Since its founding in 1847, The City College of New York has emphasized two guiding principles: academic excellence combined with access to higher education. This policy has produced remarkable results. Recognized as a premier public institution of higher education, CCNY is one of America's great educational success stories. The City College of New York is the alma mater of eight Nobel Prize winners and of countless successful individuals in all fields of human endeavor.

Located in upper Manhattan, The City College campus occupies 36 acres along Convent Avenue from 131st to 141st Streets in the St. Nicholas Heights neighborhood. Modern structures provide a striking contrast to the original Neo-Gothic buildings, which have been designated as state and national landmarks. The surrounding neighborhoods are predominantly residential.

There are schools of architecture, education, and engineering at CCNY, as well as the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education. The College is also home to several noteworthy institutes and centers, including the Institute for Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers, the CUNY Institute for Transportation Systems, the Colin L. Powell Center for Policy Studies, and the New York Structural Biology Center. CCNY is recognized worldwide for the research activities of its faculty.

• CCNY is one of the nation's leading producers of engineering graduates and medical students from racial and ethnic minorities.
• Overall, CCNY's medical school admissions rate is well above the national average, with more than 75 percent of first-time applicants admitted during the past decade.
• The College has more full-time doctoral students in campus-based programs than all of the other CUNY colleges combined.
• CCNY offers students a wide variety of social and athletic activities, including more than 90 campus clubs, organizations, and intercollegiate and intramural sports.
• Special programs include four-year bachelor's/master's programs in anthropology, economics, English, history, mathematics, mathematics education, and psychology.
• The distinguished program in biomedical engineering prepares students to use traditional engineering expertise to analyze and solve problems in biology and medicine.
• The art department's BFA in electronic design and multimedia offers professional training in design for print, interactive media, and the web.
• The music department has a distinguished faculty and some of the nation's finest facilities for music training.
• CCNY participates in the University Honors College program and offers a freshman honors program for qualified students interested in advanced research work and independent study.
• Programs such as Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) and Research Institute for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) provide paid and volunteer opportunities for undergraduates to do research at various institutions.
• CCNY conducts exchange programs with universities in the People's Republic of China, Israel, Japan, Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
• CCNY students are able to take courses at the various branches of The City University of New York system.