<p>From what I’ve seen online, it looks very woodsy and kind of isolated except for the (very?) small town of Ithaca. I love horseback riding (which Cornell has as an actual sports team and not just a club! ), camping, hiking, sledding, outdoors activities, and such. But you would say that due to the coldness, isolation, and infamous suicides a few years back that the campus feels creepy? Is the winter super harsh or just pretty cold?</p>
<p>What is Greek life like? The parties? General attitude of student body? How would you say the environment at Cornell compares to UPenn? At UPenn, students can enjoy many positive aspects of a big city in Philly but I’ve also read that Philly is somewhat unsafe. </p>
<p>I don’t feel like I need a big city to be happy at college, just a medium sized town with some shopping, restaurants, movie theaters, etc. What’s Ithaca like and do students go there often?</p>
<p>No, it is not creepy at all. The suicides are very much exaggerated, both in number and how much on an impact they really had on Cornell (at least in my experience).
Ithaca is not terribly cold. It’s pretty similar on average to Chicago or New York City.
I don’t feel isolated in Ithaca. There are movie theaters and many, many restaurants (they claim there are more restaurants per capita in Ithaca than anywhere else in the US). There’s also a mall, but I’ve heard it’s not very good - but if you want to, you could make the hour drive Syracuse for the huge mall there that people drive from Canada to go to.</p>
<p>Ithaca does not qualify as a small town. it is more like a very small city. there’s a lot to do if you put a little effort into finding the opportunities.</p>
<p>If you are on a campus with 20,000 students you seldom need to go far for someting to do. I would ahve to say that my Dseems to be doing alot more things than her friends who went to other colleges.</p>
<p>Your perceptions are quite inaccurate. Ithaca provides everything you desire in a city, as well as beautiful gorges, lakes, wine country, and a pretty vibrant city. It’s not that small a city at all and it’s actually got a lot of funky culture. Cornell’s in Ithaca, so your question of whether students go to the city they’re in isn’t quite clear. If you’re asking if they go downtown to the Commons, the answer is yes but probably not as much as they should. A lot of students stay on campus or in collegetown, which is their own loss. Many students partake in the solid local theater scene and restaurants of Ithaca. </p>
<p>Cornell’s also not creepy at all and, it’s actually one of the most beautiful campuses in the world and has a very open feel compared to places like Harvard or Yale, in my opinion. As said above, the weather’s just typical 4 seasons that you’d get anywhere In New York or New England. Weather’s certainly not different enough from Philly to sway you one way or another.</p>
<p>Wow…you said you like to ski and hike and love the outdoors…than you have found one of the most beautiful colleges’ in the country to do all of those things. Besides all the great outdoor opportunities you have a campus filled with other like minded people to do all sorts of things with. You have the Commons and College town for some great restaurants and night life, and of course a college with an active Greek life to ensure plenty of fun weekend nights. I think you are the first person who ever said Cornell and creepy in the same sentence. Go and visit because it sounds perfect for you.</p>
<p>To applejack: thanks for posting the link to the exquisite This Is video published this past May by Cornellians Alex Silver and Jon Tai. I had watched soon after it was released, and was impressed; having just viewed it again, I am once again so positively affected by it. Many thanks, and props, to the very talented Alex and Jon for some clearly inspired work.</p>
<p>Also, meadowl13 – your post #7 above is right on target, imho.</p>
), camping, hiking, sledding, outdoors activities, and such. But you would say that due to the coldness, isolation, and infamous suicides a few years back that the campus feels creepy? Is the winter super harsh or just pretty cold?</p>
I can see now that internet articles (even newspaper ones!) don’t accurately describe Cornell’s atmosphere.</p>