Cornell Essays 2025-2026

Cornell recently released their supplemental essays for the 2025-2026 admissions cycle. Cornell is unique among its Ivy League peers in that each of its undergraduate colleges and schools requires its own essay in addition to a university-wide prompt. In this article, we will explain exactly what they are looking for in responses from applicants to every Cornell school, so you can write essays that will get you admitted there.

Cornell University Essay (Required of All Applicants)

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.

College of Arts and 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)

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.

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS)

By applying to Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), you are also applying for direct entry into one of our 20 majors. From here, you would be part of a community dedicated to purpose-driven science; working within your major and across disciplines to tackle the complex challenges of our time.

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)

This is a straightforward "why major at this school" essay. You want to open with a vivid, first-person anecdote that establishes a personal connection to the subject matter of your chosen CALS major. This could be a moment in a lab, a field, a garden, a family kitchen, or any environment where you first realized you were fascinated by the science behind something you were experiencing. The key is to show the reader that your interest in this major is rooted in something real and personal, not just an abstract career calculation.

After your hook, explain how that initial spark led you to explore this field further. Show the reader what you did to pursue this interest beyond what was required of you, whether that was independent research, working with a mentor, volunteering in a relevant setting, or self-directed study. CALS values purpose-driven science, so it is critical that you demonstrate how your academic interest connects to a real-world problem you want to help solve. Be specific about what that problem is and why you are personally motivated to address it.

From there, transition into why CALS specifically is the right place for you to pursue this work. Name the major you selected and explain how its curriculum aligns with your goals. Reference specific courses, faculty members whose research interests you, labs or research centers at CALS that are doing work related to your area of focus, and any interdisciplinary opportunities that excite you. CALS prides itself on cross-disciplinary collaboration, so showing the reader that you understand and value this aspect of the college will strengthen your essay considerably. If there are opportunities to collaborate with other Cornell colleges or participate in extension programs, field research, or community-facing initiatives, mention those as well.

To conclude, either paint a vivid picture of the tangible impact you hope to make in the world using your CALS education, or reflect on how studying at CALS will deepen your understanding of the personal experiences that first drew you to this field. The reader should finish this essay feeling confident that you have a clear sense of purpose and that CALS is the place where that purpose will be realized.

College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP)

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, you may want to consider how you could integrate a range of interests and available resources at Cornell into a coherent art practice. URS students you may want to emphasize your enthusiasm and depth of interest in the study of urban and regional issues. (650 word limit)

This prompt asks different things depending on which AAP major you are applying to, so let's break it down.

If you are applying to the B.Arch program, you need to show the reader a specific creative project or passion that makes you want to commit to a rigorous five-year professional degree. Open with a vivid, first-person description of yourself engaged in this creative project. Show the reader what it looks like when you are deep in the process of designing, building, or conceptualizing something. From there, explain the personal experiences that led you to develop this creative passion and how it evolved into a desire to study architecture formally. The five-year commitment is significant, and admissions officers want to see that your motivation runs deep enough to sustain you through a demanding professional program. After establishing your personal motivation, discuss specific opportunities at AAP that excite you, including studios, faculty, lecture series, and the culture of critique that defines architectural education at Cornell. To conclude, show the reader how your creative vision will be sharpened and expanded by the resources at AAP, or describe the kind of architect you aspire to become and how AAP will help you get there.

If you are applying for the BFA, your essay should focus on how you will bring together your various interests into a unified art practice at Cornell. Open with a vivid depiction of yourself making art, whatever your medium. Then explain the range of interests that inform your creative work and how you envision integrating them. This is where Cornell's broader resources become important. AAP's BFA program benefits from being embedded within a major research university, so you should discuss how courses, facilities, or communities outside of AAP will feed into your art practice. Name specific classes in other departments, research initiatives, or campus resources that you'd like to draw from. Conclude by showing the reader what your art practice will look like after four years of integrating these diverse influences at Cornell.

If you are applying for URS, you want to demonstrate genuine depth of interest in urban and regional issues. Open with a first-person anecdote that establishes your personal connection to an urban or regional problem you care about. Show the reader the lived experiences that made you care about how cities, neighborhoods, or regions function and how policy decisions affect real communities. From there, discuss how you have already explored these issues, whether through coursework, independent research, community involvement, or personal observation. Then explain why the URS program at AAP is the right place to deepen your understanding. Reference specific courses, faculty, and any fieldwork or practicum opportunities that align with your interests. To conclude, articulate the impact you want to make and how a URS education at Cornell will prepare you to make it.

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. (650 word limit)

For this essay, you want to open with a vivid, first-person anecdote that shows the reader a moment when you realized that the problems you care about most are fundamentally policy problems. This could be an experience where you saw a community struggling with an issue that better policy could address, a moment in a class where a policy concept clicked for you, or an interaction with someone whose life was directly shaped by a policy decision. The key is to ground your interest in policy in a personal, lived experience rather than an abstract sense that policy is important.

After your hook, explain how this experience led you to explore policy further. Show the reader what steps you took to deepen your understanding, whether through academic work, extracurricular involvement, independent research, or conversations with people affected by policy decisions. Demonstrate that your interest in policy is not passive. Admissions officers at Brooks want to see that you have already begun thinking critically about how policy works and where it falls short.

From there, transition into why the Brooks School specifically is where you want to study policy. The Brooks School is relatively new, having been established in 2022, and it distinguishes itself through its emphasis on rigorous, evidence-based policy analysis. Reference specific aspects of the Brooks School curriculum that excite you, including courses, faculty whose research aligns with your interests, and any centers or initiatives affiliated with the school. If there are interdisciplinary opportunities at Cornell that would complement your policy education, such as courses in economics, government, sociology, or data science offered through other colleges, discuss those as well. Brooks values students who understand that effective policy requires drawing on multiple disciplines, so showing that you appreciate this will make your essay stronger.

To conclude, provide a vivid picture of the kind of policy work you want to do after graduating from Cornell and how your Brooks School education will prepare you for it, or reflect on how studying policy at Brooks will recontextualize the personal experiences that first made you care about these issues.

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)

This essay is asking you to define yourself as a business student through the lens of what you care about. It is not asking you to list your business accomplishments. Open with a vivid, first-person anecdote that shows the reader a topic or issue you are deeply invested in. This could be an experience running a small venture, volunteering for an organization where you saw an operational or economic problem up close, or a moment in a class where you became fascinated by how markets, management, or hospitality systems actually work.

After your hook, explain why this issue matters to you on a personal level. Admissions officers want to understand your motivations, not just your resume. Show them the personal stakes. Then demonstrate how you have already engaged with this issue through tangible action, whether through academic exploration, work experience, a project you initiated, or volunteer involvement. The key is to show that your interest in business is not theoretical but grounded in real experience and genuine concern.

From there, you need to connect your interests to the specific school within SC Johnson that you are applying to. If you are applying to the Dyson School, focus on how your interests align with applied economics and management. Dyson students tend to be drawn to understanding how economic principles play out in real organizations and markets, so show the reader that this describes you. Reference specific Dyson courses, faculty, or programs that will help you explore the issues you care about. If you are applying to the Nolan School of Hotel Administration, your essay should reflect a deep interest in the hospitality industry and the operational, financial, or experiential dimensions of it. Reference specific Nolan courses, faculty, industry partnerships, or experiential learning opportunities that excite you.

To conclude, show the reader the kind of business leader you aspire to become and how your education at Dyson or Nolan will help you get there. Alternatively, reflect on how your studies will recontextualize the personal experiences that first led you to care about these issues. Either way, the reader should finish your essay confident that you know what kind of business student you are and that the school you selected is the right fit.

David A. Duffield College of Engineering

Cornell Engineering requires two long essays and four short essays. We will go through each one.

Long Essay 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)

There are several strong approaches to this essay, and it does not need to be an origin story. One effective approach is to write about a real-world problem that has intersected with your lived experiences and redirected an already present interest in engineering toward something more concrete. If this problem and the impact you want engineering to help you achieve are not already referenced elsewhere in your application, this essay is a great place to convey them. Choose an impact that an admissions officer can get behind, something that makes the reader want to see you become an engineer.

Another strong approach is to give the reader a front-row seat inside your mind as you solve a problem. Show them how you think, how you break something apart, how you iterate, and communicate how joyous it is for you to be in that mindset. If you take this route, the goal is to make the reader feel your enthusiasm for the process itself.

You can also open with a concise, vivid anecdote that shows the reader a moment when you realized engineering was what you wanted to pursue, and explain how that experience shaped your understanding of the field. Whatever approach you choose, in 200 words, be direct, be vivid, and make every sentence earn its place.

Long Essay 2: Why do you think you would love to study at Cornell Engineering? (200 word limit)

This is a "why Cornell Engineering" essay. Write this as a hypothetical in which you show the reader what your life at Cornell Engineering looks like. Name specific professors whose research interests you, labs you want to join, courses that excite you, and engineering project teams or clubs you want to contribute to. Cornell Engineering is known for its project team culture, so referencing a specific team and explaining why it aligns with your interests will demonstrate that you did your research. Connect these opportunities to your engineering interests and goals. In 200 words, specificity is everything. Generic praise of Cornell's reputation will not help you. The reader needs to see that you understand what Cornell Engineering offers and that you have a clear plan for how you will take advantage of it.

Short Essay 1: What brings you joy? (100 word limit)

Pick something specific that you can describe vividly in just a few sentences. Do not try to cover multiple sources of joy. Instead, show the reader one moment or activity that lights you up, and briefly explain why. Ideally, this should be something that reveals a dimension of your personality not fully captured elsewhere in your application. If it connects to something you can also pursue at Cornell, even better, but that connection does not need to be explicit.

Short Essay 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? (100 word limit)

This is your chance to tell the reader something about yourself that doesn't appear anywhere else in your application. Think about a perspective, a skill, a way of thinking, or a life experience that will make you a valuable member of the engineering community at Cornell. Be specific and avoid generic statements about being a team player or bringing diverse perspectives. Instead, describe one concrete thing you bring that your peers won't and explain why it matters for the community.

Short Essay 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. (100 word limit)

Choose something that matters to you deeply and explain why in a personal, specific way. Do not repeat what you already wrote in your Common Application activities section. Instead, use this space to reveal the emotional or personal significance behind one of your commitments. Show the reader why this activity or responsibility shaped who you are, not just what you did.

Short Essay 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. (100 word limit)

Pick the award or achievement that carries the most personal meaning, which is not necessarily the most prestigious one. Explain what it represents to you and why it meant more than any other recognition you have received. The reader wants to understand your values through this answer, so focus on what this achievement says about who you are rather than how impressive it looks on paper.

College of Human Ecology (CHE)

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 essay application tips before you begin.) (600 word limit)

This essay has a clear structure baked into the prompt, and you should follow it. Open with a vivid, first-person depiction of the challenge you are identifying. Ideally, this challenge should be something you have personally witnessed or been affected by, not a problem you read about in the news and decided sounds interesting. Show the reader the human dimension of this challenge. Give them a specific person, community, or situation that makes the stakes feel real.

After establishing the challenge, explain why you are personally motivated to address it. The reader needs to understand that this isn't just an intellectual exercise for you. Connect the challenge to experiences in your life that made it impossible for you to look away. Then explain how your CHE major of choice will equip you with the knowledge and skills to tackle this challenge. Be specific about courses, faculty research, and methodologies associated with your chosen major that are directly relevant.

The prompt also asks you to discuss the breadth of CHE majors, which is an important distinction. Human Ecology is inherently interdisciplinary, and admissions officers want to see that you understand this. Show the reader how courses or perspectives from other CHE majors beyond your primary one will complement your education and make you more effective at addressing the challenge you identified. For example, if you are studying human development, explain how insights from design and environmental analysis or policy analysis and management could inform your approach. This demonstrates that you appreciate CHE's unique structure and that you plan to take full advantage of it.

To conclude, paint a vivid picture of how your CHE education will position you to make a tangible difference with respect to the challenge you identified, or reflect on how studying at CHE will transform the way you understand the experiences that first made you aware of this problem.

School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR)

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)

For this essay, open with a vivid, first-person anecdote that introduces the reader to a topic or issue related to work, labor, employment, or the relationship between organizations and the people within them. This could be an experience where you witnessed a workplace dynamic that struck you as unjust or fascinating, a moment when you became interested in how labor markets function, a conversation with a family member about their experience as a worker, or an interaction with an organization where you noticed something about how people are managed, compensated, or treated.

After your hook, explain why this issue matters to you on a personal level. ILR admissions officers are reading hundreds of essays from students who say they care about labor and employment issues. What will make your essay stand out is the depth and authenticity of your personal connection to these topics. Show the reader the specific experiences that shaped your interest and the actions you took to explore it further. If you conducted research, organized an event, started a project, or sought out conversations with professionals in this space, discuss those steps. Demonstrate that your interest in ILR's subject matter is active and sustained, not a recent discovery made while browsing Cornell's website.

From there, connect your interests to what ILR specifically offers. The ILR School is one of the most unique undergraduate programs in the country, and admissions officers want to see that you understand what makes it distinctive. Reference specific ILR courses, faculty members whose work aligns with your interests, research centers such as the Worker Institute or the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution, and experiential learning opportunities like credit-bearing internships or the ILR Extension programs. Show the reader how these resources will allow you to deepen your understanding of the issues you care about and prepare you to make a meaningful impact.

To conclude, either describe the career or life path you envision and how your ILR education will enable it, or reflect on how studying at ILR will give you a deeper understanding of the personal experiences that first drew you to these topics. The reader should finish your essay knowing exactly why you belong at ILR.

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