@CupCakeMuffins Applications to Cornell were down slightly this year after increasing by 10,000 applications over the prior 3 years from 41,000 in 2015 to 51,000 in 2018. So perhaps just a pause in the climb after three years of huge increases. Meanwhile Cornell’s yield rate has increased from 51% to 61% over those same three years so perhaps more ED admits and more RD admitted kids choosing Cornell over other options.
@cupugu With more public school programs, aid and easier acceptance, yield is bound to increase. That’s a no brainer, not like applicants are picking it over HYPSM etc
@GoodPoint , If not for rankings and acceptance rates as indicators of desirability and excellence of schools, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion.
They sure are for certain majors! Hotel, ILR, Engineering…
With more public school programs, aid and easier acceptance, yield is bound to increase. That’s a no brainer,
@CupCakeMuffins I’m not sure I follow you. What do you mean by “more public school programs”? Is Cornell giving more financial aid than other comparable schools? And how does a lower acceptance rate at Cornell cause or contribute to Cornell’s yield increasing?
Princeton’s applications dropped by 7%.
@Riversider "This term literally defines today’s Cornell "
From their website - “Cornell University is a private research university”
It literally does not.
SMH. It’s an Ivy. None of the other Ivies are suddenly rumbling about dropping C from the group. The rest is moot.
Regardless of the admissions rate & number of students, Cornell still has the best agriculture school in the entire Ivy League.
Cornell is often ranked top 3 in the country for its agricultural program.
Not sure what the point of calling Cornell a public ivy. Some colleges at Cornell are contracted, others are endowed. Whatever you call it does not make it easier to get in for most students. Try applying to College of Arts and Science, Engineering or Dyson School, you’ll find out.
Cornell University resembles a Big 10 school more so than it does an Ivy. But, don’t take my word for this, google Cornell University Presidents & read the articles & speeches accompanying their selection & appointments.
Spoiler alert: Cornell gets its presidents from the ranks of Big 10 universities. And Cornell trustees explain why Cornell gets its presidents from Big 10 universities.
P.S. I love Cornell & I love the Big 10.
Cornell is not and has never been a SUNY. It is not a “public Ivy”. It is not public. If the OP knew the history of Cornell and/or SUNY he/she would not suggest such a thing. Cornell is as much an IVY as Harvard. And I’m not alluding to the notion that the Ivy League is a sports league (another way some try to degrade the Ivy League schools). No, academically Cornell is as much an Ivy League school as is Harvard or Yale. (also known as find another way to feel superior besides trying to put down Cornell).
The OP is referring to the 4 contract or statutory schools of Cornell. The post reflects the fact that the OP does not really understand what they are and how they are administered. That’s ok. That’s the point of this site right? To educate those who lack information. It is possible the OP intends the post as a way to put down the school that a peer is attending but maybe it is just a knowledge deficit.
I’ll assume the 2nd and try to fill in his/her knowledge gaps. I hope the OP @Riversider reads this:
By the early 1800s the east coast of the US had universities aplenty. In fact, Harvard was closing in on its 200th birthday. And there were tons of others, many of which still exist today. At that time, the students were considerably younger (often 15-18) than they are today; admissions criteria were far from uniform; few students would have been described by their instructors as “scholars” or as being close to “adults”-even at Harvard. But more importantly, then, as now, there was no clear consensus about the purpose of universities.
The early schools had been established (funded by various religious organizations) to train clergy/ministers and by the early 1800’s most were still focused on providing education in the classics-meaning steeped in Greek and latin readings. {In the meantime, European education was looking increasingly like contemporary education}. Yet discontent was escalating; reaching a boiling point. Students and parents called for a gentleman’s education, well rounded and in contemporary languages. This was not so much a debate about liberal arts vs professional training (although you may read other sources that say it was) as it was about maintaining education in the classics vs contemporary liberal arts vs religious training. In 1828 (actually Sept 11 '27) Yale doubled down on education in the classics and produced what would become known (then but rarely ever mentioned now) as The Yale Report. And while the report claimed “to lay the foundation of the superior education”, more apt is “to lay the foundation of education for the superior”.
Not everyone was on-board with Yale’s conclusions. At Harvard, Josiah Quincy’s response was to expand the curriculum to include both a classic and contemporary course of study; something that may have given Harvard the edge from that point onward. Other educators rejected the premises of the Yale Report completely. NYU can trace its roots to those revolting against the conclusions of the Yale Report; yet, the Report impacted Yale education for generations.
In the meantime, outside the Ivy tower, the need for people with science, engineering, and agricultural skills, discussed in the early to mid 1800’s, reached a peak at the end of the civil war; something that was not satisfied by schools teaching Greek and Latin but which eventually lead to (or perhaps more accurately supported) the Morrill Act of 1865. The Morrill Act used federal funds procured via sale of federal land to establish agricultural and mechanical training programs though out the US.
The Morrill Act made western expansion more feasible. Its goals were consistent with Ezra Cornell’s goals for establishing (see https://ezramagazine.cornell.edu/FALL12/CornellHistory.html) “an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.” Funds via the Morrill Act were allocated initially for the Agricultural school (but ultimately to 4 statuary college). The statuary schools are not “part of SUNY”. Legally, they are private nonprofit institutions. The state plays a fiduciary role in the statuary schools (but not the others) and has something akin to veto power over (only) certain hiring decisions at Cornell. Employees are private not public employees. Thus, Cornell can’t be a public Ivy cause it is a private Ivy-(aka:Ivy League University).
There are other elite private schools that are also land grant universities. MIT comes to mind as one.
An interesting aspect of the Ivy League schools is that those schools that rejected the premises of the Yale Report soonest ended up developing far better “tech” (STEM) than those that adhered to it longer. And Yale is still bringing up the rear in terms of STEM at IVY League schools. Perhaps unbeknownst to the OP, the roots of a snobby attitude towards Cornell go back to the idea that the noble class keeps their hands clean and does not “work”. Only the working class needs to learn how to “do” things like STEM. Me thinks that is a very dated erroneous concept.
@lostaccount: Does Cornell offer lower tuition rates to residents of New York state at the four contract colleges ?
Is that a leading question? 
@CupCakeMuffins, you might also want to read my post. Why the dis on Cornell? Just wondering.
I really wish the term “public ivy” would go away. It’s a made up term to try and equate top public universities status with that of the Ivy League colleges but they really have little in common with each other (e.g. UCB is a huge public research university with 30k undergrads, great college, but has little in common with say Princeton) and diminishes the importance of each individual colleges attributes that make it special.
In my mind this “public ivy” nonsense is in the same breath as “colleges that change lives”. I have a secret for you, all colleges change lives but is a nice phrase to sell books and market colleges that have been overlooked by applicants.
Off my soap box…
I agree with @socaldad2002 about the term. It’s PR speak. And yes all colleges change lives and all lives change between the ages of 18ish and 22 ish (as they do between any two ages) regardless of what college someone attends or even if they don’t attend.
@Publisher, NY pays Cornell a certain amount per student. I’m not sure of this. This is true about when students in the statuary schools take courses in the non-contract schools. But not sure about the mechanisms for the lowered cost of the statuary schools for state residents.
@socaldad2002 , I like your thinking on this.
We can add “Little Ivies.”
But I swear I thought I heard the term Public Ivy well before the 80s.
Cornell is a Ivy League school. It’s not a “little Ivy” or a “tiny Ivy” or even a “cute Ivy”. If anything it’s a very big Ivy.
It’s not the acceptance rates alone that define the cache of a college. Some obscure schools have very low accept rates. They do not cater to the general market.