Growth chambers, greenhouses, aviaries, aquarium rooms, animal rooms, and experimental ponds are available for maintaining organisms or for experimental purposes. Laboratories house equipment and instrumentation for molecular, biogeochemical, physiological, behavioral, and environmental studies. For fieldwork 4,000 acres of Cornell farmland and forest are within easy reach of Ithaca and 30,000 acres of New York State lands are also nearby. Laboratories on quite different types of lakes are maintained by the University at Cayuga Lake, Oneida Lake and in the Adirondack Mountains. The Cornell library system has extensive holdings in the biological and agricultural sciences.
Students also have access to a number of noteworthy collections.
The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology has one of the largest collections of freshwater and shore fishes of the eastern United States, as well as excellent mammal, bird, and herpetological collections. The Department of Entomology houses the largest university insect collection in the United States. They provide a stipend and tuition fellowship. International students usually qualify for this form of support only if they have an excellent command of spoken English. Graduate Research Assistantships are normally awarded to students already in residence at Cornell.