,·Private (Catholic, Franciscan) Liberal Arts College·Est. 1859
“A 165-year-old Franciscan college in the heart of Downtown Brooklyn — small classes, professional programs, and a brand-new campus above Macy's.”
St. Francis College (SFC) is a small, private Catholic liberal arts college founded in 1859 by the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn at the request of the Diocese of Brooklyn's first bishop. Rooted in the Franciscan intellectual tradition — the school's motto is 'Deus Meus et Omnia' ('My God, My All') — SFC pairs a values-driven liberal arts core with a distinctly career-oriented professional curriculum across roughly 19 academic departments and 72 majors and minors. After nearly 60 years on Remsen Street in Brooklyn Heights, the College moved in summer 2022 to a brand-new vertical campus on three floors of the Wheeler Building at 179 Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn, directly atop the historic Macy's department store. The new facility — built around the 'SFC Forward' initiative — added a 6,600-square-foot library, a 300-seat auditorium, a nursing simulation lab, a FinTech lab, science labs, two art galleries, a 38-seat chapel and a MakerSpace, all steps from the Borough Hall, Hoyt-Schermerhorn and Jay Street subway hubs. Academically, SFC is best known for nursing (with a four-year BS pre-licensure track and an RN-to-BS bridge), a five-year combined BS/MS in Accounting whose graduates have a strong record placing into Big Four firms, business and management, education, communications and a long-running criminal justice program. Other distinctive offerings include a combined BS/MS in Psychology and an MFA in Creative Writing whose adjunct faculty has included Booker Prize winner Marlon James. A small, highly diverse student body (roughly 28% Hispanic, 24% Black, 26% White, 9% non-resident) studies with a 13:1 student-faculty ratio in classes that are mostly under 25 students. SFC is predominantly a commuter college — the vast majority of undergraduates live at home or off-campus across Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island — but the College does operate one residence hall in Brooklyn Heights at 119 Columbia Heights for students who need housing, including most international undergraduates. Athletics, however, is the school's most consequential recent change: in March 2023 the SFC Board of Trustees voted to eliminate the entire NCAA Division I athletics program (21 teams, including the Northeast Conference men's and women's basketball squads and the oldest college basketball program in NYC, founded 1896) at the end of the spring 2023 semester, citing rising operating costs, flat tuition revenue and plateauing enrollment. SFC did not transition to Division III; it exited intercollegiate athletics entirely and redirected resources into academics, the new campus and student services. Note: a separate institution — Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania — is the Catholic Franciscan school that announced a 2025-2029 D-I-to-D-III reclassification; the two are frequently confused but are unrelated.
Visa, OPT, H-1B alumni outcomes, and acceptance rates by country — sourced from FOIA, USCIS H-1B Hub, and DHS SEVIS.
Regional Colleges North
US News Best Colleges 2026
Top Performers on Social Mobility (Regional Colleges North)
US News Best Colleges 2026
Test Optional — You can submit scores if they help your case, but they're not required.
Official SourceRolling Admission (First-Year, Fall)
No formal deadline; SFC operates rolling admissions year-round. May 1 is the suggested submission date for fall entry to allow time for visa processing for international students.
Transfer (Fall Entry)
Suggested deadline for transfer applicants entering Fall 2025.
Transfer (Spring Entry)
Suggested deadline for transfer applicants entering Spring 2026.
The deep admissions playbook beyond the headline acceptance rate — round-by-round breakdowns, nationality data, requirements, and contact paths.
Domestic
$30,033
/yr
Out-of-State / Intl
$30,033 – $42,098
/yr
Beyond the sticker price — every named scholarship, the financial aid policy, need-aware notes, and a personalized net-cost estimate.
How life on campus actually feels — clubs, sports, traditions, housing realities, and how the school integrates with its city.
SFC's flagship professional program, offering a four-year BS Pre-Licensure track preparing students for NCLEX-RN licensure, plus an RN-to-BS bridge for working registered nurses. Students train in a dedicated nursing simulation lab and skills lab on the new Downtown Brooklyn campus and complete clinicals across NYC hospital systems.
Houses business, accounting, management, marketing, finance, economics and health care management. The five-year combined BS/MS in Accounting is the school's signature business track, with an established pipeline into Big Four accounting firms in NYC. A campus FinTech lab supports applied finance and analytics coursework.
Encompasses Criminal Justice & Safety Studies, Sociology, Psychology, Social Work and related fields. Criminal Justice is one of SFC's largest and best-known programs, leveraging proximity to NYPD, federal courts at Cadman Plaza and the broader NYC justice system for internships.
Covers English, Communication Arts, History, Religious Studies, Philosophy, World Languages, Education and the Honors Program. Education prepares NY State-certified teachers (childhood and adolescent), and Communication Arts pairs media production with NYC industry internships.
Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology and pre-health tracks. Recently expanded with eight science labs and dedicated computer labs in the Wheeler Building campus, supporting pre-med, pre-PA and pre-pharmacy advising for students aiming at NYC graduate health programs.
4 years
Direct-entry four-year BSN preparing graduates for NCLEX-RN licensure and practice in NYC's vast hospital network. Direct entry to the clinical sequence requires either an SAT super score of 1050+, ACT 21+, or for transfers a 3.5+ GPA. Coursework is anchored by a brand-new nursing simulation lab and skills lab on the Downtown Brooklyn campus.
5 years
Allows students to complete both an undergraduate accounting degree and a master's in professional accountancy in five years, satisfying the 150-credit requirement to sit for the New York CPA exam. Graduates have a strong placement record into Big Four (Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG) and mid-tier NYC firms.
2 years
A small, NYC-based MFA founded in 2017 with a faculty that has included Marlon James (Booker Prize winner, named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People in 2019). The program leverages the Brooklyn literary scene and small workshop sizes.
Where alumni go after graduation — top industries, grad-school continuation, and the qualitative outcomes story.
Sticker price (annual, out-of-state): $28,775
Net-cost estimate is US-resident-only — international applicants are typically excluded from need-based aid at most schools and should treat the sticker price as the planning baseline.
