<p>I have heard from some of my peers that Cornell is in a rural location and hence kind of isolated from the world.</p>
<p>They say that one needs to travel several kilometers to come across a shop or a market.</p>
<p>Is this true? </p>
<p>I can find pictures of the university online, but cannot find anything on the area around it.</p>
<p>Could some current/past students of Cornell let me know some more about the setting of Cornell? </p>
<p>It’s true Cornell is not very near a mega- city, but that does not mean people there are slogging through cornfields, living in log cabins or can’t shop anyplace…</p>
<p>It is located in Ithaca, NY, a city of 30,000, swelled during the year by some 30,000 students, Ithaca is considered the cultural hub for a wide surrounding area of the Finger Lakes region. For this reason. major performers stop in Ithaca, between gigs in The Northeast and Canada. As a major research institution, the university draws many lecturers to campus. It is not isolated from the world, the world comes to Ithaca. It is its own destination. To an extent.</p>
<p>There are movies, there is theater. There are plenty of restaurants.There is also amazing natural beauty.</p>
<p>And yes, there are shops and markets. .
Actually the Wegmans chain of supermarkets in upstate new York is the best I’ve seen, I wish we had them where I live.
Where it is weakest IMO in certain types of shopping, such as jewelry, high-end clothing, things like that. But for items needed by a student to survive, there is no need to go anyplace else.</p>
<p>Binghamton (metro pop 250,000 ) is an hour away; Syracuse (metro 730,000 ) is 1-1/4 hrs away, Rochester (metro 1.1 million ) is 2 hours away, Buffalo (metro 1.1 million ) is 2-3/4 hrs away, NYC and Toronto are about 4-1/2 hrs, Montreal is about 5 hours.</p>
<p>Students can walk to dining and some shopping on campus and in the Collegetown area that is immediately adjacent to campus. Much of the rest is downtown, accessible by the TCAT bus system or, better yet, grab a friend with a car.</p>
<p>Some links:
<a href=“12 Reasons Why Ithaca, New York Is the Best College Town in America”>12 Reasons Why Ithaca, New York Is the Best College Town in America;
<a href=“Ithaca, New York - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaca,_New_York</a></p>
<p><a href=“Some Pictures - Cornell University - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cornell-university/235783-some-pictures.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cornell-university/1638407-what-s-happening.html?new=1”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cornell-university/1638407-what-s-happening.html?new=1</a></p>
<p>Thanks @monydad</p>
<p>From the links you posted, esp the third link, Cornell sure seems like an idyllic heaven :)</p>
<p>What you heard is pretty much true.
It’s a small town setting with a big campus. Some people love it while others find it boring, it depends what you prefer.</p>
<p>For smaller town (ie, not NYC/Boston/Philly) within walking distance to shopping center & movie theater, Brown is more ideal (my son loves to walk with his friends to the mall/movie theater to chill-out after stressful mid-terms & finals).</p>
<p>Hey! The above posts are true. I’ve lived in Ithaca my entire life, so if you have more specific questions about it, let me know!</p>
<p>It’s not so much that Ithaca is bad (and it is)-- it’s that you CANNOT go anywhere else unless you’re willing to travel five hours for NYC.</p>
<p>Syracuse is an awful, awful city. So are Binghamton, Rochester, Buffalo, etc. Why anyone would want to live or travel to those places is beyond me.</p>
<p>I think it beautiful and you wont get bored, if I could describe it all in one word… I would say ‘cozy’</p>
<p>Nearly any list about college campuses and about college towns lists Cornell and Ithaca as near the top of the list and certainly in the top 10. If you could imagine a perfect college campus in a perfect college town you would imagine Cornell in Ithaca. It is a wonderful place to spend 4-6 of the best years of your life in. Would you want to stay there forever? Well some people do stay. But most people grow out of a college town after 4-6 years and desire a bigger place. Since most Cornell students graduate in that time span…all good!</p>
<p>“Why anyone would want to live or travel to those places is beyond me.”</p>
<p>Happy to explain.</p>
<p>While not tourist destinations, they have their occasional utility, as larger population centers much closer than NYC, offering additional shopping and additional events. Or just for diversion; someplace to go and check out. All of those cities have universities with college students, hence stuff of potential interest to same.</p>
<p>For example. I traveled from Ithaca to to Buffalo in [1973?] to see The Grateful Dead play there.
Which is why I didn’t mind passing a few years later when the Dead played at Barton Hall at Cornell .
My luck, Deadheads consider that Barton Hall concert to be among their best; the tapes from it are widely bootlegged.</p>
<p>Syracuse has the NY State fair and Dinosaur BBQ. Which I think is overrated but a lot of people seem to think is a big deal. Vestal Parkway near Binghamton U has every big box and chain store imaginable. Rochester has Abbotts Frozen Custard, If nothing else. They all have concerts,theater, live music, etc. that are not necessarily coming to Ithaca and may be of interest. On the rare occasion.</p>
<p>Frankly a lot of those people probably come to Ithaca too, since it is perceived as having a lot going on in the area.</p>
<p>Ithaca is repeatedly ranked the number one collegetown in America, along with being the number one at a lot of other things. There’s honestly no way to describe it; you really just have to come live here for yourself. I loved it enough to opt to stay here another four years. My parents both grew up in Ithaca and my mom later went to Cornell, both went on to live elsewhere for a while, and both ultimately returned again to Ithaca to start a family. One Cornell professor I interviewed described Ithaca as a black hole because no matter what you do, it always sucks you back.</p>
<p>“But most people grow out of a college town after 4-6 years and desire a bigger place.”</p>
<p>For many it’s not so much a bigger place, IMO, as they need to progress on to their careers, find their destinies, etc,. And there aren’t many ways to continue on and develop the type of careers they want while staying in a college town. If there was more suitable employment around, many more people would stay on. That’s ultimately the main reason D2 (finally) left. Otherwise, with half the population being between 20-30, it would be a great place for 20-somethings to stay on longer if they could. </p>
<p>Some Cornell faculty have described it as a gilded cage because post tenure it is hard to move and Ithaca is a pretty place but it can be confining and limited after a certain point. Even if you have a job.</p>
<p>It depends probably on how you live your life, and what you like to do.
Personally I don’t really do much more here in the NYC suburbs than I would do in Ithaca.
Actually I would probably do more in Ithaca. I’d probably have a boat on the lake, and go skiing regularly, since it’s so close. Probably play more music there too. I’d also walk a lot more there, which would be better for my health.</p>
<h1>6 above described it as “cozy” actually I think that’s a brilliant descriptor.my compliments.</h1>
<p>If one likes “cozy” they could like it there for the duration. If not, then eventually maybe not.
But we agree it is certainly fine for four years, we are quibbling about how much beyond that it is also good for,.</p>
<p>@saugus As someone who lives in Rochester, I can tell you it is a wonderful place to live, and I have lived in a lot of places. And there is a lot more than just Abbotts. The original Dinosaur BBQ is here, the University of Rochester is here, as is the Eastman School of Music. The Xerox International jazz festival, the Erie canal, Lake Ontario are all wonderful things to enjoy in the summer. The winter is long but people are always out taking advantage of the season. And Ithaca and the Finger Lakes with all their beauty are a short drive away. Don’t know how you could call Ithaca bad, either. </p>
<p>Dinosaur Barbecue is nothing special. I’m not sure why everyone always brings it up.</p>
<p>A better reason would be the deserted Destiny USA (Carousel) mall. But even that isn’t worth traveling to. I don’t know. Ithaca (counting Cornell) probably has more to do than most non-major cities in the US, but it sucks that you can’t get out easily.</p>
<p>@saugus You should check your info before you give out advice. Destiny is not deserted in any sense of the word. Also, it is not that hard to get out of Ithaca, since there are multiple buses to NYC every day if you really need to get away (although many students would ask why they would want to.) OP, if you need to go to school where you can go to all the hottest clubs, Ithaca (and most college towns) would not be for you. But if you want to go where you can live a quintessential college experience for a few years, Ithaca would be well worth visiting and seeing for yourself.</p>
<p>My D wanted big city for college and her three choices came down to Georgetown, and Upenn. Cornell was not on her list until we visited. She loved Collegetown, said it felt kind SOHO. Although its not in NYC, DC or Boston she said she liked the fact that they had a bus that stops in the campus that could get her to White Plains or NYC. </p>
<p>"…it is not that hard to get out of Ithaca, since there are multiple buses to NYC every day if you really need to get away "</p>
<p>Agree.
Cornell has its own NYC buses that actually leave right from campus, for goodness sake. Short of a magic carpet it doesn’t get less “hard” than this, for that particular destination.</p>
<p>If you have access to a car- and many upperclassmen do, ether themselves or via friends- the above-cited destinations are readily available, as are many others. If you don’t have access, nearly every weekend there are students driving to various destinations, many of whom are interested in sharing gas costs. There used to be a ride board in the Straight to connect with them, now I guess Ithaca Craigslist rideshare does this?. Shortlines and Greyhound buses stop in ithaca, and there is an airport too.</p>
<p>So in fact it is not any “harder” to get out of Ithaca than most other places.
But for a a day trip, if you summarily reject all the places you can get to easily as being “unworthy”, as that poster does, then you might feel like that.</p>
<p>I, however, never felt like that. The few times I wanted to get out, I got out. and I had no trouble getting to NYC, even then, when we did not have buses leaving right from campus. Though I rarely went, except on vacations.</p>
<p>It is definitely helpful to have access to a car there though, in the latter college years. That is true in ithaca, and equally true virtually anyplace that does not have a subway system. But actually one can do more in Ithaca without a car than you can in most places.</p>
<p>"(although many students would ask why they would want to.) "
Agree with this more. And it is more to the point. Most people I knew were too busy conducting their lives in Ithaca to want to leave much. My parents had trouble getting me to come home from there, and I had the same trouble with my D2 when she was there. Our friends’ kid, who just graduated , likewise had to be pried out of there. I can’t think of anyone I personally knew who went there and spent time bemoaning its accessibility to someplace else. They were too busy being where they were.</p>
“Syracuse is an awful, awful city. So are Binghamton, Rochester, Buffalo . . . Why anyone would want to travel to those places is beyond me.”
I’m pretty sure the people in these cities are not in deep despair regarding your absence.
I go to Cornell. I don’t need to check anything. I didn’t say I hate Ithaca, I’m just not going to be a homer and claim everything people say about it is a myth.
Sure, there are multiple buses to NYC every day. They cost $82.50 each way and take approximately five hours. That’s not exactly easy.