Cornell University
Ithaca, NY300 Day Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853
607-255-2000
Cornell University is a private research university located in Ithaca, New York. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, the university was intended to teach and make contributions in all fields of knowledge—from the classics to the sciences, and from the theoretical to the applied. These ideals, unconventional for the time, are captured in Cornell's founding principle, a popular 1868 Ezra Cornell quotation: "I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study."
Cornell is a land-grant university and a member of the Ivy League. As of 2020, Cornell is ranked 14th in the world by the QS World University Rankings and 16th in the world by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. It is also ranked 27th in the country by U.S. News & World Report. The university has seven undergraduate colleges and seven graduate divisions at its Ithaca campus, with each college and division defining its own admission standards and academic programs in near autonomy. The university also administers two satellite medical campuses, one in New York City and one in Education City, Qatar.
Cornell is one of the few private land grant universities in the United States. Since its founding, Cornell has been a co-educational, non-sectarian institution where admission has not been restricted by religion or race. Cornell counts more than 245,000 living alumni, 44 Marshall Scholars, 36 Rhodes Scholars, 12 Nobel laureates, nine National Medal of Science winners, 14 MacArthur Fellows, and two Presidential Medal of Freedom winners among its alumni. Current and past faculty and alumni include 35 Nobel laureates, four Pulitzer Prize winners, and two U.S. Supreme Court Justices. The student body consists of nearly 14,000 undergraduate and 7,000 graduate students from all 50 American states and 122 countries.
Cornell University was founded on April 27, 1865, the date of the signing of the New York State Senate and Assembly's resolution to establish the state's land grant college. Senator Ezra Cornell offered his farm in Ithaca, New York, as a site and $500,000 of his personal fortune as an initial endowment. Fellow senator and educator Andrew Dickson White agreed to be the first president. During the next three years, White oversaw the construction of the first two buildings and traveled to attract students and faculty. The university was inaugurated on October 7, 1868, and 412 men were enrolled the next day. Cornell developed as a technologically innovative institution, applying its research to its own campus and to outreach efforts. For example, in 1883 it was one of the first university campuses to use electricity from a water-powered dynamo to light the grounds. Cornell has had active alumni since its earliest classes. It was one of the first universities to include alumni-elected representatives on its Board of Trustees.
Cornell's endowment and annual operating budget are among the largest of any American university. The university's research expenditures totaled $836 million in 2018. Cornell's alumni have a long history of success in a broad range of fields. Notable alumni include former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug, physicist Hans Bethe, mathematician David Mumford, and film director James Cameron. Cornell has produced many entrepreneurs, including Jacob Javits, co-founder of Javits-Rabinowitz, and David Tisch, co-founder of Box Group.
Quick Facts
Enrollment: 23620
Acceptance Rate: 10.71%
Type: Private not-for-profit, 4-year or above
Main Website: https://www.cornell.edu/
Financial Aid: https://finaid.cornell.edu/
Annual Costs
Total Cost In-State On-Campus: $78992
Total Cost Out-State On-Campus: $78992
Return on Investment Rating
The estimated cost for four years as an undergraduate at Cornell University is $273287.44. This includes the average cost of attendance for four years plus the interest on the average loan over a ten year repayment minus the average of grants and scholarships per student.
We then contrast this figure with average early-career and mid-career average incomes of graduates of four year programs at Cornell University. For graduates of Cornell University, we saw an average early-career income of $75800.00 and mid-career income of $139600.00. We then ranked the school's value based on how many years of mid-career income it takes to repay the educational costs.