The wonderful thing about New York is the extensive 24-hour subway system; if you want to go to Central Park from CCNY, you can always hop on the B/C train and be there in about 15-20 minutes. Also, since CUNY colleges are not residential, just because Hunter is located near Central Park doesn’t mean you’ll be living near Central Park. You almost certainly won’t be able to afford any housing on the Upper East Side close to Hunter. So you’re more likely to have to commute a long distance to Hunter from wherever you live than to City.
I lived in New York for 7 years, and I’m of the opinion that there are a lot of parks in the city that are better than Central Park. CCNY is bordered by St. Nicholas Park and is also not that far from Riverside Park, which is personally my favorite park in New York (or maybe second-favorite, after Fort Tryon). Fewer tourists! A couple blocks down from CCNY you also have Morningside Park, which I used to live right by and is also a great park as long as it’s not dark. LOL. Or if you go up a few blocks from CCNY you can get to Jackie Robinson Park…seriously, there are so many parks in NYC. A lot of the other parks in NYC actually offer more free city services than Central Park does; Central Park does have the Summerstage concerts, but again…subway.)
Anyway, City College is very well known for their STEM and health sciences programs.