Part of a military family, Mason Hilburgh has lived everywhere from South Korea to Maryland to Missouri to Rhode Island and now calls Wetumpka, Alabama home. 

Ryan Hu lives in Berwyn, Pennsylvania now, but he was born in Montreal, grew up in Australia and trained as a figure skater in Novi, Michigan. 

Faith Baker’s journey to Cornell will be shorter, coming from a farming community in Marathon, New York, while Raine Honeycutt hails from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where her family has deep roots.

They are among the 5,776 scholars admitted to the Class of 2030. Regular decision students were notified March 26, the official notification date for the Ivy League. 

“Cornell’s land-grant mission informs our admissions process deeply,” said Lisa Nishii, senior vice provost for enrollment management and undergraduate education. “We aren’t just looking for the highest-achieving students; we’re looking for students who are capable of taking the fullest advantage of a Cornell education, to achieve great things throughout their lives. The accepted class of 2030 brings a breadth of talent and potential that spans the full range of Cornell’s offerings, and I am excited to see how they use the opportunities at Cornell to light their paths forward.”

Hilburgh, who plans to study in the Cornell Duffield College of Engineering and serve in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), chose Cornell without getting the chance to see the campus, but the choice was clear, he said. He is used to adjusting to new places and wanted the best education possible in civil engineering and to follow his father’s footsteps into the military.

“I want to support my country and build infrastructure,” he said. “With the Army Corps of Engineers, I can be part of the big projects: the bridges, the dams, the roads. That is something I am really interested in.”

For Baker and Honeycutt, visits to campus cemented their decision to come to Cornell. 

Baker saw students hanging out on Libe Slope on a warm fall day. 

“Everyone was sitting around, people were doing work,” she said, “and it felt like a home. The space felt friendly, and it was just so beautiful.”

Baker has run a bustling farmstand business out of her home for several years, starting in seventh grade by raising pigs. She slowly expanded the business to baked goods and produce, filling a gap in the availability of fresh foods in her immediate area. And she fell in love with agriculture. She will study animal science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and hopes to become a large animal veterinarian with a small beef farm on the side. 

“At Cornell, there’s so many different possibilities that I don’t have to contain myself within animal science at all,” she said. “Like, I could get a minor in something totally different if I wanted to.”

Honeycutt will study English in the College of Arts and Sciences. She hopes to give voice to displaced peoples and has volunteered in Costa Rica to help Nicaraguan refugees who fled violence in their own country. Her parents, who are doctors, provided medical care while she worked as a scribe and translator. 

That experience and research into the history of the Cherokee people in North Carolina has inspired her writing, which has included a novel – yet unpublished – and articles on Indigenous underrepresentation for her school paper.

“People who have been displaced, whether it’s the Cherokee having to move across the country or the Nicaraguans having to flee their home, they feel like no one's listening,” said Honeycutt, a member of the Cherokee Nation. “I can’t fix what has been happening to them, but I can tell some semblance of their story.”

Ryan Hu will enroll in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management in the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business and plans to explore his interests in marketing. 

Hu has traveled the world as an ice dancer and is currently a junior member of Team USA. 

He appreciated Cornell’s focus on solving problems and making real-world impact. As a skater, he founded the Bladebond Foundation to help beginners access equipment and more opportunities. 

“I want to be part of a community where students not only pursue their ambitions, but also try to turn them into meaningful projects, to benefit other people,” he said.

Incoming students hail from all 50 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They represent 102 countries.

Students have until May 1 to accept their offer of admission and commit to attending Cornell.

They can connect with current students and staff in myriad ways, including CUontheHill, a virtual community where admitted students can talk to Big Red Ambassadors and other current students, learn about admitted student events, connect with other admitted students to find potential roommates and make friends before Orientation, and find answers to frequently asked questions. Admitted students will be invited to join shortly after they get word of their acceptance.

Admitted students are also invited to visit campus during Cornell Days, April 11, 12, 18 and 19. During this one-day visit option, admitted students and their families can connect with their college or school, tour campus and have a meal in one of the dining halls. Registration is required; more information about events for admitted students can be found in students’ Applicant Portal.

Caroline Park ’27, a communication major (CALS) and vice president of Big Red Ambassadors, said everyone can find their niche at Cornell.

Park and her twin sister, a student in Duffield Engineering, sought very different college experiences, but Cornell was one of the few schools that fit both of their requirements. 

“Once we both stepped on campus for Cornell Days, we both felt at home in our own distinct and special ways,” she said. “It was big enough that we could both find our different corners on campus our first year, and yet we’d have dinner together at Morrison, where we would call our mom together. It’s been really special to be able to grow in my own way, but then also grow alongside my sister.”

She advises new students to jump into the wide variety of opportunities they will find at Cornell, but “above all, be bold, be brave and be kind.”