Who are Our Students?

SUNY Empire students represent a diverse community of learners.

They are busy adults who are motivated, enthusiastic, and have jobs, families, and real lives that simply won’t accommodate the conventional college experience.

Most of the university's students are between 25 to 55 years old, with a median age of 36, and are in the prime of their working lives. They are employed as professionals, managers, or skilled workers. They may be anyone from the CEO of a company to a working performing artist to a Veteran transitioning to civilian life. More than 60 percent study part time. Most students are New York state residents and reflect the diversity that can be found from the Canadian border to Long Island’s eastern shore.

Students come from large metropolitan areas, suburbs, small towns, and rural communities. Sixty-one percent are white; 14 percent are African American; 6 percent are Hispanic; and 2 percent are Asian/Pacific Islanders or American Indians. The university enrolls students from every state in the U.S. and from 50 other countries. Nonresidents of New York state, representing one in six of our undergraduate students, generally enroll through SUNY Empire Online.

About half of the university’s students study through one of the university’s locations across New York state, where they receive personal, one-to-one attention and guidance from faculty mentors. In addition, approximately 40 percent of the university’s undergraduate students, state residents and nonresidents enroll through SUNY Empire Online. Another 19 percent enroll through other centers and programs, such as the university’s School of Nursing and Allied Health, Harry Van Arsdale Jr. School of Labor Studies, or the Center for International Education.

Center for International Education has about 450 students enrolled in SUNY Empire courses via international partners around the globe. These students are mostly younger, 18 to 25 years old and the majority of them are full time students. But many of them also work and juggle many financial and social stressors, just as in the U.S. However, these are students for whom English is their second language that they don’t use in their daily lives as they live in their home countries and also face issues caused by cultural differences.

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