Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York, USA, is a private university and a member of the Ivy League.

Cornell is often considered as one of the top universities in the world, with consistent top 15 rankings. Cornell counts more than 255,000 living alumni, 28 Rhodes Scholars and 40 Nobel laureates affiliated with the university as faculty or students. The student body consists of over 13,000 undergraduate and 6,000 graduate students from all fifty states and one hundred and twenty-two countries. Cornell produces more graduates that go on to become doctors than any other university in the USA. It also produces the largest number of graduates in the life sciences who continue for Ph.D. degrees, and is ranked fourth in the world in producing the largest number of graduates who go on to pursue Ph.D.s at American institutions. Research is a central element of the university's mission; in 2006 Cornell spent $649 million on research and development. In 2007, Cornell ranked fifth among universities in the U.S. in fund-raising, collecting $406.2 million in private support.

Cornell was founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White as a coeducational, non-sectarian institution where admission was offered irrespective of religion or race. It was inaugurated shortly after the American Civil War; its founders intended that the new university would teach and make contributions in all fields of knowledge—from the classics to the sciences and from the theoretical to the applied. These ideals, unconventional for the time, are captured in Cornell's motto, an 1865 Ezra Cornell quotation: "I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study."

Following the spirit of its motto, Cornell offers world-class educations in traditional liberal arts studies as well as in fields as diverse as engineering, agriculture, hotel administration, and city and regional planning. To accomodate this breadth of study, the university is organized into seven undergraduate colleges and seven graduate divisions at its main Ithaca campus, with each college and division defining its own academic programs in near autonomy. Cornell also administers two satellite medical campuses, one in New York City and one in Education City, Qatar. Since the mid-20th century, the university has been expanding both its campus resources and influence worldwide. From a new residential college housing system to its 2001 founding of its medical college in Qatar, Cornell claims "to serve society by educating the leaders of tomorrow and extending the frontiers of knowledge." Cornell is one of two private land grant universities, and its seven undergraduate colleges include four state-supported statutory or contract colleges.

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