The College Discovery Program is designed to serve the student who is both educationally and economically disadvantaged. A disadvantaged student is defined as an individual from a low income household with potential for a successful higher education experience but who has not acquired all of the basic academic skills required to successfully compete in a higher education environment. Generally, a student who is eligible for the Program has not earned a Regents diploma, is from a high school which has a poor record for academically preparing students, has been tracked or scheduled into a general high school program, has earned a New York State approved General Equivalency Diploma (GED), has been out of high school for a number of years, or ranks low on traditional measures of college admissions criteria, such as high school average and class standing.

Economic and academic eligibility requirement for entry into the College Discovery Program comply with the requirements of State law and regulations issued by the State Department of Education, the Board of Regents and the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York.