<p>wow...most people make it sound like you're living on a farm. It's a really great place..I think it was in the "Top places to live in" for this one article...lemme find it and post it on here later.</p>
<p>that would be great!!!!</p>
<p>hmm what does "hick" mean? Hillbillie?</p>
<p>I don't think that it is accurate to characterize Ithaca as "rural." Ithaca is a city (albeit a small one) of nearly 30,000 people. The students (of Cornell, Ithaca College, Thompkins Community College) add about 30,000 more people to the area. Here is a short but descriptive article about Ithaca and Thompkins County <a href="http://www.tompkinschamber.org/?t=121&ID=4%5B/url%5D">http://www.tompkinschamber.org/?t=121&ID=4</a>.</p>
<p>Once you are out of Ithaca and its surrounding areas, you will find farms/rural areas. But in and around Ithaca you have incredibly beautiful scenery that isn't well characterized as "rural." Search for "Ithaca NY photos" and you can see for yourself what is in and around Ithaca.</p>
<p>i took your advice and its really gorgeous thank you.</p>
<p>Join the club yankee. My town doesn't even have a street of stores. We have one blinking stop light and then one real stop light next to the school (combined elementary-middle-and junior high school). We don't even have our own highschool. It's just smalllll. Then I went to highschool in the neighboring farm town so that was also a small school with farm animals in back n stuff (I wasn't an ager tho lol...bout 1/3 of the students were). So Ithaca is awesommmmme to me. Cornell itself is like a giant city to me lol.</p>
<p>I'm with Odyssey ... I would describe Cornell as a medium to big school in a college town. Personally when I went for visits it became clear that, for me, going to school in a college town was MUCH more appealing than going to college in a big city ... or going to small school in a small town.</p>
<p>I essentially live in Boston ... lots of folks describe Boston as a great collegetown. I would describe it differently ... going to school in Boston allows you to spend time in a city great for young adults while also attending school. Meanwhile attending a college in a collegetown ... like Cornell in Ithaca ... allows you to immerse yoruself in your college experience while have a nice small city around the school where the school is often a focal point of things in the city. Further down the spectrum are some really small LACs in some pretty small towns. </p>
<p>For me Cornell (medium/big school) in a small college city was the perfect blend. I didn't want to live in a city and ride the city public transit to college ... and I didn't want to live in an isolated place where I would know most of the kids all the places in town by my senior year.</p>
<p>Well, it has some houses... XD</p>
<p>if you're from central NY area (rural) ithaca will be nice for you...</p>
<p>i'm from houston area and well ithaca is tiny...sure it is quaint...but it makes me wonder what going to school in the city would be like...</p>
<p>You have your post-college years to live in a big city. If you go to grad school or go directly to work -- choose a big city at that time. If you go to work in a big city, you might have more money at that time than you would as an undergraduate to enjoy the things a big city offers (and often doesn't offer cheaply). In the meantime, enjoy Ithaca for undergrad.</p>
<p>3togo, I dont often hear that, but I'm ridiculously excited to go to college in Boston and in a big city. I've lived in Suburbia my whole life and needed to be in a city. While Suburbia isn't the greatest, IMO it's certainly better than being in a place like Ithaca.</p>
<p>There isn't anything wrong with being in a big city (Boston or NYC) for undergraduate. It is simply a different kind of experience than being at a large school in a small city or a college town. And suburbia isn't anything like being in school in Ithaca. In my opinion, suburbia is by far a less exciting place to be than Ithaca/Cornell.</p>
<p>well like i've said...life does revolve around campus, but sometimes i want to escape the college life...and well without a car, one can't do that...</p>
<p>i didn't have a car my first year on campus and I had no trouble 'getting away' - the busses went everywhere and most people I knew had a car anyways.</p>
<p>i guess some people dont ever need to be alone</p>
<p>do you prefer to be in a big city to be alone?</p>
<p>some people do, but i suck it up...</p>
<p>It is very small - there's not much of anything to do, except hiking in the gorges. Cycling is difficult because it is a very hilly area. The "town" is pretty devoid of interesting places or restaurants beyond the standard collegetown fare, and closes very early. Also, it isn't close enough to any major city to do any daytrips, unless you count Syracuse (which I wouldn't, personally, given that it is a very depressed place), but even that lacks a good mass transit connection. So you're kind of stuck there. </p>
<p>Luckily, Cornell has a decent social scene on campus, because it is a large university but isn't in a large city that totally "sucks the life out of campus" like what you have at Columbia. There are also a couple of popular bars off campus.</p>
<p>I take offense to that last post. There is certainly a lot to do off-campus - many theater events, concerts, classes in Ithaca alone, and then you have the many performances and activities on the campus of Ithaca College. The Commons is rich in good restaurants (in a variety of cuisines and atmospheres far from what you'll find in Collegetown) stores, events, etc. Just sitting and doing work on a nice day in the Commons is interesting in itself. Downtown also extends beyond the Commons -some of the nicest parks and restaurants are just on the outskirts or in different hamlets of the town.
Enough people go to Syracuse to make it a feasible trip, and while it does not have the draw of say, New York City, it is still a nice trip to take to visit the big mall and go to some great restaurants.</p>
<p>I'll agree with ceruleanyankee on this one, completely. </p>
<p>"Cycling is difficult because it is a very hilly area."
1. The campus is fine for cycling.
2. ithaca is great for cycling training - I'm on the cycling team, trust me. </p>
<p>"there's not much of anything to do, except hiking in the gorges"
you havn't been exploring then, there's no way you'd say that if you'd actually tried.</p>
<p>"The "town" is pretty devoid of interesting places or restaurants beyond the standard collegetown fare"
Ithaca is home to some of the most famous and highly rated restaurants in all of New York state. tip for you: collegetown subway doesn't count as 'real' ithaca food, try The Heights.</p>