<p>Cornell....and what else? Would you say RPI next if interested in engineering?</p>
<p>What about in general, S (16)does not know what he wants to major in yet.</p>
<p>definitely colgate and hamilton.</p>
<p>I wouldn't exactly call Cornell rural, but if your criteria is upstate New York, small to medium sized town/city, I would say that Ithaca College, Colgate and RPI, as well as SUNY Binghamton, Albany and Oswego are good. It depends upon what you are looking for. As far as liberal arts schools go, perhaps Vassar or Union College would work. None of these are really rural, though.</p>
<p>Colgate was my choice among these and actually about 1/3 of the people at Colgate who applied to Cornell got in, but still come to Colgate. After that, I would say Hamilton and although not really rural, then Union. Vassar is probably academically considered as strong as Colgate, but having been all female until the mid 1980's has a different feel to it that would need to be specifically investigated to see if it was a good fit. RPI isn't rural either (less so than Cornell), but would definitely be the next choice after Cornell for engineering or any probably any science (RPI ranks #3 in sending its grads to PhDs in engineering after Cornell & MIT). SUNY Geneseo is probably the best state school in NY and is pretty rural as well.</p>
<p>SUNY Plattsburgh. Beautiful semi-rural location near the lake. Nice campus and generally good academics.</p>
<p>Depending on what you're looking to do and considering both schools are about the same size, I would say SUNY Geneseo would be a lot more respected than SUNY Plattsburgh.</p>
<p>SUNY Geneseo: 1281 avg SAT, 41% accepted, 51% in top 10%
SUNY Plattsburgh: 1043 avg SAT, 62% accepted, 10% in top 10%</p>
<p>is vassar considered rural? if so its good</p>
<p>I got the impression it was more suburban than rural.</p>
<p>Cornell, Colgate, Vassar, Hamilton</p>
<p>Vassar's not rural. Poughkeepsie is a city (albeit a small one), but it's only 2 hours out of New York City. It is definitely more suburban, not rural. Albany is also not rural. It's the state capital and while smaller than New York City, it is a good sized one.</p>
<p>Skidmore, on the other hand, is definitely rural.</p>
<p>SUNY-Potsdam, if you're a music major</p>
<p>Cornell isn't in a rural environment, but Ithaca is not a huge city either. Colgate is good, too (though Cornell wins the cross-admit race). </p>
<p>My picks:
Hamilton
Colgate
Hobart and William Smith (nice town on a lake)
Geneseo
Vassar</p>
<p>What about Syracuse?</p>
<p>Syracuse is far from rural. 400,000 or so people make up the city and the suburbs</p>