^^^This is true. Cornell has an articulation agreement with community colleges around the state.
I work as an interior designer and teach part-time at The Sage Colleges in Albany, NY in this field if you’d like to DM me for more info. Like many art schools your foundation year could possibly be covered at a CC and then you could transfer into a program like FIT (or take the gap year and pursue it next year) once you’re feeling more sure of pursuing this field of commercial arts. FIT really is a great financial option esp with Excelsior (other than housing costs!) and one my youngest is looking at for their illustration major.
We have many students who transfer in from CCs from either an art program or construction (like the the programs at Hudson Valley Community College) and are very successful in our Interior + Spatial Design (ISD) major.
I’m not sure if we’re still accepting rolling admissions, but in our program you can be accepted without a portfolio initially into the art program as an “Academic Exploration” major and then get accepted into the ISD major as a sophomore based on grade/portfolio review. Explained here: https://art(dot)sage(dot)edu/our-department/admission/
You may also want to post over at this forum for more info on the schools you’ve been accepted into: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/