Office of the Provost
Maintaining and enhancing the university's excellence in teaching, research, scholarship and outreach.
Cornell undergraduate Nathan Cady is working on a biosensor to detect bacterial cells that cause food spoilage.
Colleges, Schools, and Faculties
Cornell University is both a private endowed university and the federal land-grant institution of New York State. Each of the fourteen colleges and schools listed below defines its own academic programs; admits its own students; provides a faculty, and advising and support for its students; and confers degrees on its own students, although all degrees are attributed to Cornell University. Special transcollege faculty units (see "The Faculty of Computing and Information Science" below) draw on faculty members from throughout the university to serve designated needs and accomplish specific missions.
Undergraduate Colleges and Schools
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences*
The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) is the second-largest undergraduate college at Cornell University and the third-largest college of its kind in the United States. It has been ranked in national surveys as the best college of agriculture and related sciences in the country.
College of Architecture, Art, and Planning
The College of Architecture, Art, and Planning has a distinguished tradition in architectural design, history, and theory; urban and regional policy and planning; and professional training in fine and visual arts.
College of Arts and Sciences
The College of Arts and Sciences is Cornell's largest undergraduate college. It provides a high-quality liberal arts education to its own students, and its courses are also accessible to all other students at Cornell. The college's faculty includes national and international leaders in their respective disciplines.
College of Engineering
The Cornell College of Engineering excels in innovative teaching and research, in developing practical applications and approaches to problems and areas of study, and in preparing professionals and leaders who will have worldwide influence on technologies and societies.
School of Hotel Administration
The Cornell School of Hotel Administration's large group of scholars, researchers, and technical staff members, and its service-oriented undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree programs, are helping to shape the global knowledge base for every aspect of hospitality management.
College of Human Ecology*
From science and health to policy and design, the College of Human Ecology offers a unique, world class education focused on challenges and opportunities in the real world and an exploration of the human condition. Pioneering research, leadership development, and community outreach are cornerstones of the Human Ecology education and experience.
School of Industrial and Labor Relations*
Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR School) was the nation's first institution of higher education to offer a four-year undergraduate program in the field of ILR. The current primary focus of the ILR School's undergraduate and graduate degree programs and research and outreach activities is on the centrality of workplace issues in an increasingly complex world.
* New York State contract unit
Special-Mission Faculty Units
The Faculty of Computing and Information Science
This college-level interdisciplinary unit uses a core group of faculty members with relevant expertise from throughout the university to integrate computing and information science into every aspect of Cornell’s undergraduate-education, research, and scholarly programs and activities. Recognizing that computing and information science has emerged worldwide as an indispensable enabling discipline, this unit is also charged with ensuring that Cornell remains at the forefront in developing and advancing computer science and applying it to meet societies’ needs.
Graduate and Professional Colleges and Schools
Graduate School
Cornell's Graduate School is organized into more than 90 major fields of graduate study, independent of traditional college and department divisions, to which graduate students are admitted and which confer doctoral and master's research and professional degrees under the guidance of individual Special Committees of faculty members or a field advisor.
Cornell Law School
Cornell Law School faculty members devote themselves to teaching and contributing to the intellectual life of the law, to the classroom rather than the courtroom, and to developing broad-minded and technically sophisticated future lawyers and leaders. The small size of the school creates a strong spirit of camaraderie and community.
Johnson Graduate School of Management
The Johnson Graduate School of Management has three core distinctions: its direct connections to the vast research, teaching, and alumni resources of Cornell -- the largest and most comprehensive Ivy League university; the school's intense, collaborative community -- a plus of its deliberately small size; and its performance-learning approach that yields understanding while demanding results.
Weill Cornell Medical College (New York City)
Weill Cornell Medical College's close affiliations with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Rockefeller University make it an integral part of a world-renowned center of academic medicine and biomedical research, uniquely positioned to train outstanding physicians and medical scientists.
Weill Cornell Medical College (Doha, Qatar)
The Doha, Qatar, branch of Weill Cornell Medical College is the first American medical school ever set up overseas. It is funded by the Qatar government through the Qatar Foundation, operated by Cornell, and began its full Cornell M.D. degree program in September 2004. It also provides a preparatory two-year pre-medical program.
Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences (New York City)
Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences' seven carefully designed, research-oriented Ph.D. graduate programs provide superb training for those interested in biomedical sciences and in the scientific method of conducting investigative research. The professional staffs of Weill Cornell Medical College and of the Sloan-Kettering Institute form the core faculty of the Graduate School of Medical Sciences.
College of Veterinary Medicine*
The College of Veterinary Medicine endorses the concept of one biology in advancing the understanding of animal and human health at the interface of discovery and application. With access to Cornell's world-class resources and recognized strengths in the physical and life sciences, the college fosters open collaboration across disciplines and institutional boundaries, to deliver the greatest possible benefits to society.
* New York State contract unit
Continuing Education
School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions
The School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions provides year-round learning opportunities for enrolled college students; high school students; Cornell faculty and staff members; executives and other professionals; Cornell alumni, parents, and friends; and local residents. The school draws on all of Cornell's academic units and vast educational resources, and on visiting scholars and leaders in industry, government, and other professions. Admission and enrollment are independent of undergraduate and graduate admissions procedures.