What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$1,776 to $49,992 a year, depending on income.
College Scorecard 2024 estimate
See the price at your income ↑Sticker price
Full cost before aid: $88,140 a year. Average need-based aid package: $67,602.Aid and debt
$25,655
average debt at graduation
Not reported by this school: share receiving need-based grants, merit aid.
Getting In
Admit rates
8.4%
admitted overall
18.8%
admitted Early Decision
6.7%
admitted Regular Decision
Early Decision
Early Decision applicants were admitted at nearly 3x the Regular Decision rate, and Early Decision is binding: you commit to attend if admitted.
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Some of that gap reflects who applies early (recruited athletes, legacy applicants and highly committed students concentrate in that pool), so it isn't proof that applying early would raise any one student's own odds.
Key dates
Test scores
SAT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 1490–1550 · 43% of the class submitted
ACT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 33–35 · 13% of the class submitted
84% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What they value
- Very important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- Personal essay
- Recommendations
- Extracurriculars
- Special talent
- Character
- Important
- Class rank
- GPA
- Considered
- SAT/ACT scores
- First-gen status
- Legacy status
- Where you're from
- In-state residency
- Volunteer work
- Work experience
- Not considered
- Demonstrated interest
What this means for you
Cornell rates four things you can work on as Very Important: course rigor, your essay, your recommendations, and your activities.
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Rigor means AP, IB, and dual enrollment carry real weight — make sure your mix of AP or IB courses is strong. The essay is weighted like your GPA. Choose recommenders who can be specific about you, not just confirm your transcript. And depth in a few activities beats a long list.
Cornell doesn't consider demonstrated interest in admissions at all — visits and follow-up emails won't move the needle here.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section C7 (admissions factors)
Cornell just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-Cornell essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
52.9% of Cornell classes have fewer than 20 students.
52.9%
under 20 students
27%
20 to 49
20.1%
50 or more
Every class section counts, labs and seminars included; first-year courses tend to be larger. Cornell CDS 2025–26, I-3.
12:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
58.7%
first-years from out of state
55.4%
live on campus
22.8%
of men in fraternities
19.4%
of women in sororities
Who attends
- White30.3%
- Asian27.5%
- Hispanic12.2%
- Unknown / other7.4%
- Multiracial6.1%
- Black5.8%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. Cornell CDS 2025–26, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
85.8% of Cornell students graduate in 4 years.
85.8%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2019
95%
finish in 6 years
Entered fall 2019
97.8%
return after first year
Finishing late means paying for extra semesters, so the 4-year rate is the one that shows the cost.
Students with Pell Grants
88.5% finish in 6 years, against 95% of all students.
A 6.5-point gap: Pell Grant students finish less often than students overall.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Ithaca.
Cornell sits on East Hill above Ithaca, a small Finger Lakes city, with two gorges cutting straight through the middle of campus and Cayuga Lake below.
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Downtown and its pedestrian street are a short bus ride down the hill, and nearly everything else students need is on campus. The nearest big city is a four-hour drive, and the winters are long.
The City
College town
Ithaca, NY
Best For
Notable alumni
Notable Alumni
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, sworn in in 1993 as the second woman to serve on the court. She took her undergraduate degree here in government in 1954.
Class of 1954
Toni Morrison
Won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Black woman to do so. She earned her master's degree here in 1955, and a Cornell residence hall is named for her.
Class of 1955
Bill Nye
Created and hosted Bill Nye the Science Guy, which ran 100 episodes over five seasons. He graduated here in 1977 and has returned as a Convocation speaker.
Class of 1977
Willis Carrier
Invented the first electrical air conditioning unit in 1902, a year after graduating here, and founded the Carrier Corporation.
Class of 1901
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
Traditions
Traditions
Dragon Day
First-year architecture students spend months building an enormous dragon and parade it across campus each spring, in costume, to do battle on the Engineering Quad with a phoenix built by engineering students. The first one was held in 1901.
Slope Day
The last day of classes is spent on Libe Slope with live music and entertainment — the descendant of 'Spring Day', first held in April 1901 to mark the end of winter.
The chimes in McGraw Tower
The bells first rang at the university's opening in 1868 and have been recast and expanded to 21. Three concerts are played every day that classes are in session.
Weekend escapes from Ithaca
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Ithaca
Taughannock Falls State Park
About 20 minutesA 215-foot waterfall dropping past cliffs that rise nearly 400 feet above the gorge, with rim and gorge trails and a beach on Cayuga Lake.
Watkins Glen and the Seneca Lake wineries
About 45 minutesThe gorge trail at Watkins Glen and the wineries strung along Seneca Lake — the standard warm-weather day out from Ithaca.
New York City
About 4 hoursCornell runs its own Campus-to-Campus coach between Ithaca and its Manhattan campuses seven days a week, so the trip does not need a car.
Getting there and game days
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Ithaca Tompkins International Airport (ITH)
About 10 minutes from campus
For international flights: John F. Kennedy International (JFK) — about 4 hours 15 minutes by road, or a connecting flight from ithaca.
Pro sports nearby
- Syracuse Mets MiLBAbout 1 hour 10 minutes away
- Syracuse Crunch AHLAbout 1 hour 10 minutes away
- Buffalo Bills NFLAbout 3 hours away
Internships and jobs nearby
Career Proximity
Ithaca has no corporate cluster of its own — Cornell's pipeline runs to New York City, four hours south, where the university keeps its own campuses and runs its own bus.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Epic Systems
- Amazon Web Services
- JPMorgan Chase
- Deloitte
- Goldman Sachs
New York City, about 4 hours south, reachable on Cornell's own Campus-to-Campus coach
Who thrives here
Who Thrives Here
Cornell admits 8.4% of applicants overall and 18.8% through early decision, and it requires the SAT or ACT — a score is part of the application here, not an option. Once in, it is a big place: 12 students per faculty member, but only 52.9% of classes under 20, and 55.4% of undergraduates in university housing, with the rest in Collegetown apartments down the hill. Greek life is a real presence without being the whole social map — 22.8% of men and 19.4% of women join. The money is unusually straightforward for a private at $74,970: Cornell meets 100% of demonstrated need, and its graduates leave with $25,655 in average debt. The trade-off is Ithaca. The campus sits on a hill above a small Finger Lakes city, four hours from New York City, with gorges cutting through it and long winters. 95.0% of students finish within six years, but anyone who needs a city at the door should weigh the location before applying.