Graduate Student Life

Letter from the Dean

Welcome!

The Cornell Graduate School is here to support your study and your research. We are dedicated to helping you succeed in your graduate program.

We created the Guide to Graduate Study section of this handbook to explain the academic requirements for an advanced Graduate School degree. It should answer many of your questions, so we encourage you to keep it available as a reference. If you need more help, please do not hesitate to call on us. We are here to facilitate your education.

Cornell University offers graduate students a lot of flexibility, freedom, and independence in their academic programs. With few exceptions (generally limited to certain professional degree programs), there are minimal requirements for either total credit hours or required courses. Instead, you will take an active role in defining your degree program under the guidance of a faculty committee, called your Special Committee. You may choose your committee members from more than 1,800 faculty members in nearly 100 fields of study. Such flexibility ensures that you can take advantage of the breadth of resources available at Cornell to meet your academic goals.

We appreciate that there is life beyond the classroom, lab, or library, and we strongly encourage you to take part in extracurricular activities. Life at Cornell explains the many social and cultural activities that take place on campus and in the Ithaca area. It's also a resource for Cornell University and Ithaca-area services, including housing and shopping. We've also made these resources available online at this Web site, studentlife.gradschool.cornell.edu.

Graduate students enhance the intellectual life at Cornell University through their scholarship, research, and participation in campus activities. We are pleased you have joined us.

Alison G. Power
Dean