At a research institution, scholars don't just acquire knowledge -- they help create it. Cornell's faculty have garnered such prizes as the Nobel and the Pulitzer, not to mention MacArthur "genius" grants and countless other honors.

These same luminaries teach undergraduate classes and include students on their research teams.

Cornell serves as a land grant institution, receiving funding from New York State for its colleges of Human Ecology, Agriculture and Life Sciences and Veterinary Medicine and for its School of Industrial and Labor Relations. In return, the university offers reduced tuition to state residents in those colleges and helps citizens apply the research generated here to improve the state's economy and the health of its people.

A network of more than 200,000 alumni around the world supports the efforts of current students by sponsoring internships, offering career counseling and mentorship, and providing much of the financial support that maintains the university's world-class libraries, laboratories, and faculty.