CUNY GC is not a good place to pursue Phds. I was there in 2004. First, their funding is very limited, only few students are fully funded(I mean tuition+stipend). This means that most Phd students are NY residents. Without funding, I do no think that they have nation wide attactions. Second, the orgnization of CUNY GC is very special. Their faculties do not get paychecks from GC, but from their own affliated independent colleges. I do not know if their faculties have ever had chances to get together. The department of GC totally has no control of their faculties(actually, they are not their faculties). Because all cuny colleges are independent, CUNY GC has no undergraduates. This means that the department can not offer you TA or instructing training, though you can always equally compete some open adjunct positions in CUNY undergraduate colleges with graduate students in Columbia and NYU and sometime Princeton and Rutger. Lastly, CUNY GC is only one building in the center of manhattan. Do not be fooled by its 16th in 1995 NRC History ranking.