The College of Arts & Sciences, Cornell University

Luis Hernandez Rocha: Computer Science and Mathematics

'What matters most is a genuine openness to understanding'

5/15/2026 A&S Communications

A home for exploration and discovery

Our research activities and academic programs are remarkably broad, but they share one characteristic: all are curiosity-driven. Exploring the unknown is central to our mission to be the nexus of discovery and impact.

Explore research and discoveries

Provided Medina Tovar

Molecular biology and genetics

Medina Tovar joins Weill Institute to study cellular evolution, pathogenesis of fungi

9/4/2026 Cornell Chronicle

complicated and very large piece of machinery, folded into an aerodynamic pointed shape standing on one end in a brightly lit, white-walled hangarr — NASA/Jolearra Tshiteya NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on Aug. 7, after engineers and technicians at Kennedy Space Center had mated the observatory to a payload adapter, before it was secured to the second stage of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

Astronomy

NASA telescope gives hidden exoplanets chance to shine

8/28/2026 Cornell Chronicle

Anthropology

‘Heritage Forensics’ investigates cultural heritage caught up in war

8/26/2026 A&S Communications

Marvel actor Dominique Thorne ’19 visits campus for screening, talks

9/1/2026 A&S Communications

>2000

Courses offered in A&S of 4000 courses at Cornell.

Illustration of a space telescope with long, purple panels on teach side — NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State Univ./Space Systems Loral/Peter Rubin An artist's-concept illustration depicting the spacecraft of NASA's Psyche mission near the mission's target, the metal asteroid Psyche. Psyche Mission PI Lindy Elkins-Tanton will speak at Cornell Sept. 11.

Astronomy

Psyche Mission leader to give public lecture Sept. 11

8/31/2026 A&S Communications

Majors to choose in A&S. Design your education.

Ryan Young/Cornell University Peter Enns

Government

Midterm forecast strongly favors Democrats to win House majority

9/3/2026 Cornell Chronicle

~4,600

Students in A&S, each with an extraordinary journey to tell.

Economics

Economist Kerwin Charles, Ph.D. ’96, to give 2026 Staller Lecture

9/8/2026 A&S Communications

>90K

A&S alumni in our network. Go Big Red!

Popular Destinations

Majors and Minors Admissions requirements and process Degree Requirements Advising Career Development

The College Welcomes New Faculty for 2026-27

Twenty new faculty have joined the College of Arts & Sciences this year, strengthening departments and programs with their wide-ranging expertise and filling numerous leadership roles for the College and university. And this election year, the College’s new faculty bring a breadth and depth of expertise on topics important to our democracy.

Click here to explore profiles of our new faculty members.

Uncommon academic diversity abounds here

The innovative undergraduate curriculum at A&S has distribution requirements that range from global citizenship to physical sciences to ethics and the mind. Classes build upon each other and cross the boundaries of traditional academic fields. Extensive work occurs outside of your major and minors, and there are no required core courses. Work closely with inspiring faculty to develop the hallmark skills of a liberal arts and sciences education – the ability to read critically, write persuasively and think broadly.

Earth and Climate Sciences

major minor

Overview

Cornell University's Bachelor of Science in Earth and Climate Sciences equips students to tackle critical global challenges like climate change and natural disasters. The program features small class sizes, dedicated faculty support, and a wide range of electives and extracurricular opportunities. Nestled in the picturesque landscape of upstate New York, Cornell offers an exceptional setting for the study of environmental sciences.

What are the concentrations within Earth and Climate Sciences?

Climate Science: The climate science curriculum focuses on the scientific study of climate behavior and its practical applications. It addresses critical issues such as how human activities are altering the climate system, the evolving hazards resulting from climate change, and the potential impacts of proposed mitigation strategies.
Environmental Sciences: Environmental issues often involved complex physical, chemical, and biologic interactions among air, water rocks, and soil, and therefore typically require multidisciplinary approaches to address effectively.
Geological Science: Geological science explores the processes behind Earth's origin and evolution, its relationship with the solar system, and its internal structure and composition. It also plays a vital role in addressing societal needs, such as the sustainable use of natural resources, environmental preservation, and the study and mitigation of natural hazards like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and landslides.
Ocean Science: Ocean science is a broad field that includes four key subdisciplines: marine geology, marine chemistry, physical oceanography, and biological oceanography. These areas are deeply interconnected, with significant disciplinary overlap. While the concentration in Ocean Sciences covers aspects of all four subdisciplines, it is typically designed to focus more heavily on one area, depending on the student's interests or research goals.

Program Overview:

The Earth and Climate Sciences program is inherently interdisciplinary, integrating various fields of science and engineering. Relevant engineering disciplines include civil and environmental engineering, biological and environmental engineering, mechanical and aerospace engineering, and electrical and computer engineering. Through this program, students engage in education and research that equips them to pursue competitive careers or advanced study at leading institutions both domestically and internationally. By exploring the complex interactions among the ocean, solid earth, atmosphere, and biosphere, students contribute to addressing society's growing needs for energy, minerals, and clean water, while also playing a role in mitigating the adverse effects of global warming, sea-level rise, natural disasters, and biodiversity loss.

Why is Earth and Climate science important to our world?

Understanding human impacts on our planet provides technologies and solutions for the future. Our graduates will be able to seek careers dealing with energy, mineral and water resources, natural hazards, climate forecasting, and a host of environmental issues through employment in academia, government and the private sector.

For further information about the major:

Director of Undergraduate Studies
Dr. Rowena Lohman
Snee Hall, Room 3210
rbl62@cornell.edu

Undergraduate Coordinator
Annmarie Card
Snee Hall, Room 2102A
ac2666@cornell.edu

Details

American Sign Language/Deaf Studies

minor

Overview

With the American Sign Language (ASL)/Deaf Studies minor, students can pursue an interdisciplinary course sequence focusing on American Sign Language and Deaf culture. Courses offered range across a variety of different disciplines, to provide a broad and compelling perspective on ASL and the Deaf community.

Details

Astronomy

major minor graduate

Overview

As an astronomy major, you’ll gain in-depth knowledge about the nature of the universe, with thorough preparation in physics and mathematics. Like nearly all majors, there are opportunities to engage in research projects in your junior and senior years — faculty and students have played major roles in space exploration, including a heavy involvement in NASA missions such as the Mars Rovers.

Details

Sanskrit Studies

minor

Overview

The Sanskrit Studies minor is intended for students who wish to broaden and deepen their competence in the Sanskrit language and traditional Indian religious, literary, and philosophical culture.

Details

Game Design

minor

Overview

With a minor in game design, you can pursue your interest in game design as an extension of your major studies and of your future academic and professional careers. The core of the minor is Intro to Computer Game Architecture, followed by either Advanced Computer Game Architecture or Analytics-driven Game Design, with four additional courses that can range from Graphics and Art, the Psychology of Gaming, to Human-Computer Interaction.

Details

Comparative Literature

major minor graduate

Overview

As a comparative literature major, you’ll gain a critical and historical perspective on world literature and cultures, with the choice of two tracks. If you want to emphasize literature in your course work, take the comparative literary studies track; if you’re interested in studying literature and theory by integrating rigorous work in film, video or other arts and media, take the literary, visual and media studies track. The major’s broad range of courses provides a critical and historical perspective on world literature and cultures.

Details

Biology & Society

major

Overview

The Biology & Society major is an interdisciplinary major that allows students to combine the study of the biological sciences with courses that explore the social and ethical aspects of modern biology. In addition to gaining a foundation in biology, students in the major acquire background in the social dimensions of modern biology and in the biological dimensions of contemporary social issues. The major is open to students in two colleges: Arts & Sciences and Agriculture and Life Sciences. The major is suitable for students seeking careers in law, medicine, public health, public policy, business, research and academia.

Details

East Asian Studies

minor

Overview

With a minor in Asian studies, you can focus on East Asia, South Asia or Southeast Asia. Your courses can include the study of language, literature, religion and culture in the Department of Asian Studies, as well as courses on Asian history, politics, anthropology, sociology and economics offered in other departments.

Details

Medieval Studies

minor

Overview

With a minor in medieval studies, you’ll enhance your enjoyment and understanding of the artistic and material relics of the Middle Ages. You can choose among a wide array of subjects spanning more than a thousand years of languages and cultures—from Old and Middle English literature to Byzantine monuments; from Icelandic sagas to Andalusian architecture; from Chinese intellectual history to Islamic legal history. You can explore how many of our current challenges in the fields of law, human rights, attitudes toward power, authority, gender relations and sexual mores derive from how such issues were formulated a millennium ago.

Details

Africana Studies

major minor graduate

Overview

As an Africana studies major, you’ll have the chance to explore the centrality of Africa and the African Diaspora to the modern world and previous eras in the fields of literature, history, philosophy, international relations, cultural studies, music, and the visual arts.

Details

Explore all the majors and minors

Beyond Majors & Minors

Two people sit facing each other — Michael Goldstein/Provided College Scholars Program students from the College of Arts & Sciences visit the Johnson Museum.

The pinnacle of the liberal arts experience

Robert S. Harrison College Scholar Program

Students design their own interdisciplinary major, organized around a question or issue of interest, and pursue a course of study that cannot be found in an established major. Harrison College Scholars explore subjects with a broader integration of related disciplines than most students would attempt.

More details about the College Scholar Program

woman outside courthouse — Jesse Winter Louise Wang outside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, where she worked this summer, in New York City.

A deep dive into the humanities

Humanities Scholars Program

This program offers a signature learning, research and collaboration opportunity for undergraduate students across the university who are interested in the humanities.

Learn more about the program

Shaping the future

Milstein Program

Students in the Milstein Program in Technology & Humanity combine Cornell’s renowned liberal arts and sciences classes in Ithaca with the 21st century tech curriculum at Cornell Tech in NYC.

See the Milstein Program at work

student in front of building — Amina Kilpatrick

Funding your summer experience

Summer Experience Grants

Summer opportunities are crucial to student career success, but these life-changing experiences frequently offer little to no funding. That’s a critical barrier for many of our students – and one that the College of Arts and Sciences feels is vital to overcome.

The Summer Experiences Grants (SEG) do just that. They support students with living expenses, transportation, and travel so that these essential experiences are available to all of our students, who may otherwise not be able to afford them.

Discover life-changing summer experiences

Research, scholarship and creative works to understand humanity and the cosmos

Curiosity is the driver for research in A&S. From the dendrochronology lab where archaeologists analyze tree-ring growth to understand climate change to the linguistics department where students created a new language for a Captain Marvel movie, our students and faculty take full advantage of all that our world-class research university encompasses.

With opportunities spanning the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, research here takes place in laboratories, museums, field sites, libraries, hospitals, greenhouses, performance spaces and archives.

Explore our research, scholarship and creative works

Person in blue lab coat, standing at a counter full of instruments and bottles — Chris Kitchen Alexa Easley is working to develop materials for low-energy carbon capture that are organic and easy to make on large scales and in realistic conditions.

Premier postdocs

Klarman Fellowships

This premier postdoctoral fellowship program offers opportunities for early-career scholars of outstanding talent, initiative and promise to devote themselves to frontline, innovative research without being tied to specific outcomes.

Learn more about the Klarman Fellowships.

two people working behind a computer — Chris Kitchen Students Sneah Singhi ’26, left, and David Behdad ’25 work in the observation room at the B.A.B.Y Lab, which studies infant language acquisition.

Undergraduate research opportunities

Nexus Scholars Program

The Nexus Scholars Program in the College of Arts & Sciences provides undergraduate students with summer opportunities to work side by side with faculty from all across the college (humanities, social sciences, and STEM) on their research projects.

Explore more details about Nexus Scholars

Engaging our community and our world

two women sitting on stage — Chris Kitchen Anderson, left, and Peraino, right traced the arc of Anderson's multi-decade career.

Open your mind

Arts Unplugged series

The College of Arts & Sciences’ Arts Unplugged series brings research and creative works into the public sphere for discussion and inspiration. These outreach events invite a broad audience to explore the work of scholars and faculty from all disciplines, all backgrounds and all time periods and to celebrate the impact that work continues to have on our daily lives.

Explore recent and upcoming Arts Unplugged events.

Person speaking at the front of a room — Noël Heaney/Cornell University Natalie Wolchover speaks March 15 in Lewis Auditorium.

Engagement for an informed society

Distinguished Visiting Journalist Program

The College of Arts & Sciences' Distinguished Visiting Journalist Program brings accomplished journalists to Cornell for extended visits. The program aims to recognize excellence in journalism and to provide opportunities for select journalists and the university community to engage with each other.

Learn more about the program.

Explore public engagement at A&S