Tag: Cornell Application

How to Write a Successful Cornell University Essay for 2020-2021

How to Write a Successful Cornell University Essay for 2020-2021

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Ivy League Breaking News: Cornell’s 2021 Application essays are up and ready to write as of June, 2020. To write a successful Cornell University application essay in 2020-2021, you need to show that you know your area of interest at Cornell. Here’s how.

The Cornell University application essay is particularly demanding in its focus on your knowledge of yourself and even more on your knowledge of an area of interest–or two areas–at Cornell. As a result, to write a successful Cornell University essay, you need to learn how to do research on the university, and on the department(s) involved in your chosen area of study, going into as much detail as you can manage. This is not a true research essay, of course–no MLA citations, please– but it does blend you and your background with what you want to do at Cornell–and why you want to go to Cornell.

I will give you a quick example of the outcome of this kind of research in an essay excerpt in a moment, but first let’s take a look at the prompts themselves:

Cornell University Application Essay Prompts for 2020-2021

REQUIREMENTS: In the online Common Application Writing Supplement, please respond to the essay question below (maximum of 650 words) that corresponds to the undergraduate college or school to which you are applying.

College Interest Essays for Fall 2021 Applicants

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences: Why are you drawn to studying the major you have selected? Please discuss how your interests and related experiences have influenced your choice. Specifically, how will an education from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and Cornell University help you achieve your academic goals?

College of Architecture, Art, and Planning: What is your “thing”? What energizes you or engages you so deeply that you lose track of time? Everyone has different passions, obsessions, quirks, inspirations. What are yours?

College of Arts and Sciences: Students in Arts and Sciences embrace the opportunity to delve into multifaceted academic interests, embodying in 21st century terms Ezra Cornell’s “any person…any study” founding vision. Tell us about the areas of study you are excited to explore, and specifically why you wish to pursue them in our College.

Cornell SC Johnson College of Business: What kind of a business student are you? The Cornell SC Johnson College of Business offers two distinct business programs, the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and the School of Hotel Administration. Please describe how your interests and ambitions can be met through one or both of the Schools within the College.

College of Engineering: Tell us about what excites you most about Cornell Engineering and/or studying engineering at Cornell University. How do you see yourself becoming a part of the Cornell Engineering community?

College of Human Ecology: How has your decision to apply to the College of Human Ecology been influenced by your related experiences? How will your choice of major impact your goals and plans for the future?

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.

To Start the Cornell University Essay: Demonstrate Interest through Research, Research, Research

Why research? Well, aside from having a better essay, you will also create what is commonly called “Demonstrated Interest.” Colleges like Cornell field tens of thousands of applications, and they look for those applicants who show evidence of real knowledge and commitment to the university–that is, demonstrated interest. Before we get to my example, you might need to learn a bit about college majors (or concentrations) and the way universities are broken up into schools as well as majors–for information on that, click to see my post exploring schools and majors, from a few years back–after you click, scroll past the intro section until you get to the subheading Majors and Colleges, where I explain the way things are organized, focusing on Cornell, specifically.

Now take a look at an example of doing specific research for an academic focus at Cornell.

An Example of Researching a University for the “What’s Your Major” or “What Makes You a Good Fit” Essay Like the Cornell Supplemental Essay

So let’s start with an excerpt of an essay body paragraph from an application essay for Cornell University that I edited, with some specific references in bold print that were added. These bold-font concrete details were put in place by the author after my suggestion that this writer research more specific evidence and information at Cornell-I explained how she could click down through the layers in her specific school and into research units and professors. She found two specific researchers at Cornelll working in her areas of interest:

I hope to  interact with professors who have a passion for research and chemistry, such as Geoffrey Coates, whose research on catalysts includes new, biodegradable polymers that might be used in biomedical devices—bringing my interests in surgery and chemistry together. I am also fascinatd by the work of Peng Chen, who has been applying single-molecule microscopy in a variety of innovative ways, with applications that may range from  solar power to medicine, the kind of thing that makes me wonder about powering medical implants with solar technology–like, a solar shirt that recharges a heart implant. As I research my options at Cornell . . . . my mind is on fire with ideas.

Keep in mind that concrete evidence is better than broad proclamations in most kinds of writing, and in an application essay, concrete details like those above show a fine-grained knowledge that also suggests your true commitment to Cornell, and thus boost your application’s chances.

This excerpt is still in rough draft form, but you can already see how this writer is trying to cite specific detail on the school and drop some names, to show a deep understanding as well as commitment.

Some Thoughts on Essay Content and Structure

This section of the essay I excerpt above followed the introductory section of the essay. The essay introduction started with a nice hook, after which the author reviewed her own life and interests, and how in a second paragraph, explained how those interests developed and grew. In the excerpt above, from paragraph three, she pivoted to specific things going on at Cornell University that connect with her story and her academic interests. 

If you use this kind of approach, the app reader learns a bit more about you in general, but you also provide some bona fides by showing that you know a lot about the school–or at least that you have specifics on why you want to go there.

The result: talk about your Demonstrated Interest. That rough draft, above, became a final draft that helped this particular student get admitted to Cornell university–after that research, and several more drafts, to refine her focus.    To see one of the sources this author used in her essay, click to see what Geoffrey Coates is up to, here:  Coates Research. 

In this kind of research, persistence pays off. For example, for her references to Peng Chen, you would have to find his main page, here–Chen Research–do some reading, and click through two more layers to find out how his work relates to solar energy, here:  Chen Solar.  It’s the kind of reading and clicking that gets you to these details that will convince your app reader that you are serious about their school.

Yes, all of this may be just to name-drop twice in a single paragraph in a single application essay.  But in an application game that is all about nuance and margins, paying attention to the details makes a lot of the difference. 

It’s a lot of work, yes. But through this kind of process, many of my clients stumble upon the specific area of interest that they will puruse in college, and some find their mission in life as they did this kind of research.

Contact Me for an Essay Coaching and Editing Package

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Scoop! The Cornell University Application Essay Prompts for 2015-2016

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If you’ve been waiting to start the Cornell essays, wait no more.  They’re Baaack.

Like many schools,  Cornell has posted a form with the prompts for this year ahead of the official unveiling when the Common App goes live on August 1st.  The “2016” application has been posted for those who will use a paper application with the Universal App.  The essay prompts are the same no matter what format you use, paper or eletronic, Common Application or Universal Application, so you can start writing now.

And the news for this year’s Cornell prompts is good:  only one important change has been made, and that change eases confusion and lessens the pressure on you to write a Swiss-army knife of an essay.  I will post the prompts in full, below my brief explanation here:

Alternate College Option is Gone

The big change for Cornell in 2015-2016 is this:  as I reported earlier this year, Cornell is dropping the alternate college designation on their applications.  Cornell used to offer applicants the option to write one supplemental essay, but to aim it at a primary college and a second, alternate college option.  So in the past you could choose the alternate option and then you wrote an essay for your dream college that was also supposed to work for another college, just in case.  Thus the Swiss-army knife allusion.

However, unlike a Swiss-army knife, which actually works pretty well based on my experience, an essay written for one specific college is not likely to work very well for a second college–this observation also based on my experience.  In writing an essay that might work for a fallback subject of study, you are more likely to hurt your chances of creating a good essay in the first place.  Given the low number of admits to alternate colleges, Cornell has (mercifully) killed this option.  Thanks, Big Red.

Confused by all this talk of colleges when you only want to go to that place called Cornell?  Here’s the gist:  Universities are subdivided into smaller units.  Usually this is done by dividing the university into less broad units called colleges, and then dividing those colleges into more specific schools, which house one or a limited number of majors.  I  talked about this in my earlier post on Cornell as well, and detailed how Cornell specifically divides itself into various colleges, et al, so if you did not click and read above, click and read now:  Cornell’s schools and colleges.  This earlier post also ties into looking at majors, and I link you to some specific example material at Cornell to get you started, so it’s worth a read as a broad introduction to subjects of study (college majors, in other words) and to Cornell specifically.

It’s also a good place to start thinking about the kind of application essay that asks you to explain why you want to attend the university, or how you plan to use your education at the university, or what attracts you to the university, or what about the university engages you intellectually . . . I could go on, but these are all basically the same prompt.  And this prompt will require you do do some research on the university, narrow down the schools of interest, then start digging deeper, into and including looking for research of interest that is going on at the university and within your target college, then into specific people doing the research, as well as looking for facts and video material, up to and including lectures, and anything else that is pertinent–and what is pertinent includes anything that is authentically interesting to you and that might also be useful in an app essay. 

Just avoid that mistake of confusing the options for an undergrad with those for graduate study only.  Some stuff you find online will not be available to you as an undergrad, and it would sound either ignorant or pretentious  to write as if you were going to be a (graduate) assistant for Professor Bigshot–as an incoming freshmen.  T.A.’s and G.A.’s are almost always grad students.

If you are looking at an M.B.A. program page online, for example, you are in the wrong place.   Go back to the undergrad programs (and try the M.B.A. again in four or more years).

I will write again soon about how to research subjects within a university (provided the application editing I do does not turn into a deluge earlier than planned).  In the meantime, Oh Future Big Red, read the prompts below, and start clicking and reading on the Cornell website–and taking notes.  Keep in mind that you should be talking about Cornell as much as yourself.  And in the process, you may make up or change your mind about what it is you want to study. Good luck and e-mail me (soon–space is going) if you need editing help.  Here are the Cornell prompts for 2015-2016–and yes, they are the same as last year, except for dropping the alternate college:

Cornell

College Interest Essays
The primary focus of your college interest essay should be what you intend to study at Cornell. Please respond to the essay question below (maximum of 650 words)  that corresponds to the undergraduate college or school to which you are applying. Be sure to include your full legal name exactly as it appears on passports or other official documents and date of birth, and attach the page to the back of this form. (Special note here:  the Cornell Application pdf linked below states the max words at 500, the Common App site on 8/9/15 stated a max wordcount of 650 for the same essays–as it has since 7/1/15.  Which leads me to question if Cornell is penalizing those who submit a paper app (the pdf with a limit of 500 words) or if this is a bureaucratic snafu–anybody at Cornell or elsewhere can use the comments at the bottom of this prompt to let me and everybody else know.  In the meantime, submit electronically to evade this odd 500 word limit on the paper app–even if you have to walk miles from your cabin in the woods to go online, I guess.  Okay, back to Cornell’s instructions):

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences:

How have your interests and related experiences influenced the major you have selected in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences?

College of Architecture, Art, and Planning:
Why are you excited to pursue your chosen major in AAP? What specifically about AAP and Cornell University will help you fulfill your academic and creative interests and long-term goals?

College of Arts and Sciences:
Describe two or three of your current intellectual interests and why they are exciting to you. Why will Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences be the right environment in which to pursue your interests?

College of Engineering:
Tell us about an engineering idea you have, or about your interest in engineering. Describe how your ideas and interests may be realized by—and linked to—specific resources within the College of Engineering. Finally, explain what a Cornell Engineering education will enable you to accomplish.

School of Hotel Administration:
The global hospitality industry includes hotel and foodservice management, real estate, finance, entrepreneurship, marketing, and law. Describe what has influenced your decision to make the business of hospitality your academic focus. What personal qualities make you a good fit for SHA?

College of Human Ecology:
How have your experiences influenced you to consider the College of Human Ecology and how will your choice of major(s) impact your goals and plans for the future?

School of Industrial and Labor Relations:
Tell us about your intellectual interests, how they sprung from your course, service, work or life experiences, and what makes them exciting to you. Describe how ILR is the right school for you to pursue these interests.

And finally, for those who want it straight from the font, here it is:

Cornell University Supplement for 2016 (UCA version in pdf format)

(Note that Cornell dates their application forms by the year of admission–you will be entering in the fall of 2016, thus this is the 2016 application.  Other colleges use other systems (e.g. the class that enters in 2016 is usually called the class of 2020, and some schools will call you that.  Optimistic, that’s what they are.  Cornell apparently doesn’t look that far down the road.)  Good luck, come back soon, and contact me if you need editing.