Admission
Learning Opportunities & Resources
The Hofstra University community offers students a wealth of honors, enriched and resource-intensive opportunities to meet your individual learning, life and career goals.
Honors College
Honors College serves the highly motivated, high achieving student, and every aspect of its curriculum is designed to provide such students with the resources they need to meet their academic objectives. We combine the support of a strong community with the freedom to pursue individual goals. In this way we emphasize student ownership and direction of their own education. At the same time, we recognize that it is our responsibility to support students so that they can explore, reflect upon and achieve their educational objectives.
All HUHC students are working to attain a designation that marks their diploma and transcript with an extraordinary level of distinction. Every first-year Honors College student has a common curricular experience called “Culture and Expression,” a year-long, four-course cluster designed specifically for Honors College students.
In the second through fourth years, Honors College students tailor their honors educational experience by choosing from among Honors College Seminars as well as Honors Options that can enrich any regularly offered Hofstra course, allowing Honors College students to tailor their honors work to fit their passions and interests. This Honors curriculum works in tandem with all Hofstra majors.
Honors College offers its students faculty mentors; honors trips to plays, museums, lectures, and theater in New York City, as well as outdoor activities; and has a dedicated residential community.
First Year Connections
Hofstra's first-year seminars and clusters are designed to get your college experience off to a great start. At the heart of the program are small classes taught by distinguished faculty in areas of interest ranging from art to writing. Not only will these courses introduce you to the intellectual and social life of the University, but — even if you are undecided about a major — nearly all of them will also help you satisfy the general education requirements for all majors.
Limited to 19 students, first-year seminars allow you to interact in a small setting and connect with a faculty member who may become your major advisor, depending on what major you choose. First-year clusters are usually three courses grouped around a common theme. For example, "The Literature and Theater of NYC," is composed of a theater appreciation course, a literature course and freshman composition – all three courses revolving around New York City themes – or the "Pre-Health Sciences" cluster includes chemistry, biology, and freshman composition.. All the courses in all the clusters satisfy Hofstra graduation requirements. By taking a few courses with the same group of students, you'll make friends more quickly, form study groups, and come to feel at home on Hofstra's campus.
Several of the first-year clusters are linked to "living-learning communities." Residential students enrolled in these clusters may choose to live together in a house in the Netherlands First-Year Complex. Through these vibrant communities, first-year students are exposed to environments that are intellectually stimulating, supportive and conducive to building lasting friendships and academic excellence.
New York City - Our Classroom to the West:
When you look over the seminars and clusters, you'll notice that many of them involve activities in New York City. We want all our students — especially our first-year students — to be comfortable getting in and out of the city. To that end, seminar and cluster faculty accompany their students on related events in New York City.
Legal Education Accelerated Program (LEAP)
Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Hofstra Law School offer an accelerated six-year B.A./J.D. program – one that few other universities in the New York City area offer.
Hofstra's 3+3 program allows students to complete requirements for both the bachelor of arts and the juris doctor in just six years. LEAP students can choose from more than 40 liberal arts majors from among the majors available at the Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Hofstra 4+4 Program: BS-BA/MD
At the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, you enter an interactive and exciting educational environment designed to attract individuals interested in a creative approach to advanced learning. Our innovative, case-based curriculum, which weaves science and clinical medicine tightly together and stresses putting knowledge into action, will prepare you well for the practice of medicine in the 21st century. Students interested in the program must first be admitted to Hofstra University, and are encouraged to apply during one of our two Early Action deadlines: November 15 or December 15.
Dual Degree Programs
Combined Undergraduate and Graduate Degrees
Hofstra University offers more than 100 dual degree programs. Hofstra's dual degree programs allow you to earn both an undergraduate and graduate degree in less time than if each degree was pursued separately. This could save you the cost of one or more semesters of tuition. Be sure to consult the Hofstra University Bulletins for complete program descriptions and admission requirements.
The New Opportunities at Hofstra Program
The New Opportunities at Hofstra Program (NOAH) has provided highly motivated and diverse students with access to higher education at one of the country’s finest postsecondary institutions since the program’s inception in 1964. Today, the NOAH Program provides academic, financial and social support resources for students from lower-socioeconomic backgrounds who attend Hofstra University.
PALS
During the past thirty years the Program for Academic Learning Skills (PALS) has been serving students with specific learning disabilities and ADD or ADHD at Hofstra University. There is a onetime fee for the program, which provides every student with a learning specialist from freshmen year through to graduation. Each student is paired up to meet individually with an experienced learning specialist. All students come to us with a unique intellectual profile and with different academic dreams. Hence, the PALS' curriculum can best be described as a dynamic, innovative and evolving relationship between each individual student and his or her instructor. The guiding principle of our work in the Program for Academic Learning Skills is to get the students reading, writing, thinking and discussing not only the subject matter but also the process of their learning.
Experiential Learning
At the core of many of Hofstra’s academic programs are experiential learning opportunities, often introduced prior to a student’s first internship. From engineering and on-air training at the award-winning radio station, WRHU, to the trading rooms and entrepreneurial incubators at the Zarb School of Business, to the DeMatteis School’s Center for Innovation which solves real-world engineering problems for regional companies, there are hundreds of hands-on and applied experiences available for you right here on campus.
Student Success Collaborative
The Student Success Collaborative is a collection of offices dedicated to your academic achievement. Our shared vision is to help students become more confident, capable, and determined while experiencing Hofstra both inside and outside of the classroom. From your first year through graduation, we are here to challenge and support your academic career, and life goals.
The Center for Career Design and Development
From the first year to after graduation, The Center for Career Design and Development at Hofstra University helps students develop and pursue career-related goals, as well as obtain and maximize co-curricular experiences. Our vision is one in which all Hofstra students are empowered to create meaningful careers and lives. Our career counseling services and workshops help students understand the world of work and make decisions about majors, internships, and career paths, and our connection events provide opportunities to meet with professionals and successful Hofstra alumni.
Center for Academic Excellence
The Center for Academic Excellence (CAE) staff is dedicated to helping students achieve success in their academics and overall college experience. The CAE staff work closely with students, faculty, and other departments to proactively identify strategies to bolster students’ academic and personal success. CAE services include the Undergraduate Tutorial Program and Academic Success Program, free and open to all Hofstra students.
Center for University Advising
The Center for University Advising provides general academic advising to undergraduate students from admission through graduation and is designed to support students’ academic progress. Students are assigned an advising dean who serves as their general academic advisor. After students declare a major, they also work closely with a faculty advisor in their major academic department. University Advising staff also provide pre-professional advising for students contemplating graduate studies in law or health-related professions.
Student Access Services
Student Access Services (located in Suite 107 in the Mack Student Center) assists students with physical, learning, and psychological disabilities. The staff arrange for appropriate academic accommodations and help students develop the self-advocacy skills they need to succeed at Hofstra and beyond. To utilize resources at Student Access Services, students must complete a self-disclosure form and provide documentation of their disability.
Student Counseling Services
The mission of Student Counseling Services is to provide quality mental health interventions that enhance wellbeing and offer students a more meaningful and successful college experience. Collaborative partnerships are developed to assist students in making essential connections within the Division of Student Affairs and greater university community. Individual and group counseling is available to students who are having difficulty with emotional, behavioral, academic, or adjustment concerns. The collaborative counseling process is used to clarify problems, establish realistic goals and develop active, short-term treatment solutions. Skill-building and mental health workshops and presentations and referrals to other providers are also offered.
Writing Center
The Hofstra Writing Center works with writers of all experience levels, cultural backgrounds, and learning styles, in an effort to support growth as writers, readers, and thinkers. Through inquiry and conversation, tutors offer guidance to writers from across disciplines at any stage in the writing process. Our investment is not in correcting a writer's essay, but rather in helping writers understand the expectations of their readers and fulfill the needs of the writing situation. To this end, we offer a structured, yet supportive, learning environment that welcomes diverse writers to seek and receive assistance in obtaining the skills that they will need throughout their academic careers and beyond.
Student Life: Dean of Students Office
Included in the programming and services provided by our award-winning Student Affairs division include campus recreation (which includes the fitness center and intramural sports), student advocacy and prevention programming, student leadership and engagement’s more than 250 student clubs and the Student Government Association, commuting students and community outreach, intercultural engagement and inclusion, LGBTIQ+ programming and advocacy, fraternity and sorority life, and other services designed to make your time outside the classroom as enriching and expansive as your academic experience.
Cultural and Social Life
The Hofstra Cultural Center is an internationally renowned organization that hosts conferences, symposia, lectures, exhibits and performance arts. The goal of the Hofstra Cultural Center is to augment the offerings of the academic departments of the University by developing educational programs related to the cultural and interdisciplinary experience of students, faculty, staff, alumni and scholars. Through the hundreds of programs offered through the Cultural Center, the performances of the departments of Drama, Dance and Music, Student Affairs and other campus centers, and the exhibitions of the Hofstra University Museum of Art, the University offers its community more than 500 programs annually. Hofstra Pride athletics also offers Division 1 competition in 21 sports. For a complete look at the active University calendar (shown in its best light during the semester) please visit our events page.