An Ivy League and land-grant research university in Ithaca, NY, the most accessible Ivy with an 8.76% admit rate.
Ithaca, New York
Cornell University is a private R1 research university in Ithaca, New York, founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White. It enrolls 15,995 undergraduates and 10,665 graduate students, the largest undergraduate enrollment of any Ivy League institution. Cornell is both a private Ivy League university and a federal land-grant institution, a combination unique in American higher education.
Undergraduates apply directly to one of seven undergraduate colleges: the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), the College of Human Ecology, the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR), the Nolan School of Hotel Administration, and the Brooks School of Public Policy. Social sciences, engineering, agriculture, and biological sciences account for the largest shares of bachelor's degrees. Cornell holds a Doctoral University: Very High Research Activity (R1) Carnegie classification and is accredited through the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE).
Official website: cornell.edu
UCD scores every college on four pillars: Outcomes, Value, Affordability, and Selectivity. Within peer group A (four-year selective institutions), Cornell scores 83.09 overall, rated Strong. Outcomes (98.57) reflects a 95.38% six-year graduation rate and a 92.29% four-year graduation rate. Affordability scores 16.73, the weakest pillar, driven by an average net price of $28,690 and a federal loan rate of 17.81%, the highest among Ivy League institutions. Value scores 77.52. All scores use verified federal data only.
Cornell is the most accessible Ivy League university, admitting 8.76% of applicants, a meaningfully higher rate than peer Ivies. Cornell is test-optional; submitting SAT or ACT scores is not required. Students who submit scores typically average 1,535 on the SAT, with the middle 50% scoring between 33 and 35 on the ACT. Cornell offers binding Early Decision with a November 1 deadline; admitted ED students must enroll and withdraw other applications.
The Regular Decision deadline is January 2. Applicants apply to a specific college, not to Cornell generally; each college has its own character, admission profile, and curriculum. CALS, ILR, and Human Ecology are among the state-supported statutory colleges, which have somewhat different admission requirements and tuition structures for New York state residents.
Acceptance rate over the last five admission cycles. The trend tells you whether Cornell University is getting harder, easier, or staying about the same.
Cornell charges $69,314 in tuition plus $19,428 in room and board, bringing the estimated total cost of attendance to approximately $91,000 before aid. Cornell meets 100% of demonstrated financial need for admitted U.S. students, with no loans in aid packages. The average net price after all grants is $28,690. For families earning under $30,000, the average net price is $1,776.
For families earning between $30,001 and $48,000, the net price averages $4,070. For families earning between $75,001 and $110,000, the net price averages $14,311. For families earning above $110,000, the average net price is $49,992. Students enrolled in Cornell's statutory colleges who are New York state residents pay lower tuition for those programs, typically around $35,000 per year.
Published cost of attendance, the sticker price before grants and scholarships. Most students underestimate room & board and other expenses.
Application fee: $80 (one-time, due at submission)
Aid is need-based, so net price varies by family income. Here's what each bracket typically pays after grants and scholarships.
Cumulative federal-loan debt across the full borrowing distribution. The 10th and 90th percentiles bracket the typical range; the median sits in the middle.
Median federal-loan debt at graduation broken down by demographic. Each slice's size is proportional to the dollar amount that group typically borrows.
Cornell completes the large majority of the students it enrolls. The six-year graduation rate is 95.38% for full-time, first-time bachelor's-seeking students. The four-year rate is 92.29%, and first-year retention stands at 98.10%. These figures hold across Cornell's diverse undergraduate colleges, which range from engineering and agriculture to hotel administration and industrial relations.
Cornell graduates earn above the national median for private research universities. Median earnings are $87,830 six years after first enrolling and $104,043 at ten years. At the ten-year mark, 91.71% of former students earn more than a typical high school graduate. The ten-year median reflects the breadth of Cornell's programs: engineering and hotel administration graduates often earn above the institutional median, while arts and agricultural sciences graduates vary more by career path. Cornell's federal loan rate of 17.81% is the highest among Ivy League institutions, and median debt at graduation is $14,000.
Median annual earnings 6, 8, and 10 years after students first enrolled.
Mean annual earnings 10 years after entry, segmented by demographic. Reveals gaps the headline median can't show.
Median earnings for female grads ten years after first enrolling here.
Median earnings for male grads ten years after first enrolling here.
Earnings of grads from the bottom-third of family incomes at entry.
Earnings of grads from the middle-third of family incomes at entry.
Earnings of grads from the top-third of family incomes at entry.
Share of completer-cohort borrowers paying down at least $1 of principal at the 1-, 3-, 5-, and 7-year mark. Climbing rates show graduates settling into careers and managing debt; flat or declining rates are a warning.
Cornell enrolls 15,995 undergraduates on its campus in Ithaca, a small city of approximately 32,000 in the Finger Lakes region of central New York State. White students account for 31.01% of undergraduates; Asian 26.76%, Hispanic 13.16%, and Black 6.84%. Eighteen percent of undergraduates receive Pell grants, and 15.42% are first-generation college students. Ithaca is a college town with limited off-campus options compared to urban campuses; the campus itself, with its gorges, waterfalls, and lakeview setting, is one of the most distinctive physical environments of any research university in the country.
Undergraduate student body composition reported to the US Department of Education.
Where students live, learn, and connect at Cornell University. The campus setting, housing profile, and signals that shape day-to-day life here.
Cornell University offers an extensive catalog of programs: 206 distinct programs across 25 majors. Below are its strongest majors, each with flagship programs and typical earnings. Open a major to explore it in depth, or browse the full program catalog.
Cornell operates at a 9:1 student-to-faculty ratio, the highest among Ivy League institutions, reflecting its larger undergraduate enrollment. 92.85% of instruction is delivered by full-time faculty. Instructional spending per full-time equivalent student is $33,431 per year, the lowest among Ivy League institutions. The endowment stands at $10.18 billion. Cornell's land-grant mission means it receives supplementary state support for statutory college programs, which partly offsets the lower per-student resource levels relative to fully private Ivy peers.
1,974 instructional faculty across 5 ranks. The rank mix shows how many senior faculty are teaching versus contingent or junior staff, with average salary equated to a 9-month contract.
| Rank | Faculty Count | Share | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full Professors | 777 | 39% | $207,683 |
| Associate Professors | 408 | 21% | $145,867 |
| Assistant Professors | 436 | 22% | $130,129 |
| Instructors | 43 | 2% | $95,751 |
| Lecturers | 310 | 16% | $91,931 |
Cornell's defining strengths are accessibility (8.76% admit rate, most accessible Ivy), scale (15,995 undergrads, most diverse program mix in the Ivy League), and distinctive professional programs in hotel administration (SHA), labor relations (ILR), and veterinary medicine. Outcomes (98.57) and ten-year earnings ($104,043) are strong, consistent with Ivy peer performance. The challenges are meaningful: a federal loan rate of 17.81% is the highest in the Ivy League and suggests a significant share of enrolled students are borrowing beyond their aid packages.
The 9:1 student-faculty ratio and instructional spending of $33,431/FTE are both the lowest in the Ivy League. Best fit for students targeting specific Cornell programs (SHA, ILR, CALS, Engineering) who benefit from the Ivy credential and program depth; New York state residents enrolling in statutory colleges get a meaningfully lower cost.
The questions below address what students and families most commonly search about Cornell: how selective admissions are, what makes Cornell different from other Ivies, what the statutory colleges are, how financial aid compares, and what graduates earn.
One federal dataset, 3,839 colleges. The median school costs $16,371 a year, admits 78% of applicants, and enrolls 1,259 students. The shape of US higher ed.
Across 1,645 four-year colleges, graduation rates climb steadily with selectivity, from 54% at open-admission schools to 93% at the most exclusive. The gap is real.
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