<p>Cornell is famous for having good food for a college. Women tend to be finicky about food so women's colleges such as Mount Holyoke tend to have very good food. Rural private colleges tend to have very good food to keep their source of income contented so I would expect Kenyon to have very good food. I would be surprised if Macalester's food weren't more than acceptable.</p>
<p>I have only seen Cornell and Mount Holyoke in person, and will only comment on their appearance.</p>
<p>Cornell is in a very rural part of New York that is particularly attractive. There are places on campus, particularly on the walks to and from the main campus to the dorms or nearby in town housing, where the views are spectacular. The main campus also has several spectacular, but small, gardens in its center. As a medium/large university, ~20,000 students in all, the main campus is more built up than the other schools you mentioned and the scenery is hidden on many of the more direct routes between classes. The architecture is variable. Many of the older buildings have great character, particularly the one that was one of the first student unions in the country. The newer buildings are more variable and don't fit in as well with the older buildings as those at the smaller schools I have visited. </p>
<p>Ithaca is large for a college town, ~30,000, but small enough that you can get from the city center to farmland in about 15 minutes. The part of Ithaca near Cornell is very oriented towards college students. There is also a pedestrian mall region further from the college that is attractive. The environment, while not quire as charming as Charlottesville or Burlington, is attractive and well suited for almost any student. The surrounding rural area is largely farmland, with some vinyards. The farms are very attractive, and the finger lakes and hills provide interesting variety and ready access to outdoors activities.</p>
<p>Cornell is undoubtably the most prestigious of the schools on your list.. Its faculty are strong in almost every area of study. However you can also expect it to have larger classes, particularly at the freshman level. The freshman psycology class, filled to the brim with 1300 students, is the most often quoted example. It will also rey on graduate students for supplemental teaching. FWIW the international population is particularly large in both numbers an proportion.</p>
<p>Mount Holyoke is about 12% the size of Cornell. Its older buildings are in a Gothic style that give it great character. It relies more on trees for its landscaping than does Cornell, and I appreciated the sense of solitude provided by them. (Wellesley and Smith, with landscaping originally designed by Olmsted, make even more spectacular use of the landscape, trees and shrubs in particular.) The newer buildings fit in well with the older ones, partly because, with its smaller population, there has been less of a premium on space. The student center had great intimacy, even though it was a converted athletic facility. A large portion of the space is given over to an excellent arboretum. The on campus equestrian facility is also large.</p>
<p>Mount Holyoke has a minimal college town. South Hadley is very small. What there is near Mount Holyoke is relatively high quality for a student oriented are, but there is not much of a student oriented area. Northampton, near Smith, is much more interesting, and only about half an hour away.</p>
<p>Outside of South Hadley the area of Massachusetts near Mount Holyoke might best be described as semi-rural. Farming in that area was difficult, and largely disappeared in the mid 1800s replaced by small industrial towns, separated by small woods, a few specialty farms, and fewer private estates. The collapse of much of New England industry in the mid 1900s, was largely compensated by the growth of the education industry, UMass Amherst in particular. The result is an atractive mix with near suburban population densities, at least near South Hadley. Outdoor activities are available, but better in the Berkshires a half hour away. The Berkshires are spectacularly beautiful.</p>
<p>Mount Holyoke is a very good school, but is probably the least prestigious of the schools you mentioned. It was the first woman's higher education school in the states, but by the early 1900's Wellesley and Smith were more respected. However it has an excellent reputation at Biology and Chemistry, your main areas of interest, and I found the new science building very attractive. Proportionally it has a very large international population, about 20%. As with many other educational consortia, making use of the resources at the other "five colleges" is awkward due to the driving distances, about 20 minutes to Smith or Amherst.</p>