Astronomy & Astrophysics at Cornell University

If you are interested in studying astronomy and astrophysics, you may want to check out the program at Cornell University. The following information will help you decide if it is a good fit for you.

Cornell is located in Ithaca, New York and approximately 23,620 students attend the school each year. Of the 4,287 students who graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 2021, 3 of them were astronomy and astrophysics majors.

Want to know more about the career opportunities in this field? Check out the Careers in Astronomy & Astrophysics section at the bottom of this page.

Cornell Astronomy & Astrophysics Degrees Available

• Bachelor’s Degree in Astronomy
• Master’s Degree in Astronomy
• Doctorate Degree in Astronomy

Cornell Astronomy & Astrophysics Rankings

The following rankings from College Factual show how the astronomy progam at Cornell compares to programs at other colleges and universities.

Note: While rankings may be a good starting point when you're researching a school, they don't necessarily highlight all of a school's strengths. Don't forget to check out the other details that are available for a school to see if it has what you're looking for in a program.

Bachelor’s Degree Overall Quality & Other Notable Rankings

The astronomy major at Cornell is not ranked on College Factual’s Best Colleges and Universities for Astronomy & Astrophysics. This could be for a number of reasons, such as not having enough data on the major or school to make an accurate assessment of its quality.

Ranking Type	Rank
Best Value Astronomy & Astrophysics Master’s Degree Schools	7
Best Astronomy & Astrophysics Schools	12
	20

In 2021, 3 students received their master’s degree in astronomy from Cornell. This makes it the #18 most popular school for astronomy master’s degree candidates in the country.

There were 6 students who received their doctoral degrees in astronomy, making the school the #6 most popular school in the United States for this category of students.

Astronomy Student Demographics at Cornell

Take a look at the following statistics related to the make-up of the astronomy majors at Cornell University.

Cornell Astronomy & Astrophysics Bachelor’s Program

During the 2020-2021 academic year, 3 astronomy majors earned their bachelor's degree from Cornell. Of these graduates, 33% were men and 67% were women. The typical astronomy bachelor's degree program is made up of only 41% women. So female students are more repesented at Cornell since its program graduates 26% more women than average.

Prospective students may be interested in knowing that this school graduates 6% more racial-ethnic minorities in its astronomy bachelor's program than the national average.*

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor's in astronomy.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	0
Black or African American	0
Hispanic or Latino	1
White	1
International Students	1
Other Races/Ethnicities	0

Cornell Astronomy & Astrophysics Master’s Program

Of the 3 astronomy students who graduated with a master's degree in 2020-2021 from Cornell, about 33% were men and 67% were women.

Of the students who received a astronomy master's degree from Cornell, 100% were white. This is above average for this degree on the natiowide level.

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from Cornell University with a master's in astronomy.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	0
Black or African American	0
Hispanic or Latino	0
White	3
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	0

Cornell also has a doctoral program available in astronomy. In 2021, 6 students graduated with a doctor's degree in this field.

Related Majors

• Atmospheric Sciences & Meteorology
• Geological & Earth Sciences
• Physics
• Chemistry

Careers That Astronomy Grads May Go Into

A degree in astronomy can lead to the following careers. Since job numbers and average salaries can vary by geographic location, we have only included the numbers for NY, the home state for Cornell University.

Occupation	Jobs in NY	Average Salary in NY
Physics Postsecondary Professors	1,430	$117,370
Natural Sciences Managers	1,360	$148,460
Physicists	950	$138,920
Atmospheric, Earth, Marine, and Space Sciences Professors	880	$108,020

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• Image Credit: By Notyourbroom under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.