Cornell University has released its 2026-2027 supplemental admissions essays for applicants to the Class of 2031. In previous years, Cornell asked applicants to respond to an essay of up to 350 words in length that essentially asked about their membership in distinct communities, but not this year. So what supplemental admissions essays will applicants to Cornell’s Class of 2031 be asked to write? Let’s dive in!

2026-2027 Cornell University Essay Topics and Questions

School-Specific Essay Prompts

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

CALS asks applicants to respond to a required essay of up to 500 words in length.

Required Essay Prompt

By applying to Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), you are also applying directly to one of our majors. From here, you would be part of a community dedicated to purpose-driven science; working within your major and across disciplines to tackle complex, real-world challenges.

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.

This is a straight-down-the-middle Why Major? prompt. 

After all, Cornell’s admissions committee wasn’t born yesterday. They, too, know that getting into certain schools at Cornell is easier than others. So if a student is genuinely interested in computer science yet is applying to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, simply writing they enjoy farming won’t pass the sniff test. They’re looking for students who understand the institutional specifics that set the pursuit of their major at Cornell apart. 

In this essay, applicants should avoid name-dropping professors at CALS who may or may not even be there next year or classes that may or may not even be offered next year and instead focus on the enduring aspects of the school within a school. Cornell’s admissions committee wants to see how applicants hope to leave a mark in agriculture and life sciences during their lifetime.

By thoroughly examining specific programs, resources, and opportunities within their major at CALS, applicants can show rather than tell why they wish to attend.

College of Architecture, Art, and Planning

Students have up to 650 words to respond to one of the following prompts, based on their intended major:

B.Arch Applicants:

Describe how your interests connect to architecture. Include an example of a creative project, design experience, or personal passion that sparked your interest in pursuing a 5-year professional degree in architecture. Reflect on how this experience shaped your understanding of the field and your motivation to study architecture.

BFA Applicants

Submit an artist statement describing your creative interests and practice. Address how your work reflects your artistic voice, influences, and process, and how studying art at Cornell AAP would support and expand your practice. (You will  also be prompted to upload a copy  to your Slideroom portal.)

URS Applicants

Describe your interest in urban and regional studies. Discuss experiences, ideas, or issues that have shaped your interest in cities, communities, and regional systems, and explain how URS at Cornell aligns with your academic and career goals.

In all three cases, this is a hybrid essay prompt, as Cornell’s admissions committee not only wants to know why applicants want to study architecture, art, and planning, but also wants to hear about a specific example that inspired their interest in the field. Of course, we always encourage our students at Ivy Coach to share such anecdotes when asked why they’re interested in a discipline, whether they’re asked to cite an example or not, since showing rather than telling is always the way to go.

And then the third component of this hybrid essay prompt is a Why College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. This component of an applicant’s answer should be filled with genuine specifics about the school within a school. And, no, name-dropping professors and regurgitating classes listed in a course catalog do not count. Applicants should aim to capture enduring aspects of the school within a school at Cornell.

College of Arts & Sciences

Students have up to 650 words to respond to the below essay prompt:

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)

It’s a Why School within a School prompt. Cornell wants to understand the origin story of your interest in studying your intended major or extracurricular passion (what we would term a “singular hook”) through a specific narrative, always as a high schooler rather than a child. And they also want to know why Cornell’s College of Arts & Sciences. The second part of this essay’s answer should be filled with specifics that only apply to Cornell’s College of Arts & Sciences. If a sentence can apply to another university, delete it.

Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy

Students have up to 650 words to respond to the below essay prompt:

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.

It’s a straight-up-the-middle hybrid essay prompt: Why Major and Why Brooks? Cornell wants to hear a narrative about a student’s interest in studying public policy. It could be through their coursework, their activities, or even their reading for pleasure. And then Cornell wants to hear that an applicant has done their homework on the Brooks School of Public Policy. As such, applicants should cite specifics about the school within a school at Cornell that do not apply to any other school at Cornell or any other university.

Cornell SC Johnson College of Business

Students have up to 650 words to respond to the below essay prompt:

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).

It’s a hybrid essay prompt: Why Business and Why SC Johnson? Applicants should share a story or stories about their interest in business, ideally as evidenced in their extracurricular pursuits listed in the activities section of their Common Applications.

And then, applicants should transition to demonstrating how they can best pursue their interests at SC Johnson. To do so, applicants should cite specifics about the school within a school at Cornell that don’t apply to any other undergraduate business school. And, no, name-dropping professors and listing classes do not count as genuine specifics. Instead, applicants should cite enduring specifics about the school within a school to show rather than tell why they wish to attend.

Duffield College of Engineering

College of Engineering applicants must write two long essay responses, each of up to 200 words in length, and four short answer responses of up to 100 words.

Long Essay Response 1

Fundamentally, engineering is the application of math, science, and technology to solve complex problems. Why do you want to study engineering?

It’s a Why Major question. Cornell’s admissions committee wants to understand why applicants are interested in pursuing an engineering degree. To address the question, it would be ideal for applicants to write about something they’ve been doing in engineering that has inspired their interest. They should then transition to how they hope to carry this interest forward over their college years.

Long Essay Response 2

Why do you think you would love to study at Duffield Engineering?

It’s a Why College (within a broader university) question. Applicants should focus on the curriculum design and the programs and institutes Cornell boasts that tackle research in engineering. And they’d be wise to avoid writing about classes. After all, Why College essays should not be approached like a game of Mad Libs where a student can insert a class name for one university and change it to another name for another university. It’s all about capturing the enduring specifics of the College of Engineering, and the specific engineering track a student intends to pursue.

Short Answer Response 1

What brings you joy?

Applicants would be wise to write about how engineering brings them joy. Duh! This prompt presents a fantastic opportunity for engineering applicants to showcase how they think and want to change the world in a specific way. Applicants, for instance, can pick a small problem in their local community that they encounter, and it need not be a sexy problem. Maybe it’s potholes. Whatever it is, applicants should showcase how they find joy in leveraging the power of engineering to make the problem better for locals.

Short Answer Response 2

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?

While the Supreme Court outlawed Affirmative Action, Cornell’s admissions committee still wishes to admit a diverse class. And diversity doesn’t only mean racial diversity. It also means diversity of faiths, geography, gender, sexual orientation, and thought. So the question is wide open for an applicant to showcase what life experience or perspective they’ll bring to the College of Engineering.

Short Answer Response 3

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.

This prompt is a straight-up-the-middle activity essay. Applicants should write about one of the most significant activities related to engineering that they’ve pursued in high school. It should be an activity that they have not addressed in the Personal Statement or any other Cornell supplemental essay.

Short Answer Response 4

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.

Applicants will ideally choose an award related to engineering. Ideally, the award will be a reflection of how a student contributed to their community through the power of engineering (the gold standard answer, of course, would be William Kamkwamba’s narrative in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope).

College of Human Ecology

Students have up to 600 words to respond to the essay prompt below. Students are also asked to check out these essay application tips before beginning.

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?

This is one of the only prompts that changed from last year across all of Cornell’s colleges. When navigating your response to this question, be sure to pick an activity that shows how you’ve already started doing work you intend to continue doing at CHE. Hopefully, this activity involves addressing a complex issue in the field of human ecology that will serve to teach your application reader something they don’t already know! 

That’s the first part of this question. The second part requires you to write about the CHE specifics that have drawn you to the program in the first place! Note that by specifics we do not mean specific courses or professors. Instead, we encourage our students to capture the enduring institutional specifics of the program, including its culture, traditions, activities, and research opportunities.

School of Industrial and Labor Relations

Students have up to 650 words to respond to the below essay prompt:

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.

It’s a hybrid essay prompt: Why Labor Relations and Why ILR? Students should thus begin by writing a narrative that details their interest in studying labor relations, always as a high schooler rather than as a child, which is ideally evidenced in their activities listed in The Common Application.

Applicants should then transition to the Why ILR component of the prompt. And, no, citing that ILR is the most prestigious school to study labor relations sure doesn’t count. Students need to detail specific after specific about ILR, without stooping to naming professors or listing classes, that do not apply to another university.

Cornell Removes University-Wide Essay Prompts for All Applicants

The Cornell application is a little shorter this year than in previous years. The Ivy League school has completely nixed a 350-word essay prompt previously addressed to all applicants that asked students to write about the communities they are a part of and to reflect on how these communities have shaped them. Removing this prompt likely comes as a concession to the Trump Administration’s anti-DEI initiative, as it gives applicants one less opportunity to express how difference and diversity have shaped their lives and academic trajectories. As such, it’s one less chance for underrepresented minorities to take advantage of the Roberts Loophole, which is an exception carved out from the Supreme Court’s ruling on Affirmative Action that allows supplemental essay material discussing race to be weighed in the admissions process.

While applicants are still going to encounter supplemental essays in one form or another depending on the school within Cornell to which they apply, this move to remove the university-wide prompt also serves to streamline the application process, cutting down on the time it takes to complete it and thus encouraging more students to apply. While Cornell admissions officials would never outright say that they were seeking to drive up applications (and thus drive down acceptance rates) with this move, that’s certainly one of the reasons.

No matter the reason, we at Ivy Coach think it’s a shame that Cornell has deprived its applicants of a tool they should be able to use to articulate how diversity and difference have shaped who they are. 

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