Jul 28, 2026
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By Justin Neiman, Former Ivy League Admissions Officer
Cornell has officially released its first-year writing supplement prompts for students applying for Fall 2027 entry. For the 2026–2027 application cycle, there is no university-wide Cornell essay. Instead, applicants respond only to the prompt or prompts assigned to the undergraduate college or school they select.
That change makes the school-specific supplement especially important. Cornell is not simply asking why you want to attend the university; it is asking why your interests, experiences, and goals fit the particular academic community to which you are applying.
Applicants should respond to the prompt that corresponds to their selected undergraduate college or school. Cornell Engineering applicants complete six responses: two 200-word essays and four 100-word short answers.
500-word limit
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.
650-word limit
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
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
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
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).
All engineering applicants are required to write two long essays and four short answers.
Long Essay 1 — 200-word limit
Fundamentally, engineering is the application of math, science, and technology to solve complex problems. Why do you want to study engineering?
Long Essay 2 — 200-word limit
Why do you think you would love to study at Cornell Engineering?
Short Answer 1 — 100-word limit
What brings you joy?
Short Answer 2 — 100-word limit
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?
Short Answer 3 — 100-word limit
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.
Short Answer 4 — 100-word limit
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.
600-word limit
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.
650-word limit
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.
Cornell’s supplements are designed to assess academic fit at the college or school level. The strongest responses show a clear connection between what a student has already explored, what they now want to understand, and how Cornell’s specific program will help them continue that development.
Cornell is unusual among highly selective universities because applicants do not apply only to Cornell as a whole. They apply to a specific undergraduate college or school, and the writing supplement changes accordingly.
Your essay should therefore demonstrate more than general enthusiasm for Cornell. It should show that you understand the academic structure, priorities, and opportunities of the particular college or school you selected. A response that could be sent unchanged to several Cornell colleges will usually feel under-researched.
Before writing, study the curriculum, major requirements, concentrations, faculty, research centers, and experiential opportunities connected to your intended program. Use that research selectively. The goal is not to list everything Cornell offers, but to identify the opportunities that genuinely connect with the interests you have already developed.
Most Cornell prompts ask some version of two connected questions: Why this field, and why this field at Cornell? Strong responses address both.
Begin with the intellectual questions, problems, or experiences that draw you to the subject. Then show how your interest has developed through classes, projects, research, work, reading, community involvement, or independent exploration. Admissions officers should be able to see that your intended direction grows naturally from what you have already pursued.
Naming a professor, course, laboratory, student organization, or program can demonstrate genuine research, but specificity alone does not make an essay strong. Every Cornell reference should serve a purpose.
Instead of listing several resources, choose a small number and explain what you hope to investigate, build, test, or contribute through them. The reader should understand not only that an opportunity exists, but why it matters to you.
Cornell already has your activities list. The supplement should add interpretation rather than repeat descriptions of your accomplishments.
When you discuss a class, project, job, family responsibility, or research experience, explain what it changed in your thinking. What question did it raise? What did you begin to notice? How did it influence the problems you now want to study? Reflection helps admissions officers understand the person behind the activity.
Your Cornell supplement will be read alongside your personal statement, activities, recommendations, academic record, and other application materials. These pieces should reinforce one another without repeating the same story.
A cohesive application does not reduce you to one interest. It helps the reader recognize a clear intellectual and personal direction across different parts of your life. Use the Cornell essay to deepen that direction while revealing information that is not already obvious elsewhere.
Longer word limits can tempt students to spend too much space setting up a story. Make sure the response reaches the central question early and remains focused on it.
This is especially important for prompts that explicitly ask both why you chose a field and why you chose Cornell. A beautifully written account of discovering your interest will still feel incomplete if it never explains why Cornell’s specific program is the right next environment.
Cornell Engineering’s six-response supplement requires a different strategy from the single longer essays used by most of Cornell’s other undergraduate colleges.
The first long essay asks why you want to study engineering. Focus on the problems, questions, or experiences that led you toward the field. The second asks why you would love studying at Cornell Engineering. Use that space to connect your interests to Cornell’s curriculum, culture, resources, and approach. If the two essays repeat each other, you lose an opportunity to add depth.
Cornell Engineering is not asking only whether you have strong STEM credentials. It is trying to understand what kinds of problems attract you, how you approach them, and what you may contribute to a collaborative engineering community. Specific intellectual questions and thoughtful reflection are often more memorable than another list of competitions or technical skills.
Across Cornell’s different prompts, several qualities appear consistently: genuine academic interest, thoughtful reflection, evidence of fit with the selected college, and a clear sense of direction.
Admissions officers are not looking for a catalog of Cornell resources or a résumé rewritten in paragraph form. They are trying to determine whether your interests are substantial, whether your experiences have prepared you to pursue them further, and whether you understand why your chosen Cornell college is the right environment for that next step.
The most effective essays make the relationship between student and institution feel specific. They show not only what Cornell could provide, but what the student would bring to the classroom, laboratory, studio, project team, or broader community.
Cornell’s 2026–2027 writing supplement places even greater emphasis on the applicant’s chosen undergraduate college or school. With no university-wide essay, your response must do the work of showing both academic motivation and institutional fit.
The strongest Cornell essays connect past experiences, present interests, and future possibilities. They are specific without becoming lists, reflective without becoming abstract, and tailored to Cornell without losing the student’s natural voice.
Selective Admissions provides personalized application strategy and essay guidance for students applying to Cornell and other highly selective universities. Contact Selective Admissions to learn more.
Cornell has officially released its first-year writing supplement prompts for students applying for Fall 2027 entry. For the 2026–2027 application cycle, there is no university-wide Cornell essay. Instead, applicants respond only to the prompt or prompts assigned to the undergraduate college or school they select.
That change makes the school-specific supplement especially important. Cornell is not simply asking why you want to attend the university; it is asking why your interests, experiences, and goals fit the particular academic community to which you are applying.
Applicants should respond to the prompt that corresponds to their selected undergraduate college or school. Cornell Engineering applicants complete six responses: two 200-word essays and four 100-word short answers.
500-word limit
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.
650-word limit
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
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
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
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).
All engineering applicants are required to write two long essays and four short answers.
Long Essay 1 — 200-word limit
Fundamentally, engineering is the application of math, science, and technology to solve complex problems. Why do you want to study engineering?
Long Essay 2 — 200-word limit
Why do you think you would love to study at Cornell Engineering?
Short Answer 1 — 100-word limit
What brings you joy?
Short Answer 2 — 100-word limit
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?
Short Answer 3 — 100-word limit
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.
Short Answer 4 — 100-word limit
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.
600-word limit
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.
650-word limit
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.
Cornell’s supplements are designed to assess academic fit at the college or school level. The strongest responses show a clear connection between what a student has already explored, what they now want to understand, and how Cornell’s specific program will help them continue that development.
Cornell is unusual among highly selective universities because applicants do not apply only to Cornell as a whole. They apply to a specific undergraduate college or school, and the writing supplement changes accordingly.
Your essay should therefore demonstrate more than general enthusiasm for Cornell. It should show that you understand the academic structure, priorities, and opportunities of the particular college or school you selected. A response that could be sent unchanged to several Cornell colleges will usually feel under-researched.
Before writing, study the curriculum, major requirements, concentrations, faculty, research centers, and experiential opportunities connected to your intended program. Use that research selectively. The goal is not to list everything Cornell offers, but to identify the opportunities that genuinely connect with the interests you have already developed.
Most Cornell prompts ask some version of two connected questions: Why this field, and why this field at Cornell? Strong responses address both.
Begin with the intellectual questions, problems, or experiences that draw you to the subject. Then show how your interest has developed through classes, projects, research, work, reading, community involvement, or independent exploration. Admissions officers should be able to see that your intended direction grows naturally from what you have already pursued.
Naming a professor, course, laboratory, student organization, or program can demonstrate genuine research, but specificity alone does not make an essay strong. Every Cornell reference should serve a purpose.
Instead of listing several resources, choose a small number and explain what you hope to investigate, build, test, or contribute through them. The reader should understand not only that an opportunity exists, but why it matters to you.
Cornell already has your activities list. The supplement should add interpretation rather than repeat descriptions of your accomplishments.
When you discuss a class, project, job, family responsibility, or research experience, explain what it changed in your thinking. What question did it raise? What did you begin to notice? How did it influence the problems you now want to study? Reflection helps admissions officers understand the person behind the activity.
Your Cornell supplement will be read alongside your personal statement, activities, recommendations, academic record, and other application materials. These pieces should reinforce one another without repeating the same story.
A cohesive application does not reduce you to one interest. It helps the reader recognize a clear intellectual and personal direction across different parts of your life. Use the Cornell essay to deepen that direction while revealing information that is not already obvious elsewhere.
Longer word limits can tempt students to spend too much space setting up a story. Make sure the response reaches the central question early and remains focused on it.
This is especially important for prompts that explicitly ask both why you chose a field and why you chose Cornell. A beautifully written account of discovering your interest will still feel incomplete if it never explains why Cornell’s specific program is the right next environment.
Cornell Engineering’s six-response supplement requires a different strategy from the single longer essays used by most of Cornell’s other undergraduate colleges.
The first long essay asks why you want to study engineering. Focus on the problems, questions, or experiences that led you toward the field. The second asks why you would love studying at Cornell Engineering. Use that space to connect your interests to Cornell’s curriculum, culture, resources, and approach. If the two essays repeat each other, you lose an opportunity to add depth.
Cornell Engineering is not asking only whether you have strong STEM credentials. It is trying to understand what kinds of problems attract you, how you approach them, and what you may contribute to a collaborative engineering community. Specific intellectual questions and thoughtful reflection are often more memorable than another list of competitions or technical skills.
Across Cornell’s different prompts, several qualities appear consistently: genuine academic interest, thoughtful reflection, evidence of fit with the selected college, and a clear sense of direction.
Admissions officers are not looking for a catalog of Cornell resources or a résumé rewritten in paragraph form. They are trying to determine whether your interests are substantial, whether your experiences have prepared you to pursue them further, and whether you understand why your chosen Cornell college is the right environment for that next step.
The most effective essays make the relationship between student and institution feel specific. They show not only what Cornell could provide, but what the student would bring to the classroom, laboratory, studio, project team, or broader community.
Cornell’s 2026–2027 writing supplement places even greater emphasis on the applicant’s chosen undergraduate college or school. With no university-wide essay, your response must do the work of showing both academic motivation and institutional fit.
The strongest Cornell essays connect past experiences, present interests, and future possibilities. They are specific without becoming lists, reflective without becoming abstract, and tailored to Cornell without losing the student’s natural voice.
Selective Admissions provides personalized application strategy and essay guidance for students applying to Cornell and other highly selective universities. Contact Selective Admissions to learn more.
Former Admissions Officer, Harvard University
Former Assistant Dean, Stanford University
I’m a college admissions counselor and the founder of Selective Admissions. I help students navigate the college application process and position themselves as competitive applicants to top universities.
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