Your Global Destination for a Career in Food
For 75 years the Culinary Institute of America has poured their energy, passion, and industry knowledge into providing the best food and hospitality-focused education. Here food is life, and everyone is 100% focused on preparing students for a rewarding life in food. Only at CIA will students get the immersive learning and industry connections they need to lead in the kitchen, hotel operations, or anywhere else they want to go in food or hospitality.
CIA offers master’s, bachelor’s, and associate degree programs that span all areas of the food world—from culinary arts and baking and pastry arts to hospitality, food business and wine and beverage management. CIA’s prestigious study programs are accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education who also accredit courses for other top U.S. colleges and universities, including Columbia, Cornell, and Vassar. This mark of excellence is testament to the quality, proven outcomes and success rates of CIA’s programs.
Ready to apply? Check out our admission requirements for international students.
Here’s a sample of what students find, only at CIA:
- Build a hands-on foundation with 1,300+ hours in state-of-the-art kitchens and bakeshops
- Gain real-world experience in CIA’s award-winning, nine student-run, public-service restaurants
- Get a world-class, paid internship at one of 2,000+ CIA approved organizations
- Experience college life with a culinary twist—join a diverse community of students and instructors from around the world, united in a shared passion for food
Teaching Quality
CIA’s instructors include acclaimed master chefs, top food industry executives, world-famous restaurateurs, published authors, master sommeliers, and more. CIA faculty come from all over the world and have worked and won awards in every area of food and higher education.
CIA keeps class sizes small to give students the opportunity to get the individual attention they need and to connect with their world-class teachers and fellow students. Degree students spend over 1,300 hours in CIA kitchens and bakeshops learning techniques and perfecting their skills in hands-on sessions. Students also have the opportunity to tailor their learning to their individual interests and career aspirations. Traditional subjects such as science, history, and psychology come alive at CIA and take on a new meaning when studied in the context of food.
Ask students what they like best about CIA. One of the repeated answers is “the chefs and professors,” who they call “inspiring” and “amazing”—and who so clearly love what they do.
Student Support
The core of everything at CIA is student success and wellbeing. Knowing that starting college away from home can be overwhelming, CIA has created a program that supports students from their very first day on campus until their last—. CIA Cares is a one-stop communication tool where instructors, career and academic advisors and other support network members work directly with students to ensure they receive the best guidance and support throughout their time at CIA. Students will always have someone readily available to answer any questions and help guide important decisions. It’s the CIA way.
With CIA Cares, a student can:
- Easily reach out to any support network team member to ask a question or schedule an appointment
- Access information about student services, like career and academic advising, dining services, counseling, financial aid, registration, and more
- Schedule a tutoring appointment with a professional or peer tutor who specializes in the course they need assistance with
- View grades and attendance records
- Respond to and act on referrals that help them achieve their goals
- Receive instructor recognition for outstanding performance, achievements, leadership, or goal progress
Student Safety
While college can feel like a big adjustment, becoming a CIA student is a rewarding and exciting experience. CIA offers students a wonderful place to live and learn thanks to its dedicated support teams, including CIA Campus Safety, and the welcoming campus community.
At CIA, safety officers maintain a 24-hour presence on campus, and every day students can see them interacting on campus and keeping watch over campus grounds. CIA is also protected with CCTV (closed-circuit television) monitoring, electronic card access to the residence halls, and restricted nighttime entrance to campus. Students can use one of the many blue-light emergency phones on campus to report a problem or simply to request a friendly escort from Campus Safety to walk them back to their residence hall.
Graduate Outcomes
In the world of food and hospitality, the college that top industry leaders know and respect is CIA. That’s a career advantage that CIA graduates carry with them for life. A degree from CIA is highly attractive and many top industry employers look to hire CIA graduates before any others—they’re the best of the best.
CIA graduates include master chefs and bakers, restaurant owners and entrepreneurs, hotel and hospitality leaders and senior executives for major food corporations. They drive transformative change in every segment of food and hospitality and in every corner of the world—as will CIA’s future graduates.
CIA alumni are incredibly proud of their education, which is why they highly recommend their alma mater to so many new students and hire so many CIA graduates. When a student earns a degree from CIA, they join the food world’s most powerful alumni network of 50,000+ industry leaders and changemakers. That means they already have thousands of top professional connections on the day they graduate.