I’ve been looking into these colleges and I really want at least a college town with restaurants/cinemas to enjoy on my days off (without classes). Do you guys know anything about the social life and college towns surrounding Bowdoin/Cornell/Hamilton (if there are any)? Any advice appreciated.
Ithaca, NY is an amazing college town. And the Cornell campus itself is large and jam-packed with activities. You will never lack for something to do.
By the way, you won’t have “days off.” But you’ll have a little time to have fun.
Cornell is located in one of the country’s best college towns.
Hamilton is six miles from an 80-story mall and adjacent cinema, accessible by the college-run Jitney on an hourly departure basis. The village of Clinton itself offers restaurants and shops, some of which appear to be quite popular with students.
Bowdoin is basically just 1 long street of shops, cafes and food trucks. Portland is 27 miles away, probably closest real “town.”
In terms of areas that are somewhat farther away, Syracuse is 45 minutes from Hamilton and has been named by Travel & Leisure as its top college town (in America).
There’s no question Cornell has in the largest college town of the three, one that supports a couple colleges and is beautifully set right next to the Finger Lakes. I thought it was great. That said, my S found it too big – he was looking for more suburban/rural, so it’s all a matter of what you’re looking for.
Hamilton is located on the outskirts of a tiny town, but not really “in” it. Bowdoin is smack in the middle of it’s town of Brunswick, so you walk or bike a block off the campus and you’re in the small shopping district. It’s a tourist town in the summer and is popular enough to host the largest summer theatre program in Maine.
Hamilton is not too far from a larger town, Utica, about 10-15 minutes away. Not really a tourist destination though so the kinds of shops and restaurants you encounter aren’t the same. Not bad, just different.
About the same distance as Hamilton is from Utica, you can get to Freeport, Maine from Bowdoin. Freeport is small but is home to a major shopping village that people travel hours to visit, including a department store-sized flagship LL Bean that is open 24/7 (because the company is based in the town). Bowdoin also has an Amtrak station right across the street from campus so you can hop on a train and be at the outlet town in 15 minutes or Portland – a city larger than Cornell’s Ithaca – in about 45 minutes. The same train line can get you to Boston and from there anywhere in the northeast. Portland also has an International airport.
From where we live, Bowdoin was the furthest away of the three by far, but actually had the easiest non-car transportation. There’s tons of daily direct flights in/out of Portland and students can walk from their dorms to Amtrak and pretty much get anywhere (not that cheap or fast though). Hamilton “felt” the most remote of the three, which was deceptive because it’s closer to major cities – Syracuse and Albany – than Cornell but because Cornell was already in a medium-sized city versus Hamilton being surrounded by rural land, it didn’t feel like it.
typo (post 2): 80-store mall.
OP, at any of these, you can, with varying degrees of effort, get the amenities of a town. You may be well served to think about how you’d like to use those and why. Do you want to be able to meet a friend for a meal off campus in the course of a day? If movies are shown on campus, does that make a cinema less necessary? Your question is a good one in and of itself but also because it may help you clarify what kind of experience you want. If easy access – on your own 2 feet – is the objective, it could shape your search.