Should I Choose Brown or Cornell for Studying Agriculture?

For an undergraduate focused on agriculture, Cornell is the clear choice. Its College of Agriculture and Life Sciences offers agriculture-related majors and concentrations, access to faculty whose work directly addresses crops, soils, animal science, food systems, and agricultural economics, and extensive field-based learning.

Cornell fits a student who wants agriculture to be the center of their education rather than an interest pursued alongside a different major. You could connect coursework with research in plant breeding, sustainable farming, dairy and livestock systems, soil and water management, controlled-environment agriculture, or food policy, often through labs, field stations, and farm-based classes.

Brown would make sense only for a student whose primary interest is broader environmental study, biology, public policy, or food systems explored through a highly flexible liberal-arts curriculum. Brown does not have the same dedicated undergraduate agriculture college. Its open curriculum can be valuable for designing an interdisciplinary path, but it would require more self-direction and would not provide the same depth of agriculture-specific courses and hands-on facilities.