<p>I was just wondering what the student life at Ithaca College was like. For instance what do people do for fun? Is IC a party school or a career-focused school? (a mixture of both I'm hoping). I applied to the Park School and am waiting to hear back, but it's never to early to start my pro/con lists!</p>
<p>Ithaca College is what you make of it: you want to party - no problem, want to study - no problem. I will say that if you get into the Park School, you will be doing more studying than partying. It is hard to get in to and you will work for four years. Over the past twenty years, there has been a strong and clear emphasis of moving from a party school to a top tier academic school. I know many faculty and they consider themselves a teaching college rather than a research college. They feel that the profs there are top notch lecturers and teachers, rather than just researchers who happen into a classroom. If you take that as a knock against Cornell, so be it. The Park School is really really good.</p>
<p>Ithaca’s a relatively small town, but it’s also definitely a college town (30,000 year-round residents, 30,000 students). That said, it’s not going to be as exciting as, say, New York City, but there’s still stuff to do. The Commons have a lot of cute shops, restaurants, bakeries, etc. It’s pretty nice.</p>
<p>The only really big con I can think of (for some people) is the snow. IC’s right on top of a hill, so if you’re not a big snow fan, walking into the rest of town might not be fun. On the other hand, there are some good skiing/snowboarding opportunities around too, so you can definitely make the most of that winter weather.</p>
<p>As for Park specifically, when I visited they mentioned that they’re far more hands-on than a lot of their competitors. At a lot of schools, it seems like you won’t actually get to “do stuff” until after your freshman or sophomore year, but Park is supposed to be big on making sure you’re actually getting firsthand experience from day one.</p>
<p>Hokay, well I can’t sleep, so I guess I’ll give you my perspective on Ithaca. (FTR, I’m a freshman tv-r major who hangs out with everything from music majors to cinema majors to premed majors.)</p>
<p>Ithaca is definitely a little bit of both a party school and a focused school. Most people do go out and drink on Friday and Saturday, but if that’s not your thing there’s not <em>too</em> much pressure to go out. People are usually too busy doing work during the week to party, excluding special occasions (like a birthday or something). There are kids who drink, like, every night, but they are most definitely a small minority.</p>
<p>If you don’t drink, you can find stuff to do. There is ALWAYS something going on around campus, but usually its not that well advertised, so I’d advise you to actually read the weekly online newsletter (intercom) and look at the bulletin boards around campus. Besides things held on campus, I’ve gone to concerts and movies countless times in town. I’ve also gone gorge-jumping, sledded down a giant hill on a cafeteria tray, sung in a spontaneous jam circle, and gone to a table read of a really cool play.</p>
<p>If you do want to drink, finding a party can be a little tricky for the first-semester freshman. The music majors always know where parties are, so if you hook up with some of them you’re pretty much set. In the winter, the big dilemma is whether or not it’s worth it to trek all the way up to the Circles (apartments) to a party.</p>
<p>If you smoke pot, you can pretty much do that any night, and, to some extent, anywhere. Use common sense. There are some dorm rooms that you can smoke in without getting caught and some you can’t. You’ll figure it out.</p>
<p>…Now that I think I’ve scarred you all, I’ll talk about student life outside of illicit activities.</p>
<p>There are so many clubs on campus that are looking for members. Again, not many of them advertise very well (odd for a school that specializes in marketing communications), but you’ll hear about them from people and I recommend you go. </p>
<p>A typical day for me consists of waking up around 8:15 am for my 9 am classes, going to class until ten, chilling/doing homework until noon when I go to lunch with my friends. I’ll probably do work in the pub or do errands or watch tv (tv is my major!) until two, when I go back to class. </p>
<p>I get out at 3 or 4, and then I either go do tech (for theater–I take theater production) or I hang out with people until 6, when I do dinner with friends. After dinner, I’ll either have a club meeting, I’ll hang out with people, or I’ll work on an ICTV show. </p>
<p>If it’s thursday, I don’t do dinner but instead go to Late Night, which is one of the cafeterias has food from 8-12 at night. The nights are themed, and Late Night kind of has a culture of its own. The most interesting people on campus will be there; take “interesting” how you will. </p>
<p>Some nights, if I don’t have too much homework, I’ll do a movie night with friends or something after Late Night. If I do have a lot of work, I’ll probably go to the library. I’ll do work from about ten to one, and by “do work” I mean procrastinate like crazy.</p>
<p>Then I go back to my room, text people until I fall asleep, and start all over again the next day.</p>
<p>That’s pretty much my life on a weekday. It’s nice, except for the early mornings. Random things:</p>
<p>*Ithaca does Humans vs. Zombies in a major way. It’s very fun but will take over your life on HvZ weeks</p>
<p>*TV-R majors’ classes that are a department requirement (media writing, media law) are kind of ridiculously easy. You will learn though. And the production/scriptwriting classes are NOT ridiculously easy at all. You’ll think you have no work then you’ll get hit with a ton at random times.</p>
<p>*Professors are really really nice and willing to help (and cool people) if you reach out to them. Park professors generally have you call them by their first name; it’s that kind of school.</p>
<p>*The dorms and food both kind of suck. Both are really really average. The closest dining hall to me closes at 6:30 PM on weekends. There aren’t that many “suites”, so if you don’t want to live in the hinterlands (emerson), get used to sharing a bathroom with your hall.</p>
<p>*Ithaca kind of lets you be whoever you want to be. Even if you’re tragically and depressingly uncool, you will have kindred spirits at Ithaca. If you’re tragically hip, ditto.</p>
<p>*The first year dorms really become a community. It’s cool how I hang out with so many people in my building.</p>
<p>*Finally, if you can and you’re a math person, take a class from Jim Conklin. He is my life and the best teacher I’ve ever had, anywhere.</p>
<p>That sounds pretty good; at any college, there’s going to be a party scene, so it’s to be expected! I got accepted to the Park school on January 25, I might be attending!</p>
<p>Congratulations. My DS wants to go to Ithaca next year for film but I have heard its the hardest major ot get into. Which area are you admitted to and if you wouldn’t mind, what are your stats?</p>
<p>Wow, really? I had no idea it was the HARDEST major to get into; I thought maybe it was somewhat difficult, and I know their program is pretty good.</p>
<p>My class rank is 1, my GPA is a 95.74 / 100, and my SAT score is a 1780 (540 CR, 630 M, 610 Writing.</p>
<p>My SAT score is definitely my weakness, whereas my ECs are my strength. I’m the president and founder of my school’s guitar club, have had a film internship for the past two years, own and operate my own film business and am captain of my school’s video team. :)</p>