How to get into Cornell

What is Cornell’s reputation?

“huge sprawling campus” “magnificent gorges” “cold and gray” “pre-professional” “best engineering and computer science in the Ivies” “extremely rigorous” “the easiest Ivy to get into, but the hardest to graduate from” “hippie-crunchy” “lots of hills” “strong alumni network” “rural and remote” “tons of kids from New York” “unlimited courses to choose from” “the most insecure Ivy” “think Andy from The Office”

Cornell is the largest Ivy League school by a wide margin. In fact, with 16,000 undergraduates (compared to 6,500 for a mid-sized Ivy like Yale) it can feel like a big public university (which it partially is). It’s also one of the only Ivy League schools where first-year applicants have to apply to a specific college within the larger university, including: 1) Arts and Sciences, 2) Business, 3) Engineering, 4) Architecture, 5) Agriculture, 6) Human Ecology, or 7) Labor Relations. The only other Ivies that are separated into undergraduate colleges like this are UPenn and Columbia.

Size matters.

When considering whether Cornell is right for you, a good place to start is with the mammoth size of the school: it’s very big by Ivy League standards. Compared to Cornell’s 16,000 undergraduates, all of the other Ivies seem quite small: UPenn (10,000), Columbia (9,000), Brown (7,500), Harvard (7,000), Yale (6,500), Princeton (5,500), and Dartmouth (4,500). In fact, one quarter of all Ivy League undergrads go to Cornell. This is great if you’re looking to go to a school that’s like a small city where there’s endless possibilities to meet new people, there’s every kind of club you could imagine, and you get to preserve a little bit of your anonymity.

The other big advantage is that while you have to apply to one specific college at Cornell, you’re free to take courses at any of them, and you can even minor in a field that’s not in your particular college. For example, you can major in psychology from the College of Arts and Sciences, but minor in civil engineering from Cornell Engineering. Or you can major in applied economics and management from the SC Johnson College of Business, but minor in architecture from the College of Architecture, Art and Planning.

We had one student who wanted to study computer science at Cornell, and was delighted to discover that she could do this through either through the College of Arts and Sciences or Cornell Engineering; she decided to apply through the College of Arts and Sciences because it was easier to get into, and had a better set of distribution requirements.

This kind of access and flexibility is an incredible resource for students. But, if you’re the type of student who gets overwhelmed by too many options, or wants a smaller, tight-knit community, it might not be right for you.

The Pros of Cornell…

Aside from the size of the undergraduate population, and the wide variety of courses you have to choose from, there’s the stunning natural beauty of upstate New York. Located in the small city of Ithaca, NY (their cheeky bumper sticker reads: “Ithaca is gorges”), Cornell enchants visitors with its cascading waterfalls, 200-foot gorges, and glistening lakes. Much like Dartmouth, it’s a nature lover’s paradise, and Cornell students love to take advantage of mother nature while they’re here, before jetting off to a major city after graduation.

Cornell students also benefit from a very large and loyal alumni network almost like a big family. Perhaps due to its remote location, students who go here tend to really bond with their classmates and the school in general in a way that might be difficult if there were a major city nearby to distract them. All of the Ivy Leagues have powerful alumni networks, of course, but a few of them like Cornell and Dartmouth seem to particularly go out of their way to help one another, and that can prove invaluable in your career because very often it comes down to “who you know.”

Also, Cornell is the only “land grant” university in the Ivy League, which means it received considerable land from the federal government to study agricultural science for the betterment of society. This makes Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences a leading undergraduate choice for students looking to study environmental science, food security, climate change, etc.

The Cons of Cornell…

First and foremost, Cornell is freezing cold for much of the year, and snow can stay on the ground from December through March. It can also be rainy, gloomy and gray. While some people couldn’t care less about the weather, it’s a deal-breaker for others. And without an exciting city nearby to provide a distraction from the difficult courseload and inclement weather, some students might become depressed. While Cornell’s suicide rate is comparable to that of other universities, the school had to install “suicide nets” on their suspension bridges after 15 students leapt to their deaths over a 20-year period. Since 2014, there have been no jumps.

Other than that, some people like to say disparaging things like “Cornell isn’t a real Ivy” because it’s not as prestigious as Harvard, Princeton or Yale. (They say the same thing about Dartmouth and Brown, by the way.) And while it’s true that those top three schools are probably in a league of their own as far as international prestige, if you graduate from Cornell, you will be poised to succeed in whatever you do in life: you can attend any graduate school, you can get recruited to any firm. The people who matter know the true value of a Cornell degree.

Finally, Cornell has earned a reputation for being a bit of a “grind school.” Like at Princeton, students complain about rampant “grade deflation,” particularly in large introductory courses, where professors grade on a curve, making it very difficult for most students to earn higher than a B without absolutely killing themselves. It’s just one of those Ivies that’s known for having a lot of very difficult courses.

What does Cornell look for in applicants?

Applicants to any of the Ivy Leagues need to demonstrate the same combination of academic excellence and extracurricular achievement. Cornell lists a bunch of “core values” on their website that they presumably use to evaluate candidates, but it’s pretty much the same stuff any of the Ivy League schools are looking for: passion, purpose, curiosity, public service, respect for the environment, etc.

But because you have to apply to a particular college at Cornell, it’s very important in your supplemental essays to highlight why you would be a good fit for that specific program, making sure to mention the courses you want to take, professors you hope to do research with, etc. In a perfect world, it should seem like — given everything you’ve accomplished in the past, and everything you hope to achieve in the future — Cornell is the next logical step in your career progression. In other words, it’s almost like you were made to go there.

Final tips for getting in.

Cornell is one of the Ivy Leagues that still offers a true Early Decision option (as opposed to Single Choice Early Action), and it’s definitely something to consider if it’s your first choice. While the admission rate for Regular Decision applicants is only 5% (1 in 20), the rate for Early Decision applicants is basically four times that: 19%. And bear in mind that Cornell regularly fills about half of its freshman class with Early Decision applicants (51%). That means that if you wait to apply to Cornell with most students in the Regular Decision round, by the time the admissions committee even gets around to looking at your application in January, half of the spots will already be gone. You can read more about the pros and cons of Early Decision here.

You should also know that while most of the undergraduate colleges at Cornell — such as the main College of Arts and Sciences — are “test optional” for the SAT and ACT, 60% of admitted students submitted their scores. That means that while you can still get into Cornell without submitting your test scores, only 40% of students managed to do so. Our advice: sign up for an SAT or ACT program, crush the test, and submit that score. It’s worth nothing, however, that three of the colleges at Cornell — Business, Architecture, and Agriculture — are “test blind,” which means they never consider SATs or ACTs as part of the admissions process.

Update: Cornell will be test-required starting fall 2025

From Cornell’s website: “Effective for those applying to enroll for fall 2026 or beyond, applicants to all eight Cornell undergraduate colleges and schools will be required to submit standardized test scores.” That means that students applying to Cornell in fall of 2025 (to begin class in the fall of 2026) must submit either their SAT or ACT score.

For fall 2024 applicants, Cornell is “test-recommended” for the following colleges: 1) Arts and Sciences, 2) Engineering, 3) Human Ecology, 4) School of Public Policy, 5) Industrial and Labor Relations. For the remaining 3 colleges (including the undergraduate business school), Cornell will remain test-optional for fall 2024.