The 82,000 students attending Brooklyn's 16 universities enjoy access to top-notch educational & research facilities and benefit from the borough's rich culture and lively public spaces. A tremendous number of students and faculty choose to live in Brooklyn, immersing themselves in its effervescent, creative subculture and friendly residential communities.  

While the borough has always been host to thriving industrial communities and artist enclaves, its recent surge in popularity amongst Lower Manhattan's workforce, young families, and students is driving its continual evolution. Meanwhile, its population of artists, writers, and other creatives continues to multiply.

Brooklyn's neighborhood diversity, 24-hour blocks, excellent access to public transportation, and continuing neighborhood reinvention underscore its strong appeal and convenience to the academic community. Keep reading to explore this historic, eclectic borough!

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With colleges and universities such as Brooklyn Law School, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Pratt Institute, and the Institute of Design and Construction, Brooklyn offers a wide variety of affordable and well-known educational choices. Brooklyn's student population is largely concentrated in growing, western neighborhoods, such as Downtown Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights, and Clinton Hill - due in part to the vast number of schools located nearby, including Polytechnic and Long Island University. Slightly southeast, Medgar Evers College borders Prospect Park, while farther south, Brooklyn College is situated on a beautiful campus in the Flatbush/Midwood neighborhoods. Its campus houses the new Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts complex and has four theaters, including the George Gershwin.

Located on the borough's southernmost peninsula, Kingsborough Community College overlooks both Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Kingsborough and several other Brooklyn universities take an active role in furthering their surrounding communities, whether by hosting concerts and festivals, sharing cultural and arts facilities, or running community education programs.

Check out a complete list of Brooklyn's colleges and universities

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Brooklyn's neighborhoods are tight-knit communities, and each has a distinct character reflective of its ethnic composition, pervasive culture, and rich past (many Brooklyn communities have seventeenth-century origins).

The south Brooklyn neighborhoods that spread across the river from Manhattan offer a convenient commute and a vibrant local scene, and are very popular among young professionals, students, and families. Near to both the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, DUMBO is an upscale, hipster/artist community featuring cobblestone corridors and spacious warehouse lofts - largely occupied by creative start-up companies and galleries, or since-converted into luxury residential units. The latter is symbolic of the neighborhood's surprisingly rapid transformation from industrial into what many describe as the most Manhattan-like of the outer boroughs.

Farther south, Brooklyn Heights boasts comfortable, tree-lined blocks of brownstones, famed local restaurants, and great proximity to retail - most notably the cornucopia of ethnic, bohemian, and antique wares found on Atlantic Avenue. Neighboring Boerum Hill hosts one of the City's best restaurant scenes along Smith Street, while nearby Downtown Brooklyn is a major transportation, retail, civic, and higher education hub.

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All of Brooklyn is excellently served by public transit; with eighteen subway lines transporting people throughout the borough as well as to Queens and Manhattan. About 93% of Brooklynites commuting to Manhattan choose to do so by subway, but Brooklyn also accommodates a variety of public transit options including express buses, ferries, and the Long Island Railroad.

The Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and three bridges cross the East River to connect Lower Manhattan with Brooklyn: the Williamsburg Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge, and the Brooklyn Bridge, respectively from north to south. By far, the most spectacular way to enter Brooklyn from Manhattan is to walk or bike across any of these bridges, especially the world-famous Brooklyn Bridge, where pedestrians can walk along a wide, elevated walkway down the bridge's center.

Brooklyn's major transportation hubs include:

• Atlantic Avenue Station (B, D, M, N, Q, R, 2, 3, 4, 5, LIRR, buses)
• Borough Hall (M, N, R, 2, 3, 4, 5, buses)
• Coney Island/Stillwell Avenue (D, F, N, Q, buses)

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Prospect Park is a rolling 585-acre park, designed by Central Park's design duo of Olmsted and Vaux. Grand Army Plaza's majestic arch marks the main entrance, and the park also features Brooklyn's only forest, the Prospect Park Zoo, and a 60-acre lake. Prospect Park hosts the annual Celebrate Brooklyn! Performing Arts Festival, an eight-week celebration featuring free concerts, dance, film, and theater performances.

Brooklyn is famous for several annual outdoor festivals, concert series, and street fairs, but the most beautiful is the Cherry Blossom Festival, celebrating the bloom of the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens' cherry trees.

The beaches of Coney Island embody the wonder and beauty of a different era in New York's history. Both iconic and surreal, you can still play old parlor games, ride the world-famous Cyclone rollercoaster, feast on Nathan's famous hot dogs, and dress up for the annual Mermaid Parade - the nation's largest and craziest parade!

Brooklyn is home to most of the City's aspiring musicians and hosts a flourishing local music scene. Check out local rock bands before they become famous at popular venues like DUMBO's Galapagos Arts Space and Southpaw in Park Slope.

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The comprehensive rezoning of previously-industrial neighborhoods that has been occurring borough-wide, but particularly along the East River, has substantially unlocked Brooklyn's vast residential potential. Substantial public and private investment is also driving the continued growth of central business and shopping districts, complete with inviting pedestrian walkways and public plazas throughout the borough.

Coney Island is one site slated to receive substantial public and private investment intended to reinvigorate its amusement district, introduce infrastructure improvements, and spur continuing new development in the area.

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