Bergen Community College

Just 15 miles to the northwest of Midtown Manhattan of New York City, Bergen Community College is located in the small borough of Bergen County known as Paramus in the state of New Jersey. First founded in 1965 to help satisfy the shortage of convenient and cost-effective higher educational opportunities within the region, the primary campus at Paramus was interestingly built on nine holes of the Orchard Hills Golf Course. Bergen Community College also sponsors the Philip J. Ciarco Learning Center in Hackensack, New Jersey to provide non-credit, credit, and English as a Second Language (ESL) courses to area students. In recent years, the two-year comprehensive community college has realized a 17 percent increase in enrollment to now serve more than 17,100 credit students and another 10,150 non-credit students annually.

Since 1972, Bergen Community College has been consistently accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools to grant students Associate in Arts, Associate in Science, and Associate in Applied Science degrees as well as Certificates of Achievement. Individual programs in the college have also been accredited by the National League for Nursing, American Dental Association, American Physical Therapy Association, and American Bar Association. Upon completion of various degree programs, students are able to utilize the Bergen Community College reputation as a top New Jersey community college to transfer to any four-year institution statewide and achieve further academic success with a bachelor's degree.

Within the Office of Student Life, students also have the opportunity to get involved in extracurricular activities outside the classroom by joining one of the 60-plus student organizations or service learning projects. Some of the most popular student clubs at Bergen Community College include African Student Union, Christian Student Association, Criminal Justice Club, Early Childhood Development Club, Future Business Leaders of America, Honors Association, Model United Nations, Nursing Student Association, and Phi Theta Kappa.

Decorated in the school colors of Pantone Purple and Pantone Orange, sports teams at the Bergen Community College are affectionately nicknamed as the Bergen Bulldogs. As a strong member of the Garden State Athletic Conference in the National Junior College Athletic Association in Region XIX, the college offers eligible and qualified students access to 12 intercollegiate sports teams. For the men's sports, Bergen Community College offers soccer, basketball, wrestling, cross country, track and field, golf, tennis, and baseball. Lady Bulldogs can participate in soccer, cross country, volleyball, basketball, softball, track and field, and tennis.