Cornell University was founded in 1865 as a coeducational, nonsectarian institution where ‘any person can find instruction in any study.’ Once dubbed the first “American university,” Cornell continues to push the limits of its extraordinary founding idea. Renowned for its distinctive mix of eminent scholarship, academic rigor and commitment to public service, it attracts more than 20,000 students from every state in the Union and over 120 countries. They learn from a world-class faculty teaching more than 5,000 courses and participate in cutting-edge research in 11 undergraduate, graduate and professional schools on the uniquely beautiful Ithaca campus, at Cornell’s medical college campuses in New York City and Qatar, and in affiliated programs around the world. The breadth of study, ranging from legendary programs in the humanities to world-class interdisciplinary research centers in nanotechnology, biotechnology, supercomputing and genomics, sets Cornell apart from its Ivy League peers. The land-grant university of New York State, Cornell also boasts the nation’s first colleges devoted to hotel administration, industrial and labor relations, and veterinary medicine. In recent years, Cornell has been aggressively expanding its international programs – from the establishment, in 2001, of the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, the first American medical school outside of the United States, to the forging of partnerships and collaborations with major institutions in China, India, and Singapore – further supporting Cornell’s status as the transnational university of the future.