Cornell’s most recently published acceptance rate, an 8.4% mark for the Class of 2028, was just a touch higher than the prior year’s 7.3%. The university has not released figures for the classes that followed. However, as late as 2003, the school still had as high as a 31% acceptance rate. Clearly, getting into Cornell in 2026-27 is a vastly different enterprise than earlier in the millennium. Even if you earned a 1500 on the SAT and maintained straight A’s throughout a high school career littered with AP and honors courses, you still need to find a way to distinguish yourself from other high school superstars. Fortunately, Cornell’s supplemental essays present applicants with just the opportunity they need to showcase their unique personality, writing ability, passions, and talents.
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Three things that changed at Cornell this year
Before we get to the prompts, three developments that reshape how you approach this application:
First, the university-wide community essay is gone. For the past several cycles, every applicant wrote a 350-word response about a community that shaped them. Cornell has eliminated that question for 2026-27. Your entire supplement is now the essay or essays required by the single college or school you apply to. Cornell is one of several selective universities trimming supplements this cycle, and the practical consequence is the same everywhere: with fewer writing samples in the file, each remaining one carries more weight, and your Common App personal statement does more work than it used to.
Second, the SAT or ACT is now required. Cornell states plainly that you must submit scores when applying. The test-optional era at Cornell is over, so build your testing calendar accordingly.
Third, the College of Engineering has been renamed the Cornell David A. Duffield College of Engineering. The prompts are largely unchanged, but the name now appears inside one of them, so be sure your essay reflects the current name rather than what you may have seen in an older guide.
Below, we examine the Cornell supplemental essays for the 2026-27 admissions cycle, college by college. Remember: you apply to one college at Cornell, and you answer only that college’s prompt or prompts.
Cornell Supplemental Essays 2026-27
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
CALS has replaced its single 500-word prompt with two 350-word questions. That is a meaningful structural change, because the old essay let you blur your reasons for the major and your reasons for the college into one narrative. Now they are graded separately.
Question #1: What interests you about the major you selected? Tell us about experiences (both in and outside of the classroom), questions, and goals that influenced your choice. (350-word limit)
There are 20+ undergraduate majors within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the content of this essay is going to be quite different for a prospective American Indian and Indigenous Studies major versus someone looking to study biological engineering. Discuss your motivations and past experiences related to your major of choice. How have you engaged with the subject, formally and informally? What drives you to pursue this course of study in college? Because you apply directly to a major at CALS and begin in it immediately, this essay carries real weight.
Question #2: What draws you to Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS)? Reflect on the learning, community, or impact opportunities that matter most to you, and share how they align with Cornell CALS as you currently understand it. (350-word limit)
Here you’ll need to lay out your academic and career goals and provide explicit evidence of why CALS is the ideal place to help you achieve them. Research the professors, courses, study abroad programs, undergraduate research opportunities, and student-run organizations relevant to your major of choice. Note the closing phrase, “as you currently understand it.” That is CALS granting you permission to write as a seventeen-year-old rather than as someone pretending to have already mapped four years. Take the permission, but do not mistake it for license to be vague.
College of Architecture, Art, and Planning
AAP now presents the prompt in three major-specific versions rather than one long paragraph covering all three. The substance is the same, but you only see and answer the version for your intended major. (650-word limit)
B.Arch applicants: How do your interests directly connect with your intended major at the College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP)? 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: How do your interests directly connect with your intended major at AAP? 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 applicants: How do your interests directly connect with your intended major at AAP? URS students, you may want to emphasize your enthusiasm and depth of interest in the study of urban and regional issues.
Firstly, discuss your motivations and past experiences related to your major of choice. How have you engaged with the subject, formally and informally? What drives you to pursue this course of study in college? Moreover, you’ll need to clearly lay out your academic and career goals, providing explicit evidence of why Cornell AAP is the ideal place to help you achieve them. For instance, this may involve researching the professors, courses, study abroad programs, undergraduate research opportunities, and student-run organizations relevant to your major of choice. Note that the prompt provides specific guidance depending on your prospective major, so be sure to integrate that guidance into your essay. Architecture and Fine Arts applicants also submit a portfolio, and those deadlines are hard: November 1 for Early Decision, January 2 for Regular Decision.
College of Arts and Sciences
This prompt has been rewritten. If you drafted from last year’s version, start over.
At the College of Arts and Sciences, your education is yours to shape. Describe an intellectual passion, question, or idea that has captured your attention, whether it emerges from your studies or extends beyond your coursework. What specific aspects of our liberal arts curriculum would you draw on to explore and connect your varied interests? (650-word limit)
The old version asked broadly how your passion for learning is shaping your academic journey. This one asks for a single passion, question, or idea, and then asks what specific curricular features you would use to pursue it. The narrowing matters. An essay that surveys three or four interests will read as evasive against a prompt that asked for one.
With more than 40 majors across the humanities, sciences, and social sciences, A&S offers myriad opportunities. Cornell wants evidence of your drive, passion, and intellectual ambition, plus specific plans for staying academically engaged in college. Great things to highlight here include:
- Departmental offerings, curriculum attributes, and specific courses in your discipline(s) of interest at Cornell.
- Undergraduate research opportunities in the summer or during the school year, including independent research you would like to conduct under faculty supervision.
- Cornell professors whose work, research, or writings you find fascinating and how you might want to connect with them as an undergraduate.
- Academically focused student organizations at Cornell.
Pay attention to the word “connect” in the final sentence. A&S is asking how the curriculum would let you link interests that do not obviously belong together, which is an invitation to write about the seam between two fields rather than the middle of one.
Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
What kind of 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 (the Dyson School or the Nolan School). (650-word limit)
To stand out as an applicant to Dyson or the Nolan School of Hotel Administration, applicants need to show that they have availed themselves of every opportunity to dive into the business world during their high school years. Of course, not everyone has parents who hand them money to invest in the stock market or hook them up with a Goldman Sachs internship in ninth grade. Relevant experiences can include high school investing clubs, participation in activities like FBLA, summer programs or courses in business, finance, or economics, running your own local small business or e-business (Etsy, landscaping, and so on), or just a regular old retail job.
From there, and as a result of your experiences, what topics or issues are you interested in? How do you plan to explore those issues at Cornell? You might consider citing departmental or curricular attributes, specific courses, research opportunities, and experiential learning opportunities, among others. One logistical note: SC Johnson applicants must also submit a resume as part of the application, which means your essay should not simply narrate the resume back.
Cornell David A. Duffield College of Engineering
All engineering applicants are required to write two long essays and four short essays. With the university-wide essay eliminated, Duffield applicants now write six responses where they previously wrote seven.
Long essay responses (200-word limit each)
Question 1: Fundamentally, engineering is the application of math, science, and technology to solve complex problems. Why do you want to study engineering?
Here, Cornell wants to understand your motivation for studying engineering. Where did this desire originate? How has it grown, changed, and flourished over the years? What specific experiences have you had, academic or extracurricular, that made you realize that engineering was the career path for you?
Question 2: Why do you think you would love to study at Duffield Engineering?
For the “Why Duffield Engineering?” prompt, refer to our recommendation above for the College of Arts and Sciences essay. Do your homework. Tell Cornell about the departments, courses, professors, facilities, research opportunities, and unique programs that make their engineering college your top choice. Since you don’t have a ton of space, consider focusing on two or three things that you are most excited about rather than trying to squeeze in a laundry list of offerings.
Short answer responses (100-word limit each)
- What brings you joy?
- What do you believe you will contribute to the Duffield Engineering community beyond what you’ve already detailed in your application? What unique voice will you bring?
- 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.
- 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.
Treat these four as a set rather than four unrelated questions. Six responses read consecutively by the same person will feel repetitive if the same activity anchors three of them. Also note that Duffield requires one of your two teacher recommendations to come from a math, science, or computer science teacher.
College of Human Ecology
The College of Human Ecology prepares students to respond to human needs through an education organized around the interconnected issues that profoundly affect individuals, communities, and the institutions that shape our lives. Think about an extracurricular/community engagement/work experience that most closely connects you to the CHE mission and your intended choice of major. Tell us what that experience taught you about your broader community and its needs, and the impact you can make. How will your intended CHE major help you make that impact? (600-word limit)
CHE has rewritten this prompt, and the change is worth noticing. Last year’s version asked you to identify a challenge and explain how a CHE education would help you address it, which invited an abstract answer. This version anchors the essay in a specific experience you have actually had, then works outward to the community, the impact, and the major. The order is prescribed. Follow it.
The direction of your essay will be guided by your choice of major within the College of Human Ecology. The content will look substantively different for a Fashion Design major versus a Nutritional Sciences applicant. Regardless of your area of study, be sure to cite specific CHE offerings like courses, professors, research initiatives, student organizations, and special programs. Design and Environmental Analysis, Fashion Design, and Fashion Design Management applicants also submit a design supplement, with the same hard November 1 and January 2 deadlines.
School of Industrial and Labor Relations
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)
Labor relations is not exactly the most common topic for a 17-year-old to fall in love with. Therefore, there is probably a pretty interesting story behind your desire to pursue the ILR path. Given that this major sits at the intersection of business, economics, government, history, law, and public policy, your interest in Cornell’s ILR program may have been sparked by traditional classroom learning. Or, on the other hand, perhaps the spark was the experience of a friend or relative. Perhaps it was even something you have been following in the news.
Above all, let your passion and commitment to this field shine through in your composition. Finally, be sure to cite ILR offerings that will allow you to pursue your interests even more deeply, such as the curriculum structure, research opportunities, internships, or student organizations. ILR says explicitly that no activity or club matters more than others, since every experience requires you to work with people. What matters is how your experiences taught you why ILR topics matter.
Brooks School of Public Policy
Discuss your interest in pursuing a major in policy at the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy and what draws you to this field of study. You are encouraged to consider including details related to your personal experiences, values, academic influences, or extracurricular activities that have shaped your perspective and future goals. (650-word limit)
At Brooks, you can pursue one of two majors: Public Policy or Health Care Policy. Communicate why you’re interested in your major of choice. What related experiences have you had? How have you explored your interests and curiosities inside and outside the classroom? Most importantly, how do you hope to continue pursuing them as an undergraduate? Great things to highlight here include departmental offerings, specific courses, research opportunities, faculty members, student life, and experiential learning opportunities of interest.
DC Start applicants only: Please describe why you are interested in being considered for the Brooks School DC Start program. (350-word limit)
DC Start is a first-semester residential program in Washington, D.C. for incoming public policy and health care policy majors, combining Brooks coursework with a policy project alongside a community partner. If you want to be considered, you must indicate that interest on your Common Application and write this additional essay. Keep it about the program specifically. An essay that would work equally well as a general “why policy” response wastes the opportunity.
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