<p>It's nice here like princeton, but it's not quite as upscale as princeton throughout. The town of princeton is kind of like NYC businessman's family utopia, with lots of stores you can't afford, etc. I would actually say princeton is a fairly decent comparison to ithaca, now that you mention it.</p>
<p>I don't know what new haven is like.</p>
<p>You should really visit if you're concerned about the city (and by city they mean town). Cornell's social scene <a href="as%20well%20as%20princeton's">b</a>** revolve very very heavily around the campus, but kids go off campus for shopping and sometimes to eat in restuarants. In terms of off campus opportunities there are a bunch of excellent restaurants, and a really nice downtown pedestrian mall (including some stores you can't afford, as the the NYC businessmen's daughters go to school here ;p, think like palmer square/downtown nassau st. in princeton). There is the "state theater" right next to the commons pedestrian mall, much like mccarter in princeton. Also there are several real malls a bus or carride away, just like marketfair and quakerbridge in princeton. There's a student ammenities district right on the edge of campus, called "collegetown," with apartments, bars/clubs, convenience stores, tons of restaurants, etc. Nothing like that in princeton though, as almost all students live on campus there.</p>
<p>I'm only a freshman, but one of the reasons I feel the atmosphere is so campus-centric (in addition to cornell being the primary industry in the area) is that there really is so much to do on campus. Amenities a college doesn't normally have, we have.</p>
<p>-If you want to go bird watching we have the sapsucker woods and the lab of ornithology (princeton has the institute woods next door)
-if you want to go bowling we have an alley on campus
-same goes for a movie theater
-if you want to go on a nature walk or w/e we have an exquisite botanical garden and wildflower garden. There are also the gorges and beebe lake which have some incredible views. <a href="princeton%20has%20lake%20carnegie%20and%20the%20toe-path,%20but%20no%20gorges%20:p">b</a>**
-If you want to do adventure sports, you can go cliff jumping...in the middle of campus. in the fall you can always find students jumping off the bridge and cliffs at the top of beebe lake into the deeper water of the gorge.</p>
<p>all in all, your question is very general. I know my examples of things to do on campus were really random, and that's because i don't know what you're looking for. in what capacity are you looking to use the city? what are your goals for experiencing it? what are your concerns? gomestar and I have tried to give you an idea of the atmosphere, but if you get into more specifics we can give you much better answers.</p>