<p>haha, profound statments from "NeedAdvice." </p>
<p>sorry, but the campus itself is far from suck. If it really sucked, 28,000 applicants would look at the other 3,500 schools in the US. Ithaca itself is not "nowhere." If you're a dull enough of a person to absolutely need a large city in order to be entertained, then yes, Ithaca might not be the best choice. </p>
<p>I should note that the snow doesn't make a huge difference. I race for the Cornell Cycling team, and we still practice all year around outside. Although it may be a too much of a radical idea for some ... buy a jacket! Besides, last fall the weather didn't get cold until mid-november (over 3 months of wonderful weather) and the first snow didn't happen until finals week.</p>
<p>Yeah, I probably am a dull of enough person to need a large city to be entertained. So having a dull campus wouldn't work in my favor. My ideal university is either Columbia or NYU, set in the heart of New York. </p>
<p>Regarding winters, I do love them. I am originally from a 4-seasons kind of a state, and that is one downside to California's weather. No snow. *tear</p>
<p>my observation of students at Cornell who complain about the location is the fact that they're boring people. God forbit the notion that a Tiffany & Co. store isn't next to campus. I have yet to experience a truly boring moment on campus ... there's a plethora of stuff to do if you simply leave the dorm room and look for stuff yourself. </p>
<p>I will likely work in NYC after I graduate. I'll take my college experience in a nice and relaxing vacation oriented location rather than the same city where i'll probably work for the rest of my life.</p>
<p>You're right. There is so much to do including :going for walks on the cliffs, picking up pine cones, running on cliffs. Woo! I'm giddy with joy and just absolutely titillated.</p>
<p>Sarcasm aside, I prefer urban/cosmopolitan areas like SF/Seattle/London/Chicago, so I must be an incredibly boring person. You should be happy that I'm not going there, considering you don't want more boring people clogging up Cornell.</p>
<p>Anyway, I'm not really the outdoorsy type, so "different strokes for different folks."</p>
<p>Hmm its interesting huh some hate Ithaca, other love it. Personally I love the outdoors and Cornell's campus sounds very attractive from the way I've heard it described. I hope I'm not too dull a person to enjoy myself at Ithaca, gee you've put some pressure on for me if I go there I will have to make sure I have a fun time or my self esteem will be gone! Thanks guys I've enjoyed this thread feel free to recommend Bio subjects that you've done and enjoyed as I'm desperately trying to choose some before I go to africa.</p>
<p>if you want, i can try to get some pictures of Cornell and the surrounding area on a website. A few people have requested them, and I know the school's website is lacking in a few picture aspects. </p>
<p>if you do come to cornell, make sure you try skiing or snowboarding!</p>
<p>Yeah that'd be sweet if you could put the pictures up Gomestar. Yeah I'll try snowboarding for sure! it would be my first shot at it too, cause snows pretty rare in Australia and I've never been really (like I've seen it but thats about it).</p>
<p>i'll have to get a few more up, especially of the gorges, more of the campus, and some more of the collegtown and greater Ithaca area. All of those are old from last year, but were readily available for the post. Enjoy!</p>
<p>Don't let Cornell's rural setting fool you; Ithaca is a VERY rich town and I liked it a lot. Cornell's campus is also very cool, and major metropolises aren't terribly far away.</p>
<p>Aussie steve i am a fellow aussie who just went through the process of picking where to go on exchange. With Berkerley dont you have to apply to UC and then they choose which UC you end up at (like you can state your preferences but it does not guarantee you will end up there). That turned me off applying to Berkerley as i did not want to end up at another random UC location. </p>
<p>I am jealous of your selection. UNSW has more options than most but i think Umelb has the most. Lucky!</p>
<p>Personally i would say it depends on what you want to expereince. I think California would be more like Australia, although San Fran is a bit different i suppose.</p>
<p>As for snow in Australia isnt there snowfields like a 2 hour drive from melbourne there? falls creek etc? i suppose it is expensive though.</p>
<p>Hey Sid, Yeah its about 3 hours to any decent snow (or as decent as our snow gets) but in high school when we went I just took the money and used to go to the city cause it is pretty expensive for crap snow. </p>
<p>Yeah at the moment still waiting on what subjects I can do at Cornell before I apply but have spoken to staff about it. </p>
<p>I'm guessing that Melbourne has got such a good list of Patners due to its prestige and also just its been around long enough to develop these sorts of patnerships. </p>
<p>Yeah your right about how the UC system works but I don't imagine you'd get put in a campus you didn't want you could just refuse it and take your second preference. </p>
<p>I was also wondering about Georgetown as a potential but that's just a thought. But yeah I'm think Cornell's best for a couple of reasons though a) Great Biology Faculty/Prestige b) Best campus c) Different experience from Melbourne with different weather and small rural setting d) Near NY so I can go and stay at my mates flat (shes at Long Island University).</p>
<p>So have you applied to do exchange and what are you studying at UNSW?</p>
<p>Yeh there is our list, i think we actually have more options but we dont have any LAC's or Cornell. We have Penn and Georgetown though. Georgetown would be great but for us we can only do it in third year or above so that ruled me out. </p>
<p>I have applied and I am being nominated to Boston College (second half of this year) so now i am just waiting to see if they accept me, its an annoyingly long process. As far as i know once we get nominated we cant take our second/third choice (unless we get rejected), maybe your process is different but i would just look into the other UC's just in case.</p>
<p>I am studying ARTS (history major, philosophy/Womens studies minor). History is my main love so hopefully i will be at boston as i can be a total dork and look at historical areas in my free time :)</p>
<p>With such a short time in the U.S.A., each of your three schools would seem to have a major flaw. Cornell is in New York state, but it's HOURS away from anything interesting, including New York City. Also, the weather there is a jolt to even many folks from the northern US. You'd likely be astounded by the cold, snow, wind, and rain. </p>
<p>Penn is in a dangerous neighborhood, and it too has harsh weather for the majority of the school year.</p>
<p>Berkeley is Ok weather-wise, and San Francisco is great. But it's a freak show in Berkeley and it's a day's drive just to L.A., so seeing much else in the USA would be tough.</p>
<p>I say scrap all three of them. Check out Georgetown, U of Virginia, Duke, U of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Vanderbilt. All are top-notch schools with relatively mild climates (i.e., winter doesn't go from October to April), and each is near several interesting metropolitan areas.</p>
<p>TourGuide. You are substituting Duke, Vandy, and U of North-Carolina for those 3? NO WAY! I know for a fact that the first two are in the middle of nowhere, maybe even more than Cornell is.</p>
<p>aussie - if you're worried that you wont ever visit some of the big US cities, don't. Last semester, I knew a foreign exchange student (also from Australia!) at Cornell who took advantage of the fall breaks and the very long winter break to visit friends at New York, Boston, Providence, Houston, Los Angeles and a few other cities. You'll have plenty of time to go city hopping.</p>
<p>Depends on your definition of "middle of nowhere." If you've only lived in California or the Boston-NY-Philly-DC corridor, just about everywhere is in the middle of nowhere. I've lived in Boston and San Francisco (among other places), and I'd say being right in Nashville or within an hour of several medium-sized cities in North Carolina (as well as not all that far from DC and Atlanta) is a lot less in the middle of nowhere than Cornell--which is even quite a hike from...Buffalo.</p>