Undergraduates

You are here

"...any person...any study."

As a student in the College of Arts & Sciences, you will live at the center of an academic community that is constantly generating new ideas. You will learn from excellent teachers who will challenge you to expand your imagination, while you sharpen your critical and creative responses to all encounters. And you will join a group of impressive, independent and diverse thinkers, who will help you forge your own path to discovery and transformation.

The College embodies Ezra Cornell's founding vision where "any person can find instruction in any study."

Our students are motivated, inspired and sincere. Always intellectually curious, their interests are often divergent. They are searching not only for a succcessful and meaningful career, but also for a life well lived.

If you have these qualities, you are likely to thrive here because you will live at the center of a world-class research university, where you will work collaboratively with faculty and other students to understand the toughest questions and take on the world's greatest challenges.

Apply Now

Top 3 reasons why students choose Cornell's College of Arts & Sciences:

1. Breadth of academic programs
2. Career prospects
3. Research opportunities

Our Distinctive Features

• Students from across the university take classes in Arts & Sciences, which means you are exposed to an uncommonly diverse student body with wildly varying perspectives that will enrich your learning in astounding ways.
• In addition to the 2,000 courses offered in Arts & Sciences, our students also enjoy access to nearly 2,000 additional courses in the six professional and applied colleges and schools at Cornell.
• Unlike other Ivies, all faculty in our College teach undergraduates. Our brightest minds also happen to be great teachers.
• When we say we collaborate, we mean it. A long established culture of interdisciplinary collaboration within the college creates endless opportunities to learn from faculty and peers.
• The oldest and largest college at Cornell, we are internationally renowned. Yet those who know us best – our students – describe us as intelligent and genuine, but quirky and humble. We are elite, but unpretentious.
• Our professors have a reputation for teaching in innovative ways that engage students to reach their fullest potential. Opportunities for study abroad, undergraduate research, and service learning are commonplace.

"Ithaca is Gorges"

(That's not a typo. It's our town motto.)

Cornell is located in beautiful Ithaca, New York, named to more top 10 lists than we can cite here. We're one of the: best college towns, most exciting college towns, healthiest counties, best art spots outside of New York City, best swimming spots, most livable cities, cities where you want to walk to work. And the list goes on ...

The most valuable aspect of my Arts & Sciences education was its breadth. Because I pursued a liberal arts degree while studying STEM majors, I have a much more well-rounded bacground than if I had obtained a purely technical degree. This is critical for a future career in research because I can draw on many different subject areas and ways of thinking to discover new ideas and approaches to my work.  - Mary Grace Hager '19

Have questions?

Please email us at as_admissions@cornell.edu.