Cornell offers something for everyone. And that's just the way founder Ezra Cornell planned it: a place where any person might study any subject. His university comprises 7 schools, 19 libraries, and more than 4,000 courses.

Majors range from aerospace engineering to zoology, with stops along the way for environmental studies, Yiddish, and human sexuality. And students whose interests don't fit neatly into a preexisting major can design an independent curriculum drawing on the expertise of faculty across campus and in the graduate schools.

Each undergraduate has a home base in a particular college -- Agriculture and Life Sciences; Architecture, Art, and Planning; Arts and Sciences; Engineering; Hotel; Human Ecology; or Industrial and Labor Relations. Yet most hang on to the diverse spectrum of interests that helped them get into Cornell in the first place, using electives to round out their studies.