Cornell is sometimes treated as the "easiest" Ivy to get into — a framing that obscures what makes Cornell genuinely excellent and distinctive. Here's a fair-minded comparison.
Size and Scale
Cornell enrolls approximately 15,000 undergraduates. Harvard enrolls approximately 7,000; Princeton approximately 5,500; Dartmouth approximately 4,500. Cornell's size means more courses, more clubs, more diversity of background and interest, and a more complex social landscape. It can feel more like a large research university than an intimate liberal arts college — because in many ways, it is.
Unique Programs Cornell Offers That Other Ivies Don't
Cornell's School of Hotel Administration (SHA) is the most prestigious hospitality program in the world. Cornell's ILR school is the top program for labor and employment relations in the country. Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is a land-grant institution with unique research infrastructure in food science, environmental science, and agricultural economics. No other Ivy offers these programs at this level.
Prestige in Practice
For most careers — investment banking, consulting, law, medicine, technology — a Cornell degree opens the same doors as any other Ivy. Cornell's alumni network is large and active. In certain fields (hospitality, agriculture, labor law), Cornell alumni networks are the most powerful of any school, Ivy or not.
The Cultural Difference
Cornell students often describe their campus as feeling less socially homogeneous and more intellectually diverse than Harvard or Yale — a reflection of its larger size and broader range of programs. Students from rural backgrounds, first-generation students, and international students often feel more comfortable at Cornell than at schools where a more narrow social type seems to dominate.