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my impression is that people tend either to love Ithaca or to hate it, maybe more of the former but a distinct subgroup of the latter. Is that true? My information sources are limited here, mostly faculty gossip networks. But my impressions (or stereotypes?) are, on the plus side, it's an absolutely gorgeous location, easy access to outdoor activities, and a lively, progressive, hip (OK, I'm dating myself, D says it's not longer cool to use words like "hip") college town, big enough to give you lots of shops, bookstores, coffeeshops, decent food for a community its size, etc. Also a fairly diverse but relatively close-knit community.</p>
<p>On the downside: it's kind of far from anything bigger/more interesting, some people find it isolating and/or stifling, it's not so easy to get in & out by air (maybe more an issue for faculty than for students who don't travel as much, but I do want to see D on holidays), and the weather is, in a word, rotten.
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<p>You're pretty accurate about Ithaca. I think you'll find people who have been indoctrinated to a lifestyle consumed by massive malls and / or skyscrapers scoff at the notion that Ithaca could possibly offer anything of value to their lives. </p>
<p>If you're willing to dig a little deeper and see that life does not begin and end with the latest Hollister line, Ithaca offers a really unique exposure to a different mindset that most college grads headed off to big cities will probably never experience again. Ithaca was on the forefront of the organic food movement long before Whole Foods. It created its own monetary system and other very progressive and risky policies that have been emulated around the world. People who say it's in "the middle of nowhere" and leave it at that tend to need the reassurance of mainstream society's flow to validate their sense of self. Ithacans tend to live a step away from that. I can say that because I was one of the Cornellians who engaged with the city, not just the university.</p>
<p>That said, I would personally find it difficult to live in Ithaca long term. It's a great place to retire and go to college, but it can get rather small after a while. There's plenty enough to entertain and enthrall for 4 years, though. For example, it was where I first got interested in independent film and theatre, which usually takes living in a major city to do.</p>
<p>As for the weather - a professor put a map of North America up one class and said, "This is what they don't show you in the viewbook". Every major weather pattern crosses right over Ithaca. I, personally, don't remember the weather being an issue. I do like winter, but I remember co-ed tackle football games in the snow or swimming in the gorges rather than sitting in misery waiting for the clouds to go away. In the spring and fall, we played basketball outside. In the winter, inside. Not a big deal. No one ever mentions the weather when they think back on Cornell, not even sunshine staters. </p>
<p>I do remember Floridians being amazed at the first day of spring and the energy it creates. I do remember my neighbors piling snow from top to bottom against our door after the first real snow fall so that when my roommate from Southern California, who had never seen snow, opened the door he would freak out thinking we were completely snowed in (he almost had a heart attack - a wall of snow staring him in the face).</p>
<p>Based on the number of people I saw crying the day they were leaving after graduating, I think it's safe to say there's something about Ithaca and Cornell that transitions it from being "the middle of nowhere" to the middle of somewhere very meaningful for a lot of people from all different backgrounds.</p>