Cornell is a famed Ivy League research university in Ithaca, New York. The university is large, with over 16,000 undergraduates, and it is divided up into 8 smaller colleges that each provide their own unique experience and community. One of the unique aspects of Cornell, especially when compared to other top tier colleges, is the range of programs offered at the undergraduate level, including programs, like hospitality and agriculture, that don’t appear anywhere else in the Ivy League. Cornell is, subsequently, very difficult to get into. Students who want Cornell truly want the experience they offer, and there are far more students who want that experience than they can accept. The overall acceptance rate for first-years who enrolled in the fall of 2024, across all 8 colleges, was .
Given the difficulty of getting into Cornell, applicants look for any leg-up they can get. Legacy admissions has, historically, been a key piece of this puzzle for a key segment of the applicant pool. This holds true at Cornell, where of the Class of 2025 reported being descendants of Cornell alumni. However, legacy admissions, or the practice of giving preference to applicants with a generational connection to the university, has been changing a lot lately. In this post, we’re going to share what is going on at Cornell with legacy admissions, and what applicants with a legacy connection need to be doing now to make the most of the legacy connection.
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Before we get into the specific actions to take when applying to Cornell, we want to dig into the reality of legacy admissions writ large at this moment.
What’s going on with Legacy Admissions?
Legacy admissions is, to be blunt, under fire. The arguments against it are strong. Legacy admissions has benefited those who enter into the college admissions process with a level of privilege, especially financially. With the overturning of affirmative action, the idea that family could still give an applicant a leg-up fresh criticism. In response, the number of colleges that use legacy admissions .
Cornell, though, is holding on to offering preference to certain applicants through legacy admissions. In the 2023-2024 Common Data Set, Cornell that alumni/ae relations (which means legacy) were considered in admissions. However, it isn’t all smooth sailing for potential legacy applicants. In March of 2024, an ongoing on-campus conversation surged back to the surface when the Cornell Student Assembly an initiative advocating for the end of preference for legacy applicants in the admissions process. The resolution was co-signed by student leaders from Yale, Brown, and Columbia. This was not, of itself, anything with immediate repercussions. The measure was a big move, but it was also mostly symbolic.
This also wasn’t the first time the student assembly at Cornell passed a similar resolution. In 2021, they similarly introduced an effort to call on Cornell to end legacy admissions. Like with the 2024 action, these are statements in support of a cause students care about, but don’t require the administration to actually change anything.
The bottom line is that legacy admissions preference still exists at Cornell, but there is pushback from the student body so it may change someday. For now, though, applicants need to make the most of the opportunity if legacy applies.
What Should You Do?
For Cornell, legacy still matters. However, the supposed power of legacy has predominately been a myth for a long time. Having a parent, grandparent, or other close relative who went to Cornell has not been an easy in for a long time, except for a very, very select few with parents on the Cornell board, who are very significant donors, or other similar circumstances. Whether or not someone close to you has earned a Cornell degree before, applicants need to be exceptional — but legacy can help if someone is already a strong applicant.
Even though the student body has been advocating the end of legacy admissions, the people actually reading applicants , “In general, when two students with similar, strong credentials apply to Cornell, the applicant who is a child of a Cornell University alumna/alumnus may have a slight advantage in the admissions process.” Below, we break down what this means and how to make the most of it for both the family member with the Cornell connection and the applicant.
For the Family Member: We’ll keep this short and straight-forward. If someone who went to Cornell wants legacy privilege to extend to their child, they need to actually be involved with Cornell. This doesn’t necessarily mean donating, but if you can you should. In the years leading up to applying, the family member should attend alumni events, like reunions, and subscribe to the alumni publication if you aren’t already receiving it. Also, being a visiting student at Cornell or attending and then transferring does not count towards legacy benefits. There should be a Cornell degree, and a history of good standing as a student.
For the Applicant: There are a few things the applicant needs to be on top of if they want a legacy benefit. The first three don’t have anything to do with legacy necessarily, but they are absolutely mandatory if you want to get in with or without the legacy leg-up.
Grades
To get into Cornell, applicants need to have spectacular grades. The university delays the release of admitted student data, but that over 80% of accepted and enrolled students for the Class of 2025 were in the top tenth of their graduating class. It is likely that this percentage is significantly higher today.
To be competitive, students should be taking the hardest courses they have access to, especially in their prospective area of focus in college, and excelling in them. To be blunt, having a ‘B’ on a transcript after sophomore year is a problem if an applicant wants to get into Cornell. So, focus, buckle down, and build the grades Cornell wants to see.
Scores
Like most universities, the Cornell testing policy has been shifting over the past few years and through the Covid pandemic. Going test optional helped students applying, but it has led to statistics that aren’t necessarily useful as the only students who submitted scores in recent years were those with very strong scores. Based on , strong applicants need to submit an ACT score at or above 35 or an SAT score at or above 1520. Being a legacy can buy applicants some wiggle room, but it’s not something that should be counted on.
Extracurriculars
What an applicant does outside of the classroom isn’t as important as grades and scores, but that doesn’t mean that it is unimportant. In fact, given how exceptional the students applying to Cornell are, extracurriculars are a crucial point of differentiation. Legacy applicants should deepen into their passions by pursing them through multiple avenues (internships or jobs, clubs, online courses, and structured programs). Passion is the key word here. Strong legacy applicants don’t coast through life. An activity sounding impressive doesn’t matter if it isn’t obvious that the applicant truly cares about what they are spending their time on.
Apply Early
This last point doesn’t supersede the previous three, but it is also the most important. Legacy only matters if you apply early. If a student with a legacy doesn’t apply early, they give away any advantage they may have had. This has been confirmed by Cornell directly. “Former interim vice president for enrollment Jason C. Locke told The Sun in 2018,” reports, “that students have a greater chance of being accepted in the early decision round as a result of a mutual commitment relationship.” In the same interview, Locke said that most legacy applicants are rejected, underlining that it hasn’t been an easy way into Cornell for a while.
For the class of 2026, ED applicants were three times as likely to be admitted as those who applied RD regardless of legacy. However, Cornell in 2024 that they’d be reducing the number of students admitted early decision in an attempt to increase equity and accessibility. This further emphasizes the importance of applying early if you are a legacy at Cornell.
Legacy can give applicants to Cornell a strong advantage, if used right. It isn’t an automatic acceptance by any means, but in a process with such stiff odds you should be strategizing to take any advantage you can get.
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