@jpm1234 Hi!
The political climate at Ithaca College, and in fact in Ithaca as a whole, is extremely liberal. There are a few clubs for conservatives on campus that are actively about conservative politics - IC Republicans and Young Americans for Liberty are the two I know about. I highly, highly recommend visiting campus before making a decision so you can gauge your own comfort level. You wouldn’t be ostracized as a conservative at IC, but you would be in the minority, and you need to decide if that’s something you’re comfortable with.
College decisions (as of last year, at least) were by snail mail and portal. I received my letter in snail mail well before my portal updated, I believe, but I think some of my friends found out about their acceptance via portal, so it could really go either way.
I explained what the social life was like in my previous reply, so I’ll just summarize it here: your social life will be whatever you make it. If you want a party, you can find one. If you want food, go to the Commons. If you wanna hike, they call Ithaca gorges for a reason. Don’t be afraid to go up to groups of people you see (easier said than done, I know,) because the people at Ithaca are really, really friendly. You’ll have friends and will be fine on the weekends, trust me. If you’ve already applied to the school, I highly recommend signing up for IC Peers! I made a lot of friends on there. It’s a great way to meet people in the same situation you’re in.
Good luck with the rest of your admissions process! Let me know if you have any other questions or need any clarification on anything I said! I hope to see you on campus next year!