Hostos Community College: A Beacon of Hope and Opportunity in the South Bronx
Founded on April 22, 1968, by an act of the Board of Higher Education, Eugenio María de Hostos Community College emerged from a powerful grassroots movement. Puerto Rican and other Hispanic leaders in the South Bronx demanded an institution of higher learning that would serve a community long excluded from educational opportunity. The college opened its doors in September 1970 to a charter class of 623 students, housed in what had been a former tire factory at 475 Grand Concourse. Named after Don Eugenio María de Hostos (1839–1903)—the renowned Puerto Rican philosopher, educator, and advocate for human rights—the college became the first institution in the continental United States to honor a Puerto Rican in this way.
From its very first days, Hostos faced existential challenges. In 1976, the City University of New York announced a plan to merge Hostos with Bronx Community College. The community fought back. Students, faculty, and community members mobilized, and in June 1976, the New York State Legislature passed the Landes Act, guaranteeing Hostos’s existence. That same year, the college earned full and unconditional accreditation from the Middle States Association. This hard-won victory transformed Hostos from a fragile experiment into a permanent institution—one that would go on to serve as a gateway to intellectual growth and socioeconomic mobility for generations of South Bronx residents. Buy fake USA diploma online.
Academic Excellence and Student Success
Today, Hostos offers 28 associate degree programs and one certificate program, spanning the Associate in Arts (AA), Associate in Science (AS), and Associate in Applied Science (AAS) degrees. Programs prepare students for transfer to four-year colleges within the CUNY system and beyond, while career-focused offerings provide direct pathways into the workforce. The college also offers fully online degree programs and joint/dual degree programs connected with CUNY’s senior colleges. With approximately 5,478 undergraduate students and a student-to-faculty ratio of 15 to 1, Hostos provides a supportive, intimate learning environment. The student body reflects extraordinary diversity: at the 2026 commencement, more than 850 graduates represented 155 countries and 28 states.
Social Science Hostos Community College Degree Opportunities
National Recognition and Accreditation
Hostos holds accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, first granted in 1974 and most recently reaffirmed in 2022. Career programs receive specialized accreditation from the New York State Education Department, the Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology, and the American Dental Association. The college is one of only six national recipients of the U.S. Department of Education’s inaugural Postsecondary Success Recognition Program for promoting equitable access and positive outcomes for underserved students, and a two-time finalist for the prestigious Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. In 2020, Hostos received a transformative $15 million grant from the MacKenzie Scott Foundation—the largest charitable donation in the college’s history.
Campus, Community, and a Vision for the Future
Centrally located at the bustling intersection of 149th Street and Grand Concourse in the South Bronx, Hostos is a short walk from Yankee Stadium and the Bronx Museum of the Arts. The campus continues to expand: in September 2025, the college unveiled a major expansion into the historic Bronx General Post Office building, dating back to 1935. That landmark is currently being transformed into a new Allied Health and Natural Sciences building. In April 2026, Congressman Ritchie Torres announced $700,000 in federal funding for library renovations.
Guided by its mission to offer access to higher education leading to intellectual growth and socioeconomic mobility, Hostos remains committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. As President Dr. Daisy Cocco De Filippis has affirmed, “All are welcome at Hostos, all are respected and valued”. For more than half a century, Hostos Community College has been—and continues to be—an educational agent for change in the South Bronx.