Cornell is well-known as the most practical of the elite Ivy League schools. Yes, they have all the usual humanities and liberal arts majors that one expects at a top-tier well-rounded university, but where Cornell truly stands out is in their specialized programs. Many of their programs are singular at the Ivy League level. Agriculture and hospitality, for one, but also many programs that are hard to find at such an exceptional level for undergraduate students, like architecture, public policy, labor relations, and human ecology. The overall acceptance rate is 8.4%, but we’ll break that down further where the data is available in this post.
First, let’s look at Early Decision vs. Regular Decision across all the colleges. The Regular Decision acceptance rate across all of the undergraduate schools and programs is (excluding waitlisted students who are eventually accepted). For comparison, the Early Decision acceptance rate is .
How does this math work, you ask? Good question. Remember that a proportion of ED applicants are deferred to Regular Decision, and then a percentage of both deferred students and regular RD students are waitlisted, so one applicant can exist in more than one bucket for the purpose of statistics. Whatever the exact percentage of students accepted, it is low, and ED offers a major advantage. We advise our students who are seriously considering Cornell to submit Early Decision for their best odds of acceptance.
Once you , you get a large research university with a tight-knit student body thanks to the smaller undergraduate colleges within the overall institution. The city of Ithaca is manageable for small-town folks but offers enough in night life, food culture, and live music for those looking for a city vibe. Cornell also has an exceptional record of placing students for internships and jobs, while in school and beyond.
In this post we are going to break down each of the supplements for each of the schools, so there is a lot to dig into. If you know what school you want to go to at Cornell, scroll down to that heading. If you aren’t sure yet, explore a few.
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Cornell has of colleges, and each college has their own supplemental essay prompt(s) for first-year applicants. We’re breaking them all down, as we know many students preparing to apply might not know yet which college is best for them. In fact, we find the application process to be clarifying. What programs speak to you most, and what prompts pull out the pieces of you that you are most excited to explore more deeply?
Many of the supplements are optional. We have not marked them as optional because they are not optional if you want to get in. Many are also long. You really need to give yourself time to work on and develop these. We start with our students as early as mid-July such that they get back to school in the fall with solid drafts — if not finished supplements — already complete.
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND LIFE SCIENCES
Why are you drawn to studying the major you have selected and specifically, why do you want to pursue this major at Cornell CALS? You should share how your current interests, related experiences, and/or goals influenced your choice. (500 word limit)
If you apply to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, you are applying for direct admission to one of the 20+ majors. This means that any application starts with in-depth research into the and definitely picking the one that is right for you.
Once you have your major program selected, it’s time to tell a story. Further in the supplement, you’ll be able to elaborate a little bit on whether you have a background in agriculture, and how you give back to others (or the environment) in a way that is links to the CALS program and passion for “.” We never want anything in an application to be redundant, so for this one you’ll really want to focus on the academic side of your interests, although this could still incorporate a story about your personal cow herd, corn cultivation project, or the war you fought against tomato horn worms last summer.
Whatever the story (and there should be a core story), whether it is inside a classroom, in a field, or somewhere in-between, you need to inject it heavily with academic inoculants for it to be successful. So, going with the tomato horn worm example, maybe you start the supplement combing through your plants with a blacklight but really dig into something in a chemistry class or lab-based internship.
Remember, too, to speak towards future goals. Presumably, you don’t want to be inspecting the same six plants forever. Where do you hope CALS will take you?
At Cornell CALS, we aim to leave the world better than we found it, so we seek out those who are passionate about serving the public good. Please elaborate on an experience where you were able to have a meaningful impact on people, a community, and/or an environment of importance to you. (100 word limit)
For this prompt, we like to use a specific relationship or moment to highlight a long-term commitment. You only have 100 words, or about twice the length of the prompt, so writing a super vivid and precise scene it actually easier in this amount of space than trying to explain the four years you have spent teaching children with special needs to ride or managing hydroponics gardens in local classrooms. Drop the reader into the ring with you leading a horse, then spend the last 2 sentences contextualizing the experience with your time commitment and vision for similar work in the future.
Given our agricultural history and commitment to educating the next generation of agriculturalists, please share if you have a background or interest in agriculture, regardless of your intended major. An "agricultural entity" for the purpose of this question is defined as cultivating soil, growing crops, and raising livestock (e.g., farm, ranch, greenhouse, vineyard, etc.)
Select all that apply:
A primary source of income for my parent/guardian(s) comes from ownership of or employment by an agricultural entity.
My extended family owns or operates an agricultural entity.
I have experience working in an agricultural entity.
I have interest in pursuing a career in an agricultural entity.
Please feel free to share additional details (optional). (100 word limit)
This question doesn’t apply to everyone in the same way, but every applicant to CALS has something to put here, whether it is a dream of starting a first-generation farm, consulting for multi-generational farms helping them pass along to the next person to carry the torch, or taking over your family farm. While CALS has programs that go beyond planting and growing things, that is at the core of what they do, and they actually receive a lot of funding for it specifically, so don’t overlook this question even if you have no intention of ever leaving a lab to get your hands into some dirt.
To answer it, tell a short story about your experience(s) and share your inner-most why for this path. It isn’t a blip in the matrix that is leading you to apply to CALS. What brought you here?
COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE, ART, AND PLANNING
How do your interests directly connect with your intended major at the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP)? Why architecture (B.Arch), art (BFA), or urban and regional studies (URS)? B. Arch applicants, please provide an example of how a creative project or passion sparks your motivation to pursue a 5-year professional degree program. BFA applicants may want to to consider how they could integrate a range of interests and available resources at Cornell into a coherent art practice. URS students may want to emphasize their enthusiasm and depth of interest in the study of urban and regional issues. (650 word limit)
For the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, applicants have 650 words, as long as the main Common App essay, to share their why, whether it be for architecture, urban and regional studies, or the BFA. The core thing to remember here is that no one ends up at Cornell by mistake, especially not a specialized college like AAP. Years of study, portfolio development, and passion have led you to this moment. But Cornell wasn’t there to watch all of those, and you only have 650 words to communicate what may be nearly a lifetime of passion and purpose.
So, what do you want to say?
Like with most supplements, we coach our students to respond to this prompt with story first, context after. What makes you interesting isn’t a list of what you’ve done or what accolades you’ve been awarded, but who you are and why you pursued those things. Maybe it’s working on a construction crew in the summer, watching your parents build a house, seeing how architecture can delineate communities in unequal ways, or seeing how art can transform a children’s hospital from a sterile nightmare into a place of healing.
Don’t forget to use at least 200 words of this supplement to speak directly to the Cornell program, including a professor or two that you want to study under — and why, a class or two beyond the introductory level that you are particularly drawn to, and an academic program, like study abroad, an internship, or work-focused opportunity that you would definitely want to take advantage of.
COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES
At the College of Arts and Sciences, curiosity will be your guide. Discuss how your passion for learning is shaping your academic journey, and what areas of study or majors excite you and why. Your response should convey how your interests align with the College, and how you would take advantage of the opportunities and curriculum in Arts and Sciences. (650 word limit)
The College of Arts and Sciences, or CAS, is the liberal arts school at Cornell. This does not mean that it is where students who don’t know what they want to do go, so it is as important as for any other college that you have a clear sense of direction and purpose. Cornell knows that it isn’t rare for CAS students to switch majors once they have exposure to subjects that they may not have been able to explore in high school, but they still want to feel like, in this moment, you have a clear direction.
While the prompt allows you to write about “areas of study,” and more than one major, we tell our students to focus on no more than two areas of study, with one being a prospective major and the other a potential minor or second major. What you pick for these, too, should make sense. Going with what you think may be fun, but have no exposure to, or what you are guessing might make it easier to get in, are both terrible plans. In fact, they are no plan at all. Cornell does not accept students who express interest in a program that they have no tract record of pursuing — whether that be through school-based coursework, independent study, summer programs, or another avenue. You have to have done something relevant to the major you’ll be writing about.
For example, maybe you are interested in studying literature with a language focus. Perhaps your high school doesn’t offer that language, but you’ve been studying it independently. That’s perfectly workable if you tell the story right. Show the application readers how much you have done despite the dearth of resources. Don’t bemoan what you haven’t had, but emphasize what you’ve been able to scrape together. Showing yourself as a proactive, internally motivated learner is one of the most powerful things you can highlight in this supplement, so do that.
CORNELL JEB E. BROOKS SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY
Why are you interested in studying policy, and why do you want to pursue this major at Cornell’s Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy? You should share how your current interests, related experiences, and/or goals have influenced your choice of policy major. (No word count given)
Cornell is not giving a word count for this supplement on their website, but responses are likely to max out at 650 — meaning the Common App won’t let you enter more than that. We recommend shooting for a slightly more compact length of 500 for this supplement as you really don’t need more than that to make a strong case for your admission to the School of Public Policy. Longest is not best.
Like other “why us?” supplements for Cornell, the secret to this one is specificity. Often, this means putting months, if not years, of work in before even starting the supplement to take the courses, secure the internships, and otherwise pursue your interest in policy before you start writing. This is what we do with our students, and if you have done it you should give yourself a pat on the back. If you haven’t because you only recently decided to go into policy, things are a little bit trickier — but not impossible to knock out of the park.
Again, the key is crafting a strong story and, like in cooking, you don’t need a thousand luxury ingredients to make a star-winning dish. Really, you only need two or three. These components must be action oriented, not that you like watching the news or reading a paper over your morning toast. If you can focus on an internship or advocacy project, that is ideal. If you can’t, maybe you’ve written for your school paper and can speak about working within an organization of people with strong opinions to create a shared vision. That’s just one example, of course. Anything that emphasizes teamwork and communication to achieve a mutually-beneficial outcome is great. We do, however, only write about athletics as a last resort. Even if you are being recruited as an athlete, they do not need to hear about that here.
While the prompt doesn’t explicitly ask you to write about what you like about Cornell, we like to end this supplement with a few specific mentions of what it is that draws you to the School of Public Policy. These should be super specific, like a professor you are dreaming of studying under or a program you can’t do anywhere else.
CORNELL SC JOHNSON COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
What kind of a business student are you? Using your personal, academic, or volunteer/work experiences, describe the topics or issues that you care about and why they are important to you. Your response should convey how your interests align with the school to which you are applying within the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business (Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management or the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration). (650 word limit)
If you are applying to college to study at Johnson, they know that you are probably not entirely sure what kind of business student you are. After all, you aren’t a business student yet. But that isn’t the point. What they really mean is that they want to hear about what you care about in the realm of business, and what is driving you to pursue it in college.
We work with our students to prepare for this prompt by interning with different types of businesses, and even starting their own. By the time they see this question, the know what they care about, and they have a strong “why.” Ideally, you have done the same. If you have, tell the story of what made business click for you as a career path, and what core elements matter most to you. Maybe you started running a sno-cone stand with you sibling to save up for new scooters, but what really stuck with you was the look on the faces of awe-struck kids every time you added flavors, or maybe you learned how to build simple websites and then were hired by your parent’s friends to freshen up their digital footprint. Or maybe working in hospitality one summer made your personal purpose click.
The point isn’t really what you did, but the relationships you formed and the lessons you learned that led you to wanting to study this in college and really make a go of building businesses professionally — your own, or within a larger institution.
A key piece of this prompt beyond your personal story in business is to align your interests with the Johnson program. Like we’ve said for each of these, the most important thing is specifics. These cannot be general platitudes about how fun it would be to study business. You need to make clear and direct connections between your interests and what Cornell offers, whether through professors, courses, programs, or all three.
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
So far, the supplements have been fairly simple and straightforward. Long, yes, but not complicated. Like engineering a new compound or machine, the College of Engineering supplement is complex. It’s long, it’s time consuming, and that makes sense given that the Cornell College of Engineering is super competitive to get into. They want to see if you are up for the challenge, and the application is part of it.
Long Essay Responses
First, there are the two long essay prompts. These aren’t actually long when compared against the supplements for other colleges, but they are the longest ones for this supplement, so we’ll go along with calling them long.
Question 1: Fundamentally, engineering is the application of math, science, and technology to solve complex problems. Why do you want to study engineering? (200 word limit)
So, why do you want to study engineering? In 200 words, we need you to tell your love story with engineering in a concise and focused way. The best way to do this is through one story that is representative of broader experiences. For example, if you lead a robotics team, you could tell a story from when things went wrong at a competition and you had to problem solve on the fly, or you could focus on your first day as Captain. What kind of club did you want to create now that you had this responsibility?
The key to this prompt is that you don’t need to focus on precisely the type of engineering that you want to study, as you may not have had much (if any) direct exposure to it yet — think chemical engineering, for example. However, you do need to focus on what it is about engineering that hooks you on a deeper level. Why is this something you want to commit a chunk of your life to? And share that through story.
Question 2: Why do you think you would love to study at Cornell Engineering? (200 word limit)
The second prompt is all about Cornell. You don’t need to convince them of your passion for engineering, as you’ve already done that. What you do need to prove is that you know Cornell. There are many business schools, a handful of top-tier ones, and only one Cornell. What is it about Cornell that makes it your number one? (Note: Even if it isn’t your number one, they should feel like it is.)
You want to be as specific about the Cornell program as possible, from a lab you would love to work with to professors you hope to study under. While you want to pack a good number of specifics in here, it still needs to read like a story — not a list. Using a strong central vignette to underline your “why” for Cornell.
Short Answer Responses (100-word limit each)
These are quite short — only about five lines of text if you’re drafting in size 12 Times New Roman. You don’t need to use precisely the 100 words to write strong answers to each, though. What matters more is writing responses with impact.
Question 1: What brings you joy?
Write this response as a scene. Don’t say “what brings me joy is…” because that is boring. Instead, drop the reader right into a moment of joy. Keep this out of the classroom, too, and keep it simple. Walking your dog, racing boats made out of leaves with your sibling, running around your neighborhood, all of that is fair game. This is a test of whether you are human, so be human.
Question 2: What do you believe you will contribute to the Cornell Engineering community beyond what you've already detailed in your application? What unique voice will you bring?
This is interesting. It isn’t what you want to do, but how you want to contribute. And it isn’t general, like asking what you’ll contribute to your living community (microwave nachos, anyone?). We often see students jump to answer this prompt with examples of their leadership prowess. This is all well and good in real life, but it’s actually not great for this prompt. You don’t want to project the idea that you expect to be in charge on day one, and focusing on being in charge in your response to this prompt can be quite presumptuous. They’ll see your leadership in your application. What they really need more clarity on is how you show up for those around you. So, share that.
Question 3: What is one activity, club, team, organization, work/volunteer experience or family responsibility that is especially meaningful to you? Please briefly tell us about its significance for you.
Ok, so typically we don’t repeat anything on an application, but what you write about here will most likely be in your activities section (except, maybe, if it is a family responsibility). That’s not just okay, it actually validates the importance of the activity. Because if it really matters, it’s going to be in that section, right?
Only write about something that has been important to you in the past year — or longer — but not something you did sophomore year and haven’t repeated. You also need to look close to home. Don’t write about something that is far away. Instead, focus in on your community or family.
We love responses to this prompt that connect the reader to an aspect of you within that activity that they may not see in your application otherwise.
Question 4: What is one award you have received or achievement you have attained that has meant the most to you? Please briefly describe its importance to you.
This prompt is telling. They expect you to have received awards or that you have been recognized for achievements if you are applying to the College of Engineering at Cornell. If you have a big thing you won, awesome. For most students, that’s not their reality even if they are performing at a very high level. There simply aren’t that many prizes, and winning prizes does not actually equate directly to being the kind of person Cornell wants on campus. So, if you don’t have a big prize under your belt — and maybe even if you do — we like to focus on leadership and shared success here.
For example, maybe there is a teamwork award your group won that spotlighted your ability to work together. That, for us, is far more valuable than an individual gold medal.
COLLEGE OF HUMAN ECOLOGY
Identify a challenge in your greater community or in the career/industry in which you are interested. Share how the CHE education, your CHE major of choice, as well as the breadth of CHE majors, will help you address that challenge. (Refer to our before you begin.) (Max word count: 600)
For the College of Human Ecology, are back in the realm of super long supplements! This is an extended “why us,” where they want to hear exactly what has led you to want to pursue this program at CHE and what, precisely, you want to study within the college. The overall frame for this supplement, though, is a challenge that you want to address. While Cornell invites you to take a broad view (“greater community,” could be global, after all), we work with our students to keep their eyes closer to home for the response to this prompt. The challenge should be personal, so run any big idea that you might have through the filter of your lived experience.
Maybe you’re interested in Design and Environmental Analysis, especially through the filter of managing water within communities. You could use the story of a flood in your community as the way into this supplement, explaining how your interest in making communities more resilient is rooted in a personal experience watching neighbors houses be flooded past the first story while your own home was just high up on a hill for them to seek refuge on your porch. How did your community show up for each other in that moment, but also what came after? Was it a response that will avoid repeat events, or is more necessary to address the core problems? Either way, how could your education at Cornell empower you be a piece of that more resilient future? Be specific with the major, courses, a professor or two, and a program or lab that you hope to study within.
SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR RELATIONS
Using your personal, academic, or volunteer/work experiences, describe the topics or issues that you care about and why they are important to you. Your response should show us that your interests align with the ILR School. (650 word limit)
If the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, or ILR, is your dream school and you didn’t just scroll down to here — thank you for sticking with us. Many of the core tenets that we’ve laid out above apply here, too, but we’re going to dive back into them as they are more important than ever.
While the prompt also invites you to write about topics or issues in plural, we advise our students to focus on one issue or topic that is very obviously relevant and important to you based on the type of things you focus on in your life. But it should also be a story that you haven’t told yet. Maybe there is an internship that shows up in your activity section, but that you have not been able to highlight yet. Or maybe there is advocacy work that you’ve done that doesn’t fit neatly into the activity section, so it hasn’t made it onto your application at all. Or perhaps it’s a family story that has shaped your perspective and future goals, but that isn’t as easy to explain in a super concise way (Hooray! You have 650 words here!).
The secret is to make what ILR does relevant to your life and experiences, even if there isn’t a perfect match. ILR isn’t engineering and it isn’t English. It isn’t the kind of thing that they expect you to have had courses in or clubs for, but they do expect with you to have engaged with it enough to know that it is what you want to study. The ILR program is small and super competitive, so applying as someone who is completely green isn’t a great plan. This may mean squeezing in a tangible experience between pressing submit, like an internship with a local union. Then, connect that to the ILR program through their courses, professors, and programs.
Whew! We made it. The Cornell supplements are intense as a whole but manageable individually — and, luckily, you don’t need to do all of them, just the ones relevant to your college. If it’s feeling overwhelming, though, get in touch. Every year we help driven students get into dream schools, including Cornell.
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