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<p>You are obviously on the right tract. Keep your GPA up and do well on LSAT, and you will have plenty of very nice options to choose from. The key with law school admissions is LSAT. You won’t get into a top 10 law school if your LSAT is not at least at 166-ish level, even if your GPA is 4.0. Try to enjoy your college experience, too, because Atlanta is a great city. Good luck!</p>
<p>I’ve already starting looking at LSAT stuff when I have time. I’m pretty good at taking standardized tests, but since the LSAT is pretty much a one-shot thing, I don’t want to screw it up. Just based on my browsing around various sites the last month or so, 165 was the number that I came up with to have a shot at getting into a T14 school. I feel like a 170 would probably get a good look from anywhere but Yale and Harvard. In any case, I was just particularly curious about Cornell and Ithaca. Once I take the LSAT, which I may do next year, I’ll have a better idea of where I stand.</p>
<p>Yeah, you will be fine. I got into several law schools in top 10 with 3.7 GPA. As long as your LSAT is 170+, you will get into a top 10 law school, period. </p>
<p>Btw, are you an engineering major? What are some reasons you want to go to law school and pursue a career in law? I ask this because from my experience, many people go to law school without knowing much about the field of law and they regret their choice later. Since you are only a sophomore, give yourself some time to think about possible career options and don’t pigeon yourself with law only. Talk to law students, lawyers, and maybe take an internship at a law firm to see if this is your thing, before committing yourself.</p>
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I think it’s a dangerous line of reasoning to use weather as the deciding factor when talking about someone’s academic experience and potential future employment. Yeah, deserts and the South are absolutely miserable in the summer, but if there’s a life altering opportunity there it’s probably best to suck it up. Same goes for the north if you’re not a fan of winter. It’s amazing how easily people from California and Florida adjust and grow to love it.</p>
<p>Ithaca’s one of the most beautiful, interesting, quirky places you’ll ever live. Seriously, the waterfalls, gorges, restaurants, music scene, wineries… It has a nice mix of small town with a lot of natural beauty and global awareness thanks to Cornell and Ithaca College. It’s far from boring or awful. Most people who say that grew up in a subdivision on Long Island and consider an afternoon at the mall as the ultimate life experience. They are pathetic and not to be trusted.</p>
<p>Honestly, I could care less if Cornell was in the Artic Tundra and surrounded by actual Hell or Ice Hell, & everything was in uphill in 8 feet of snow, I’d still go.</p>
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<p>I see someone saying Ithaca is a good college town and a beautiful place to be. However, it would be too much of a stretch to say it is ‘one of the most beautiful’ places to live in.</p>
<p>Places such as San Francisco easily trump Ithaca in any imaginable way for a college student both in terms of weather and beauty, along with many other places. That is why I think places like Stanford would be an awesome college experience. Now, there may be people who don’t like big cities and like Ithaca better than San Fran or what not, but I’d think they’re the minority. </p>
<p>For one, I am a big city person and I would much rather spend my time in Boston, NYC, San Francisco, or Chicago rather than Ithaca. But, that is just me.</p>
<p>Funny how it all depends on where you are from and where you went to school. I went to school in SF and the weather is not so wonderful. The side of SF near the Pacific ocean is often cold and foggy and no sun. The side near the bay has much nice weather but while SF is often everyone’s favorite city. It isn’t mine, NYC is.</p>
<p>I worked at Stanford for 9 years at the hospital and was on the campus often. It is a really thinking and progressive environment. However, downtown Palo Alto used to have a real small town atmosphere complete with movie theater and Woolworths and now is just an outdoor shopping mall full of restaurants and few functional stores. Fun but not unique. </p>
<p>I have been up to Ithaca twice and I think it is gorgeous. Spacious, big sky feeling that you usually only get on the west coast.</p>
<p>You seem to have a very high opinion of your views, LazyKid, but I’m not sure what your personal preference for big cities has to do with this subject since the OP stated a preference for a strong sense of community and a smaller town setting. I couldn’t imagine a better place than Ithaca for that. </p>
<p>I’m a big city person as well and San Fran is okay, though the weather really sucks and there’s enough nasty sprawl in the outlying areas to ruin any fleeting pleasure the city itself offers, but in the end there’s simply nowhere that you’ll be able to be in the gorges and by waterfalls like Ithaca. Maybe it takes living a number of different places to realize how unique Ithaca is both naturally and culturally. Whether it’s one person’s cup of tea or not is personal preference, but, objectively speaking, adjectives like boring and awful simply do not apply to it.</p>
<p>Ithaca isn’t boring, given that you are an outgoing person and have plenty of friends to hang out with. I agree that Ithaca is a decently beautiful place, but disagree with the assertion that it is one of the most beautiful places in the country. There are just way too many places that are beautiful and may also cater well to students. </p>
<p>Each place has its unique tastes to it and has distinct advantages. Different folks may find different places better to their liking. When I visited U of Texas Austin, I thought that Austin was a very fun city to be in for college students for various reasons, including endless numbers of bars, clubs, gorgeous women, cheap food, and mild weather. I thought Boston was awesome, too, for people in early twenties.</p>
<p>And, San Francisco weather is actually awesome, I thought. It never gets too hot or too cold. The drive along the highway number one is gorgeous and so is the drive along the coast directly south of Bay Area that is surrounded by mountains, cliffs, and Pacific Ocean.</p>
<p>The answer to the op’s question is–to some yes and to others no. </p>
<p>There is no denying that Ithaca has a beautiful natural environment. Most, best, somewhat or not at all are all subjective.</p>
<p>Ithaca is not just any small city in the northeast. It has two great schools-one an internationally known Ivy, natural beauty, a gorgeous finger lake, great restaurants, concerts and speakers galore always going on and a great art museum, college sports and whatever else you can imagine.</p>
<p>It is also small, fairly isolated (it does have an airport, regular bus service, etc.) and in the northeast–meaning cold and grey in the winter. And the winters are long. But exceptionally beautiful in the summer and autumn.</p>
<p>What really bothers me on this thread is the ranking of “pretty girls.” Should a college really be ranked by the beauty of its students? If you want to rank based on the beauty of its females, should we also start measuring certain male antimony and rank on that too? Or maybe beard growth at freshman year? Or how buff you are?</p>
<p>I always find threads such as this one interesting. I have two sons that are graduates of Cornell, and they loved their experiences at Cornell. Each of them have expressed similar feelings in regard to social life, beauty, academic rigor, and overall amazing college experience. If you are a true NYC type of person who has never enjoyed the beauty of nature than Cornell might not be for you. </p>
<p>Consider this:
<ol>
<li>Waking up before noon on a Saturday morning, and going for a run surrounded by some of the most beautiful natural beauty that is only found at Cornell, than Cornell is not for you.
OR</li>
<li>Waking up before noon and heading to the ski slopes so you could get in a couple of good hours of skiing with your friends.
OR
Wake up, pack your climbing gear and head out to go climbing.
OR
Wake up and volunteer at any number of amazing worthy organizations in or around Ithaca.
OR
Wake up on a Saturday at any hour you choose, eat anywhere, and take a quiet walk along any one of the beautiful spots on or off campus.</li>
</ol>
<p>As a parent I could only share with you what I hear all of the time. Cornell not only changed my sons lives but it made me proud to be a parent of Cornellians because of the men they have become. They are successful, interesting, sophisticated, and could talk to anyone. They are as comfortable speaking with the mailman as they are with their managing directors. One of my sons left right after graduation to work on the other side of the world, and Cornell not only provided him with the education to do so but the maturity and self confidence to handle this important position in a country so different from our own. I am so proud of my sons and I thank Cornell everyday for being the right school for each of them.</p>
<p>When you visit Cornell keep your eyes open and look around at all there is to offer you both academically and personally. It is a special place and it takes a special person to appreciate the huge opportunities that only Cornell could offer.</p>
<p>** There may be schools in warmer parts of the country but I know for my sons that environment would have been all wrong. So many of their memories involve the great experiences they had in all kinds of weather. The first warm day in Spring when most parts of the country may still be complaining about needing a sweatshirt and Cornellians head off to hike, swim, or enjoy the beauty of their campus. </p>
<p>A little advice to those who read this post…DON’T listen to what others tell you. Visit and explore Cornell. Allow yourselves to see not only the beautiful buildings and the great professors but all of it. Spend a weekend seeing the area and the campus. Enjoy!!!</p>
<p>I’m the parent of a Cornell grad and a current Cornellian. It’s certainly a hike to get to Ithaca from just about anywhere – but we are always glad to go and have our bucket list of things to do. I’m really glad to get some more years after the first one graduated so I have some more time to visit museums, quaint villages, wineries, etc! And I know we’ve only scratched the surface of the good restaurants.</p>
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You keep talking about much larger cities and urban amenities, then disparaging Ithaca for not being that. I’m not sure you’re qualified to offer advice to someone looking for a smaller town atmosphere with a strong sense of community. That’s not what Austin or San Fran or Boston offer. It is what Ithaca offers.</p>
<p>I think if you spent more time in San Francisco you’d understand the weather issues there. It can be absolutely gorgeous on the right days, that’s for sure.</p>
<p>Bottom line - no one should be dissuaded for Ithaca for not being something it isn’t. It’s an incredible place and certainly very beautiful. I don’t know anybody, personally, who had a bad experience there - and that includes everyone from New York City folks to small town folks. It has something for everybody.</p>
<p>I’m not disparaging Ithaca. I said I disagree with your assertion that Ithaca is one of the best places to be for a student, or that it is one of the most beautiful places to live in the country. Like I said, each place and each college has different strengths and unique advantages. As a result, it would be much of a stretch to say that Cornell is the best option, or that Ithaca is the most beautiful place to live, under objective light.</p>
<p>There are going to be people who think Cornell/ Ithaca is a better fit for them compared to University of Virginia, and vice-versa, for example.</p>
<p>When there are so many students on a campus there will be many different opinions. Not everyone could be happy in the same place which is why students are so fortunate to be able to transfer to other schools. Nobody should be unhappy at Cornell in my opinion because everyone has the right to leave.</p>
<p>my only problem with Ithaca is that it is relatively inaccessible by mass transit.</p>