There are four short essay questions on the Consider Cornell: Experience online application. We will use your responses to these questions to learn more about you and determine your fit for the program. Please limit your answers to 150-250 words per question.

Note that the information you choose to disclose in your short essay answers might be viewed by the faculty in the academic program you are interested in pursuing.

Essay Question #1: Benefits of this Experience

This program seeks to help you make informed decisions about your path to graduate school. Please share how and why you would personally benefit from participating in Consider Cornell: Experience?

Essay Question #2: Research Interests

What are your research interests in your selected field of study? How have you pursued your interests through research, coursework, employment, creative experiences, etc. in preparation for graduate school?

Essay Question #3: Motivation for Graduate Study

Why do you want to pursue graduate school in your field of interest? How will a graduate degree assist you in reaching your professional goals?

Essay Question #4: Potential Contributions to our Cornell Community

Please describe how you’ve engaged, facilitated, and/or enhanced diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts on your campus or in your community. You may provide details of lessons learned from any of your lived experiences.

Examples could include personal, academic, and/or work experience and may include, but are not limited to:

• being a first-generation college student or graduate (no parent/guardian completed a baccalaureate degree)
• being racialized as someone who identifies with racial/ethnic backgrounds (such as Black or African American, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latine, and/or Southeast Asian) historically excluded from and underrepresented in graduate education
• managing a disability or chronic health condition
• experiencing housing, food, economic, and/or other forms of significant insecurity
• being a solo parent
• identifying with a gender and/or sexual orientation historically underrepresented in a field of study
• having served in the military
• holding DACA, refugee, TPS, or asylee status