Are Ithaca and Hanover major metropolitan Meccas? No. But Hanover, particularly right off campus, is charming. That said, thought the OP said that were unlikely to get into these schools, so it may be a non-issue.
Neither of you know the areas that well apparently. Fuzzz, I don’t expect you to but you have some image of uncultured red necks with no access to culture. While it is different culture it is by no means inferior or rare. I honestly doubt you will be in need of anything in either place, even a jetsetter like you.
The area from Woodstock, VT to Hanover and up to Pomfret, VT is very Town & Country with a multitude of shops, agribusinesses and very fine restaurants. It is basically the winter playground for the afflluent from Boston.
I was laughing at the two items Hanna mentioned as if there are no movies or ethnic foods in those two locations.
Totally ridiculous…
I took @Hanna’s comment to mean that the OP was probably asking about things like proximity/availability of conveniences and things with which he/she is familiar. Not that these weren’t available in Ithaca or Hanover. Of course they are, and @Hanna knows that.
@spayurpets Your are exactly correct. Kids rarely leave a zone around campus, even on the weekends.
@jym626 The whole discussion is silly, basically it is just urban elitism, as a native NYer I hear it all the time. The same people that talk down about the suburbs or country locations are the same people that rarely leave a three block area around their apartments and talk a good game about culture but do virtually nothing.
Apparently Hanna does not. Perhaps she should use more specific language.
Also, even in NY not everything is right outside your door. Often it requires travel of some sort and on many occasions not always that efficient or pleasant.For example, it is about 40 degrees, windy and raining now. Not the best day to walk 5 blocks for dim sum.
I would venture to say the best thing about an urban campus is telling others you go because universally people are impressed.
Smaller college towns are a lot more accessible because costs are generally lower. In Ann Arbor, for example, you can see world class artists, dancers, and musicians for a $10 student ticket - 1/3rd to 1/8th of the regular price. Many student performances are free. Good food is relatively cheap too - you can get an excellent dinner at a campus area restaurant for $15 and lunch for under $10. To me, unless you have a very generous budget, living in a big expensive city without the means to do much is far worse than living in a smaller one with lots of affordable options.
@ScaredNJDad1 - As a fellow native NY’er I am familiar with differing perceptions of urban/suburban/rural memes, and walkability (and weather in NY) . And I am a particular fan of the old 1976 New Yorker cover http://www.posterart.com/ourposters/newyorker.html Still makes me smile. But I am also familiar with @hanna. Apparently you are not. Her language was plenty clear. Maybe I am just more familiar with her writing style.
First if you think a particular thread is silly, then why waste your time and energy posting to it? If you don’t like a thread just ignore it.
Second, some people do crave urban areas and that is fine. This poster seems to prefer that environment. It is certainly his/her right to take that into account when choosing a college. My S (who was not aiming towards elite colleges) also preferred urban colleges and that was a factor (certainly not the only one) in his decision. And for him having easy access to a major city turned out to be a big plus. Of course there are others who find city life depressing and yearn for a quieter location and that is perfectly fine too. To each their own.
Third, why do you think urban colleges are desired just for their prestige? I can’t see any scenario where a scholl like Dartmouth would be considered less prestigious because of its location.
That is patently absurd, especially in urban schools. I was off campus in New Orleans far more often than on, and I don’t mean a 3 block or even 10 block radius. My D, who recently graduated from the same school, was the same way, and there are constantly pictures posted of the students taking the streetcar (which they wouldn’t if they were only going a few blocks) attending festivals all over southern Louisiana, attending the numerous music venues on Frenchman and in the Marigny and other locations that are at least 5 miles from campus, etc. And for kids that go to school in NYC, where public transportation is easily accessible and cheap, I find it extremely difficult to believe they don’t hit the museums, the zoo, some artistic events and dining experiences, etc. Of course they don’t do it every day or even every weekend, but over 4 years they do it enough that it differentiates the experience from a more rural campus. I use rural in the traditional sense, as in low population levels and/or density as compared to major cities. i.e. urban areas.
It is extremely ridiculous to think that all students at urban schools get off campus even as much as I portray above. It is equally ridiculous to make it sound like almost none of them do. I am in contact with far too many students at all kinds of locations to support that what you are contending is even close to true. Yeah, some days in NYC are wet and cold. Now that makes for a good argument that kids never get out of the campus area. I would say all the more reason on the nice days that they would go to Central Park or do other things that get them out of the library and dorms.
I agree that this whole discussion is silly. There are plenty of urban and suburban campuses and they are not “depressing”. I went to a college where the town was not all that exciting. We made plenty of trips to other colleges, to the Big City, as well as other NE cities, went skiing, you name it. We spent much, but not all of our time on/around campus, but there were plenty of opportunities to go explore and venture out.
I don’t know @fallenchemist, I just don’t think college students have as much free time as you think they do. My D is at Brown, and while that’s not as vibrant an urban area that you’re talking about with NYC or New Orleans, I think I can count on one hand the number of times she came off the hill to go into Providence last year (not including the times that we her parents were there). I would love it if she went to a show or an opera or a museum and took in some cultural activities, but she doesn’t, and I can’t say that many of her classmates do either. For fun, they do go to bars, concerts and the occasional brunch off campus, but that’s still very close to campus.
Columbia is also pretty far from the cultural activities of NYC. I can see NYU students getting out and about in Greenwich Village and partaking in what the city has to offer, but Columbia students mostly hang around Morningside Heights. And my observations about Boston are first hand; I just don’t think many Harvard students ever set foot in Boston. Same with Tufts, Wellesley, etc… Once you get to the point where its going to take a half-hour to get to the city, the hassle, time factors overwhelm their desire to see the city they are going to school in.
Columbia is a subway ride away from lots of activities. As I posted earlier, Columbia has student discount tix to lots of things in NYC. What a great opportunity!.
I think students differ on how much they do or don’t venture off campus. One of my s’s went off campus frequently, but typically stayed in the city of his school. The other probably went mostly to the places the undergrads hung out off campuses (when he did), but he had a long distance girlfriend, so used to fly to see her (or vice versa). Both s’s lived off campus part of their college years. Don’t know if that matters. With my n=1 (me) I lived on campus all 4 years, but we’d venture out of our city a few times a semester. Neither my nor my s’s’ schools were “suitcase schools”.
@spayurpets My sister goes to Wellesley, and while she doesn’t go into Boston all that often, the idea that most Wellesley students (and other students in the suburb of a major city) never set foot in Boston is completely inaccurate. She says having a major city nearby, even 30-40 minutes away, is a big benefit, and I know some of her fellow students go into Boston rather frequently.
I’d also argue that there’s a large difference between Hanover and Medford/Somerville or Cambridge, both of which are about ten times the size of Hanover.
I think @spayurpets may have a point, at least as far as northeastern colleges are concerned. Main Street Middletown (CT) is a vibrant place, less than three blocks from campus, with a huge number of coffee shops, bars, restaurants and a first-run movie theater and I doubt if one in a hundred Wesleyan students ever set foot on it.
“I was laughing at the two items Hanna mentioned as if there are no movies or ethnic foods in those two locations.”
Yes, I’m being very silly for thinking that there’s a big lifestyle difference between Manhattan/Philadelphia/Cambridge and Hanover/Ithaca. They’re the same in all the important ways, and only urban provincials imagine a contrast. If a small-town kid starts a thread about whether Columbia is really a fit, I expect the same posters to offer the same reassurance in reverse.
Now, I’m on my way to Hanover for some dim sum.
My sister went to Wellesley (albeit many years ago), and she went off-campus a lot, but it was just to go to visit the boys at Harvard. 
Maybe this is inapposite, but my mother taught at a Boston area college for more than 20 years, and I grew up two or three miles away, but I have never set foot on that college’s campus. Pretty pathetic right? But that’s how most schools are–cities unto themselves–and the town and gown divide even in a place like Boston is pretty wide.
I have a son who’s a sophomore at tufts. He and his GF and friends take advantage of Davis square, Cambridge or Boston nearly every weekend. He went to a celtics game last night (they go once or twice a year). He’s been to the BMFA and to the Harvard museums (old Fogg) for an African art history he took last semester and to take his GF. For valentine’s day, he and his GF went to a bugs bunny film fest at a theater in Harvard square. I know he’s really busy with his classes and his ECs on campus, but I think it’s important to him to enjoy somerville, Cambridge and boston while he’s there, even if it’s just briefly once a week.