Cornell College of Arts and Science Essays (2025-2026)
Cornell College of Arts and Science Supplemental Essay Prompts: 2025-2026
Cornell recently released their supplemental essays for the 2025-2026 admissions cycle. In this article, we will explain exactly what they are looking for in responses from applicants seeking admission to their College of Arts and Sciences.
We all contribute to, and are influenced by, the communities that are meaningful to us. Share how you’ve been shaped by one of the communities you belong to.
Remember that this essay is about you and your lived experience. Define community in the way that is most meaningful to you. Some examples of community you might choose from are: family, school, shared interest, virtual, local, global, cultural. (350 word limit)
This is a classic community essay, nothing more. What admissions officers are looking for is a first-person snapshot of you within a community that simulates the type of campus environment you will find if you are admitted and decide to attend Cornell. Ideally, your chosen community should be one that you are currently part of, is filled with smart, highly ambitious peers, and has a respectable number of members. Large school clubs certainly count.
If you aren't part of a community that fits these criteria, you are not out of luck. As long as you pick a community from which you can demonstrate that you have tangibly benefited and to which you have given back, you can craft a very strong response to this question.
Once you have chosen your community, you want a powerful hook to draw the reader in. This can be a vivid first-person snapshot of your community carrying out its main aim or goal, a moment of triumph or sorrow for your community, or you bantering with members of your community to immediately establish that you are close to them. The key is that your hook demonstrates to the reader that you are indeed writing about a community in which you are deeply entrenched.
After your hook, you want to create a narrative showing how reciprocal social interactions within your community allow your group to accomplish its main priority and goal. It is vital that your community has a clear goal or priority and isn't just a loose collection of people. During this section, where you show how your community achieves something meaningful, it is critical that you provide first-person anecdotes of your social interactions with other members. Demonstrate how those social interactions made you grow as a person in some specific way and helped you become more refined.
Then you want to show how you have benefited members of your community. It is key that after reading this essay, admissions officers can visualize the type of community member you'll be on their campus over the next four years. To conclude the essay, discuss how this community has shaped your future goals as they relate to your hook and personal strengths.
2. 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)
This is both a "why major" and "why college" essay. You want to start with a vivid hook showing yourself engaging in your favorite academic activity. Give readers a front-row seat inside your mind as you demonstrate how you engage in this activity. From there, you should establish a strong personal connection to the type of learning that led you to develop the academic passion you'll be applying to further explore at Cornell.
Next, show readers how much you love learning through first-person anecdotes of going above and beyond coursework to learn more about a particular topic. Then explain how this demonstrated passion for learning led you to fall in love with your chosen area of study. You should try to establish either a personal connection to a technical problem in that area of study or a practical application of it. You want to give readers a compelling reason why there needs to be another person studying that academic field. Make the reader want to see you study that area so you can impact the world positively.
From there, discuss specific opportunities at Cornell that will allow you to accomplish your vision, some life goal related to your area of study. Such opportunities include academic centers at Cornell dedicated to studying your field, professors, clubs, and electives you'd like to take, and how those electives outside of your major will better prepare you to accomplish your goals related to your stated major. Also mention programs that allow you to curate your own field of study.
To conclude, choose one of three approaches: provide a vivid picture of how you will use your Cornell education to improve the world in a tangible way; reconnect with one of the personal experiences that sparked your passion for learning or your chosen major, and discuss how your exploration of this field has deepened your understanding of that formative moment in your life; or show the reader how your studies have transformed you compared to how you presented yourself earlier in your essay.
If you want your college admissions essays to be the decisive factor that gets you into your dream school, schedule a free consultation with an admissions expert today to have all of your questions answered.
