Colleges Cornell University

Cornell University www.cornell.edu

Cornell University is a private institution that was founded in 1865. It’s located in a rural setting on a 745-acre campus on East Hill in Ithaca, New York, offering views of the city and Cayuga Lake. Its Ithaca campus was previously recognized as “one of the most beautiful” by Travel & Leisure, and several University buildings have been named National Historic Landmarks, or listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Cornell has more than 1,000 student organizations on campus, which range from the Big Red Marching Band to the International Affairs Society. First-year students live together on north campus, and the university has housing options for upperclassmen and graduate students, though many choose to live off campus. Cornell has a thriving Greek life, with more than 60 fraternity and sorority chapters. One of Cornell’s oldest traditions is Dragon Day, during which a dragon built by first-year architecture students is paraded through campus.

Academics

Each of Cornell’s seven undergraduate colleges and schools admits its own students and provides its own faculty, even though every graduate receives a degree from Cornell University. Cornell’s two largest undergraduate colleges are the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Its graduate schools include the highly ranked S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management, College of Engineering, Law School, and Weill Cornell Medical College. Cornell’s breadth of study, ranging from legendary programs in the humanities to world-class interdisciplinary research centers in nanotechnology, biotechnology, supercomputing, and genomics, sets it apart from its Ivy League peers. The student-faculty ratio at Cornell University is 9:1, and the school has 55% of its classes with fewer than 20 students. Popular majors include Computer Science, Biology, and Business.

Special Highlights

New York City Programs. The Cornell Urban Scholars Program encourages students to pursue public service careers, arranging assignments with organizations working with New York City’s poorest communities. The College of Human Ecology and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences enable students to reach out to local communities by gardening and building with the Cornell Cooperative Extension. The College of Engineering’s Operations Research Manhattan, in the city’s Financial District, brings together business optimization research and decision support services addressed to both financial applications and public health logistics planning. The College of Architecture, Art, and Planning has an 11,000 square foot, Gensler-designed facility at 26 Broadway in the Financial District. The General Electric Building at 570 Lexington Avenue also serves as the New York City location for over a dozen programs.

Study Abroad & Scholarship. Cornell offers various study abroad and scholarship programs that allow students to gain experience and earn credit towards their degrees. The Capital Semester program offers students the opportunity to intern in the New York State Legislature in Albany. The Cornell in Washington program enables students to spend a semester in Washington, D.C., participating in research or internships. Similarly, the Cornell in Rome program, allows students to study architecture, urban studies, and the arts in Rome, Italy. The university is also a member of the Laidlaw Scholars program, which provides funding to undergraduates to conduct internationally focused research and foster leadership skills.

School Mission & Unique Qualities

Cornell’s mission is to discover, preserve and disseminate knowledge, to educate the next generation of global citizens, and to promote a culture of broad inquiry throughout and beyond the Cornell community. Cornell also aims, through public service, to enhance the lives and livelihoods of students, the people of New York and others around the world. Cornell’s medical campus in New York City, called Weill Cornell, is on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and has been affiliated with the New York-Presbyterian Hospital since 1927. Cornell University is home to Cornell University Press, founded in 1869, the country’s oldest publishing enterprise. In 1880, The Cornell Daily Sun, an independent student-run newspaper, was founded at the university and is one of the nation’s longest continuously published student publications.

Student Reviews…

“I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Cornell University. I was within the Policy Analysis and Management Department. Our courses were rigorous, but our professors encouraged collaboration with our peers through group papers, presentation, and problem sets. In addition, there were many opportunities for students to engage with the Greater Ithaca community.”