<p>“Ithaca, in general, is dirty. The citizens of Ithaca are all ugly and dress like hobos, and the whole area is fairly depressing. The Triangle is happy, warm, and friendly. It’s a no-brainer for atmosphere”</p>
<p>I completely disagree and from the sounds of it, you haven’t left your dorm in the last six months besides the occasional trip to target. </p>
<p>I’ve lived her for the past year and a half and have a few things to say. First of all, ithaca is a city filled with hippies. Their influence is everywhere. The communal agriculture-food scene (everything from restraunts, to green star, to the farmers market), the music scene (john browns body, thousands of one, tons of other bands), the pot/drug scene, and the general outdoorsy nature of the population here are all big parts of townie culture here. You get a very different flavor of things in collegetown but dont call ithaca a dirty city, and don’t say everyone dresses like hobo’s. Its not true If you’re only trips outside the palace for cornell are to wallmart then of course your interactions will be with people resembling ■■■■■ like people. Ithaca is beautiful from Mid April through november, and in january and february with the snow (I love the snow). I would say the only months times you will be in town with bad weather are fall semester after november, and march through the second week of april. As to the innate beauty of the place, every day I walk to class over a gorge that might as well be a state park. I live about a 2 minute walk from a big creek that is a place where tons of people go swimming. If you want to invest the time to get to know the city like I have, you will REALLY appreciate it. Ithaca is a very cool place, but its not like the suburbs where most people here grew up. Cool activities aren’t thrust upon you in a strip mall with neon lights, you have to find them, and its not hard, but it just takes a little bit of effort.</p>
<p>DarkIce, being a community college transfer, you should be worshipping Cornell. I mean, if an ivy league institution saved my future by accepting me from a cc, I would never ever even think of denigrating anything about it.</p>
<p>If you’re being sarcastic, I really don’t see it.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why people take such offense because I dislike a city. Honestly people - you need to calm down. I’m a Cornell student and I love Cornell - the campus itself is great, the people are friendly, etc. I simply said that the Triangle region is a better area. That’s a matter of opinion. There’s no reason to be rude simply because you disagree. </p>
<p>Also - I agree that Durham isn’t the best city. I mainly mean Raleigh-Cary-Chapel Hill. Durham is sort of the ghetto city of the Triangle, and I rarely go there. The other 3 cities however (easily accessible by car) are very nice.</p>
<p>As for picking a college due to weather - yes it makes sense. If you can’t adjust to the HORRIBLE upstate NY weather, it could make your time at Cornell miserable. I’m giving the OP advice.</p>
<p>Both are great schools. You can not go wrong with either. That makes it harder for you I realize.</p>
<p>I sense that you are southern person. If so, maybe going to Cornell will give you an education about living in the north. I was born and raised in NYC and went to a rural school in another state. It completely changed my perspective on the world. </p>
<p>College is about a new experience as well as a great education. Education takes place in the class and out.</p>
<p>“I sense that you are southern person. If so, maybe going to Cornell will give you an education about living in the north. I was born and raised in NYC and went to a rural school in another state. It completely changed my perspective on the world.”</p>
<p>morrismm,
I’ve been at Cornell for years, and I learned all about living in the North. I hate it. It’s too cold, dirty, and everything is very old. Personally, that’s not my taste. Experience and education does not mean I have to like everything. I have decided I dislike the North quite a bit, and that’s my opinion.</p>
<p>DarkIce - I don’t understand why you keep on using the word dirty in describing Ithaca or North in general. I have visited Cornell many times, and I think it is one of the most beautiful places. My sister lives in NC. I have visited her many times. I have seen a lot of run down trailer parks, and a lot of beautiful mansions. In comparison, I don’t see why NC would be more beautiful than New England. If you want to talk about old, South is old. South is more about tradition and old money.</p>
<p>My Ithaca is the same as Tboone’s. I like it there, and probably wouldn’t like Durham, from what I’ve read about it. But some people feel otherwise. To each their own.</p>
<p>I said Raleigh-Cary, not Durham…I’ve repeated that many times.</p>
<p>And the South may be old and have trailer parks, sure, but I specifically said the Triangle - Raleigh-Cary-Chapel Hill, etc. It is a very nice, new area. It’s liberal, educated, and not about “old money and tradition” like some other southern cities. I do think Cornell is beautiful as well, but Ithaca, the city, is pretty old and ugly. I say dirty because I’m used to the standards of the Triangle area, and I find the standards to be much lower in Ithaca.</p>
<p>To each his own. Everyone loves and hates different areas for different reasons.</p>
<p>Anyway, the point is I’m a little tired of lying about my school to protect its yield and ranking. I love Cornell, I think it’s amazing, and a great option for many people - but everyone needs to know the facts. The bottom line is the weather here is very miserable. The ground is chronically covered in nasty slush/mud, and it feels like winter never ends. Case in point: It flurried today. Snow just a week from May!? It’s ridiculous. And I just find Ithaca to be very dirty, run-down, and depressing. Apartments for students off-campus are usually quite expensive (for a city of this size and location) and are usually old and a tad abused, and very few have AC (which is really weird to me - it’s like people try to be miserable here). Weather and location are important factors when choosing a school, and I’m making sure the OP (and others) understand that while Cornell is a great institution, you must make sacrifices in some areas to attend. Since I happen to have experience with both Cornell and The Triangle, I knew I could give good advice about location differences. I can’t comment on the campus of Duke or the student body. From what I hear, students tend to be a little more snobby at Duke, while Cornell students are fairly laid back and down to Earth.</p>
<p>I don’t think my daughter’s apartment(s) is ever run down. We don’t give her more money than what Cornell charges for room. She is also very good at finding sublets below market price, like at 312.</p>
<p>DarkIce - I don’t think anything you could say would have any impact on Cornell’s reputation or yield. You are entitled to your opinion. I just find it sad that someone could be stuck at place where they are just so unhappy. Have you thought about transfer?</p>
<p>D2 visited Stanford and Berkeley. She liked Berkeley better than Stanford because she thought Stanford was too clean. She then crossed out CA because it’s too sunny. She is narrowing down her ED to Cornell and Brown because she likes the NE weather - rain and snow included. </p>
<p>You see, it is different for each person. It would be hard for me to believe OP wouldn’t know weather in Ithaca is different than weather in Durham. On the other hand, Ithaca’s weather is no different than most of NE. For any perspective students, if cold weather is going to be a deal breaker then they would need to cross out huge number of schools.</p>
<p>The weather is fine, but I’m from the Northeast and don’t mind 4 seasons. I prefer it, actually. </p>
<p>
The average temp. is around 60 for this time of year, a tiny bout of flurries is the exception to the norm. The same can be said for tornadoes in NC.</p>
<p>oldfort, I’m not miserable, I’m happy here but the weather does sometimes get me down. It’s not enough to force me to transfer though. Had I known ahead of time, however, I would have thought twice about coming here. </p>
<p>I disagree that Ithaca weather is like the rest of the NE. I have many friends in other NE cities and they have had much warmer weather. For example, it is currently 16 degrees warmer in NYC than Ithaca. Upstate NY is much colder than many areas.</p>
<p>Off topic…DarkIce, have you thought about light therapy in the winter? A lot of people get depressed when there is lack of sun light. I went to Colgate, 30 years later, some of my classmates still remember me refusing to go out from Nov to Feb (but I did, just with a lot of pushing). Now, Hamilton is a depressing town, but the school is beautiful.</p>
<p>Bottomline is that Darkice has a right to express his opinions. I personally find it refreshing that someone is being honest rather than sugarcoating their experience with emotions and phrases like “Ithaca is the most beautiful town I have ever seen!” (quite a few of those people on this thread…)</p>
<p>It’s the same deal with every college. I’m going to UCLA this fall and I keep hearing all of these things about how “breathtaking” the campus is and how absolutely great Westwood is as a collegetown. Luckily, I’ve been working at UCLA throughout high school and I know for a fact that all of these words of admiration are examples of hyperbole and BS. Sure, UCLA has a GOOD campus and it is moderately beautiful. Westwood is satisfactory at best as a collegetown. (But I’m happy with UCLA all the same).</p>
<p>Hyping any school based on your own emotions is not going to help this OP or any other student looking for advice. If you’re looking for true beauty and cleanliness, move to Europe (trust me, it beats the heck out of what you find in the U.S).</p>
<p>Plus, @Colm: Those pictures you linked are mediocre at best, and that NYTimes column you quoted is just the type of overhyped BS I’ve been talking about in this post…</p>
<p>People who think Ithaca is incredibly beautiful are definitely engaging in “hyperbole”…just check out the ho-hum Ithaca images in the link above.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting Colm, as the pictures are gorgeous. The reality is many Cornell students enjoy Ithaca soo much they never leave - they become townies. The town is filled with former students. And I soo totally understand…</p>
<p>All you’re doing is posting a bunch of pictures of waterfalls that most Cornell students don’t get a chance to experience on a daily basis. I’m talking about the daily college experience: the environment that the students will see as they are studying (without having to wear swimming trunks…), the place where they can go hang out with their friends for an hour after class. Sure, I could go biking in Temescula valley overlooking the Pacific Ocean and be happy has hell, but will I be able to do that every day? Obviously NOT. It’s overhyped.</p>