Cornell University

How it scores

Research and Alumni outcomes are percentiles among 1,240 universities; alumni outcomes are counted per student. Admissions & earnings is the position among universities in the same country (United States).

Admissions, outcomes and alumni

Admit rate

8.8% src

Average SAT

1,535 src

Yield (admits who enrol)

66% src

Median earnings 10 years after entry

$104,043 src

40-year return on investment (Georgetown CEW)

$3.42M src

Average net price per year

$28,690 src

Graduation rate (6 years)

95% src

Rhodes Scholars, 2021–26

0 src

Alumni founders of VC-backed companies (PitchBook)

1,541 src

Billionaire alumni

22 src

Alumni worth $30M+ (Altrata estimate)

3,200 src

Internationally notable alumni (Wikidata)

109 src

Heads of state or government (Wikidata)

7 src

Students (undergraduate / total)

15,995 / 25,644

Each figure links to its source. Admissions and earnings figures are comparable only within a country.

Research Index

Percentiles among 1,305 ranked universities. Rank on quality alone: =42. On strength alone: 27. The Research Index scores research only; admissions, earnings and alumni outcomes are scored in the overall ranking where data exists.

The numbers behind it (2020–2023)

Papers in the top 10% of their field

15.6% (15.2%–16.1%)

Papers in the top 1% of their field

2.1% (2.0%–2.3%)

Top-10% papers (fractional count)

2,632

All papers (fractional count)

16,835

International co-authored

45.9%

Open access

71.4%

Papers from 2020–23 since retracted

11 (0.24 per 1,000)

Core publications, fractional counting, field-normalised citation shares. Brackets show Leiden’s stability interval. Collaboration and open-access shares use full counting and aren’t field-normalised. Retraction counts come from the Retraction Watch database and include publishers’ mass retractions as well as honest-error retractions; a retraction is not by itself evidence of misconduct, and the count is never scored.

By field

Position over time

The same method applied to each 4-year publication window. The number of ranked universities grows from period to period, so position is shown as a share of the field.