Combining essential classroom instruction with practical hands-on experience, our bachelor’s degree is designed to uniquely prepare you for career success. We combine a firm foundation of business knowledge with a focus on the global, diverse and thriving hospitality industry — and add the flexibility to shape your learning around your interests and career goals.
Undergraduate program highlights
Learn the business of hospitality
Benefit from our expertise in everything hospitality — from travel and accommodation to entertainment and recreation. You’ll be immersed in coursework focused on property, restaurant, corporate and consulting. In addition, you can opt for a hospitality leadership concentration, or choose from a wide range of hospitality-focused opportunities, to gain the knowledge and skills for your career in hospitality management, operations, financial or brand analysis, market intelligence, business development or auditing.
Build a foundation of real estate
We teach you the financial and transactional side of hospitality — a requisite for success. Our coursework includes commercial, residential and hospitality-focused real estate. You can also minor in real estate or choose a specialization. You’ll graduate with a strong foundation for your career in acquisitions, investments, banking, operations, capital markets or financial analysis.
Gain proficiency in financial services
Financial expertise is crucial in today’s environment, so you’ll study investment banking, financial analysis, private wealth management, asset management and private equity. You’ll be prepared to excel in career paths including investment banking analysis, financial analysis and business underwriting, asset management or private wealth management.
Get empowered with technology
Ever-evolving technology is integral to all facets of hospitality, from e-commerce to smart properties. Your Nolan School experience will make you adept at harnessing data to guide strategic decisions and confident in using the latest technology to power your organization. The Nolan School will ensure you’re at the top of the field, whether you aspire to work in:
financial planning and analysis
hospitality growth and expansion
client strategy
software solutions
customer success
e-commerce
product or business consulting
Degree requirements and curriculum
We help you develop hospitality leadership with a thorough business management foundation and an emphasis on the service industry. You gain crucial knowledge and skill sets through our focused core curriculum and specializations. Additionally, there’s flexibility to pursue your interests through electives from Cornell’s vast array of liberal arts courses.
What are the degree requirements?
Our bachelor’s program degree requirements include at least 120 classroom credits. These credits come from the Nolan School core, HADM electives and other electives, plus 800 hours of work in the field. The practice credit field work is often completed during a student’s summer. During the semester, most students take four or five courses per semester — a schedule that typically allows time for clubs, sports and other activities.
The core courses at the Nolan School of Hotel Administration immerse you in the business of hospitality, giving you essential exposure to organizational behavior, accounting, microeconomics, food service management, strategic management, human resources, technology, real estate and business communications. Our 18 core courses are all centered around service excellence in hospitality, are designed to help you gain crucial knowledge and valuable skills.
Enhance your undergraduate experience even further with extended academic opportunities, which let you pursue your passions in even greater depth. These complementary experiences are an optional way to support your degree.
Advance your leadership skills through this series of paid positions of increasing responsibility and certification levels as you learn to operate The Statler Hotel, Cornell’s legendary teaching hotel hospitality establishment.
Statler Hotel experience
Cornell is home to The Statler Hotel, the world’s premier learning facility for hospitality professionals. Your work here can include everything from housekeeping and reservations to sales and accounting — and can count toward a portion of the 800 minimum required hours of industry work experience.
Study abroad
Hospitality is global by nature, and this program gives you a great platform to explore new cultures and experience the world firsthand. This program usually occurs during a students’ junior year (transfer students may be eligible).
Establishment (Estb.)
Our student-run restaurant provides exceptional on-the-job training in areas ranging from personnel training and management to customer relations in a live setting. Students manage both the kitchen and front of house, developing the menu and delivering great service to members of the Cornell community and the general public.
Hotel Ezra Cornell (HEC)
Students develop their project management skills as they plan and operate a three-day industry conference with speakers, entertainment and food and beverage service. Students handle all aspects of the event —which celebrated it’s 100th year in 2025 —including marketing, IT and sales.
Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series (DDLS)
For almost a century, this lecture series has brought thought leaders and luminaries from the hospitality industry to campus for students to learn about the latest developments in the field.
Minors
Minors are open to all Cornell undergraduates and are an opportunity to focus on your specific interests. Choose the college’s real estate minor or one of the university’s 70+ minors.
What does a typical semester course load consist of?
The average, and recommended, course load is 15 credits per semester. Students typically take between two to four HADM Core classes per semester and one to three elective classes.
What are “core blocks” and why does the Nolan School use them?
Students are pre-enrolled into 1000-level and 2000-level core classes by our registrar team until all are completed. These 1000-level and 2000-level core classes are completed in what we call “core blocks,” comprised of 3-4 lower-level core classes taken concurrently in a given semester. Faculty diligently structured these core blocks to:
balance workload across semesters
balance exam schedules and major deliverables
allow for smaller class sizes
develop strong inter-student relationships
Join the Hotel community
We’re looking for bright, talented, hardworking candidates who have a passion for service to share with our beloved community. If that describes you, start your application today.
