Where Is Cornell University?

Cornell University is a private university and a member of the prestigious Ivy League; it is located in Ithaca, New York in the United States. The university calls itself a transnational university because in addition to its Ithaca campus, it also possesses campuses in Manhattan, the New York City and overseas in Education City, Doha in Qatar in the Middle East.

The university was founded by Ezra Cornell, an American businessman and education administrator, and Andrew Dickson White, an American diplomat, historian and educator, in 1865. The university was envisaged as an institution where “any person could find instruction in any study” by its founders. The university was inaugurated on 7 October, 1868 and 402 students were enrolled the following day; the number of students currently studying at the university has significantly increased to more than 20,000.

The main campus is on East Hill in Ithaca, overlooking the Cayuga Lake and the town. The university was established on 209.5 acres but it has swelled to about 745 acres encompassing the surrounding areas. Adjacent to the campus, the university also owns a 2,800 acre botanical garden called ‘Cornell Plantations’. The campus also has a sustainability action plan and produces about 17% of the electricity, it consumes, on its own campus.

Research is a central plank of the university’s mission and it spent around $649 million on research and development in 2006. The university has produced 41 Nobel Laureates, and 28 Rhodes Scholars have studied in the university. It has a faculty of around 1,600 on its Ithaca campus. The university is ranked 15th in the United States by ‘US News and World Report’ in 2010.

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