The academic statement of purpose (up to 1,000 words) is your chance to articulate the research you’d like to do and to explain how you see our program helping you achieve your intellectual goals. This statement should describe the substantive questions you are interested in. It should also indicate your intellectual interests and any training you have received that you believe has prepared you for our program. We encourage you to familiarize yourself with the research interests of our faculty. Mentioning specific faculty members who match your research interests will strengthen your statement.

Please submit a personal statement (up to 1,000 words) describing how your background and experiences have influenced your decision to pursue a graduate degree and your readiness to do so. In your response, consider how you might contribute to Cornell’s founding principle (“an institution where any person can find instruction in any study") and institutional core value to provide a community of belonging, where scholars representing diverse backgrounds, perspectives, abilities, and experiences can learn and work productively and positively together.

In your statement, you may draw from personal, academic, and professional experiences that can be transferable to an academic context. Your statement may include relevant information on any of the following:

• Your ability to engage with and contribute to effective, collaborative teams.
• How you have come to understand and value perspectives different from your own.
• How you have demonstrated persistence in overcoming a setback or challenge.

If you are interested in being nominated for a Founder’s Excellence Fellowship, your field will utilize your Personal Statement along with other aspects of your graduate application to inform the nomination process.

The Graduate School Founder’s Excellence Fellowships contribute to our commitment to advancing Cornell’s founding principle of “… any person … any study.” The Founder’s Excellence Fellowships comprise a portfolio of recruitment fellowships, funded by the Graduate School or the SUNY System, as well as others co-funded by colleges within Cornell and the Graduate School.

The Founder’s Excellence Fellowships are available on a competitive basis to nominated domestic doctoral students from all backgrounds applying for Fall admission who are U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents, or Indigenous peoples of Canada eligible to register as domestic students under the Jay Treaty who have demonstrated commitment and potential to significantly contribute to Cornell’s founding principle and core value to provide a community of belonging where scholars representing different backgrounds, perspectives, abilities, and experiences can learn, innovate, and work in an environment of respect. Students awarded any of the fellowships within the Founder’s Excellence Fellowship portfolio are recognized as Graduate School Dean’s Scholars. 

Three strong letters of recommendation incorporating details of the applicant's educational and research background are preferred over-generalizations about the applicant. Letters should be from people who are likely to comment on your academic aptitude and research abilities. Recommenders have until December 1 to upload their letter to your application. If your recommender has trouble submitting their letter, please reference the Graduate School's FAQ for troubleshooting tips. Our field does not accept letters through Interfolio.

Applicants are required to submit a form of scholarly writing such as a sample essay, article, or book chapter that they have written (solo or first-author only). The maximum length is 30 pages (including the bibliography). Complete theses or longer works are not acceptable forms of writing for this application.

Applicants are required to upload unofficial transcripts from all colleges and universities attended. If you are currently enrolled in a program, include an in-progress transcript and update it through the checklist after your fall grades are available. If transcripts are in a foreign language, please submit only the English-translated version. Please do not send this directly to the University; hardcopy official transcripts are required only upon matriculation.

In addition to transcripts, applicants with international credentials must also provide a certified copy of the diploma and/or degree certificate for any conferred degree. All academic records must be official documents issued by the college or university and provided in the original language. A certified or notarized English translation must accompany the academic records if the original language is not English. A complete set of academic records should include the name of the degree program in which you were enrolled, your dates of attendance, a list of courses taken each year, grades received in each course, and the date your degree was conferred (if applicable). Combine multiple pages from the same set of academic records into one file; the file size for each upload cannot exceed 10MB. 

The Graduate School has a useful reference page for what is best to include in this document.

In order to be successful in Cornell’s rigorous graduate and professional degree programs, students must be highly proficient or fluent in English. Students in doctoral degree programs who are appointed as teaching assistants (TAs) must demonstrate a higher level of English proficiency. These students are supported through Cornell’s Center for Teaching Innovation. Language proficiency policy is set by the Graduate School. Please their website for further specifications, including information on exemptions.

In light of both recent concerns about the availability of the GRE for students across the globe related to COVID-19, and broader concerns about the inequities inherent in this standardized test, Cornell's Graduate Field of Communication will not accept GRE scores from applicants. We will review all applications blinded for GRE scores. Please do not make any reference to a GRE score in your personal statement or academic statement of purpose. We will review all applications for such references and will not accept statements that make reference to this test anywhere in the application.

Recognizing the serious challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic for student learning, faculty teaching, & academic performance assessment, the Graduate Field of Communication will adopt these principles for admissions review that consider COVID-19 disruptions as described by the Graduate School at Cornell University.