Ithaca College

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bad weather, financial problems, woke student body, inferiority complex with Cornell a few miles away.

A better school in the same size and selectivity range would be Elon.

What's "better" about Elon?

The weather, the location, the name recognition, the girlz, the general trajectory of the school, to name a few.

Never heard of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bad weather, financial problems, woke student body, inferiority complex with Cornell a few miles away.

A better school in the same size and selectivity range would be Elon.

What's "better" about Elon?

The weather, the location, the name recognition, the girlz, the general trajectory of the school, to name a few.

Never heard of it.

Bull crap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bad weather, financial problems, woke student body, inferiority complex with Cornell a few miles away.

A better school in the same size and selectivity range would be Elon.

What's "better" about Elon?

The weather, the location, the name recognition, the girlz, the general trajectory of the school, to name a few.

Never heard of it.

Bull crap.

Ok, you're right. I'd never heard of it until I discovered this forum.

[Anonymous]

Until fairly recently, I thought Elon was kind of joke. It was where the not so bright kids went to school to party. It seems to have gotten popular with my kids' generation, but I just can't shake the negative image I have. Seems nice enough, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A friend went there, and found the town sort of eerie and lonesome - upstate New York has a creepy vibe. Liked the campus and students; just did not love the overall location.

That's the oddest description I've ever heard. It's like describing DC as laid back with a hippy vibe because once I passed a group of barefoot homeless guys by Union Station.

Ithaca is actually a cute town with a lot of natural beauty. The college has bus service into town. The area is hilly so a student going there will get strong legs. The campus has a view of Cayuga Lake.

Have you been to Ithaca after Covid? NP here. I dropped my son off at Cornell in August and many streets in Ithaca were desolate and downright creepy - lots of boarded up shops.

[Anonymous]

We visited Ithaca as tourists. Took a quick drive around the IC campus and personally found it ugly. Sorry. I do have a cousin who attended and loved it.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, the buildings on campus are pretty ugly. But the grounds and the view of the lake are quite beautiful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD is looking for some "likely" schools (or whatever we're now calling "safeties") and has been reading about Ithaca...it seems like a nice size (5000-ish), not isolated, and based on what she's read there are some nice things going for it (e.g., good pre-professional programs, pretty campus, great teaching.) I'm surprised we don't hear much about it....what are we missing (other than the lousy winters)? Anyone with direct experience (good or bad)?

My oldest took a hard look at Ithaca a few years back. He was interested in their TV/Film program.

We spent a few weekends in Ithaca and the surrounding area as we also looked at Hobart.

Ultimately my DS chose another school. As the parent, I was not happy with Ithaca’s value proposition. I thought it was too expensive for what it offered - which I recognized was an excellent TV/film program.

Their aid/merit was not very compelling and my concern was that if he pulled out of their TV/film program for any reason the rest of the student cohort was not that strong. These were my impressions so you may have a different impression.

Ultimately my son attended a T40 SLAC with a significantly better package.

My youngest looked at a lot of mid sized schools - and it turned out most of them were Catholic. We are Catholic but not practicing.

Her list included Fairfield, Providence, St. Joe’s, Marist, Loyola Maryland among others.

Of the above list Marist reminded me of Ithaca.

I realize the catholic schools may be a non-starter for you but for my DD it was the sweet spot of mid-sized schools.

Good luck to your daughter.

[Anonymous]

Seemed IC isn't integrated with the community like Cornell is. On its own without anything substantial and non-college related closeby/an easy walk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bad weather, financial problems, woke student body, inferiority complex with Cornell a few miles away.

A better school in the same size and selectivity range would be Elon.

Huh? Do BC and Tufts feel inferior because Harvard and MIT are nearby? Would you turn down Villanova and Swarthmore and Haverford because your ego couldn’t handle mingling with Penn students? I guess no one should go to NYU or Fordham either. There might be valid reasons to dislike Ithaca, but this one feels grasping to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD is looking for some "likely" schools (or whatever we're now calling "safeties") and has been reading about Ithaca...it seems like a nice size (5000-ish), not isolated, and based on what she's read there are some nice things going for it (e.g., good pre-professional programs, pretty campus, great teaching.) I'm surprised we don't hear much about it....what are we missing (other than the lousy winters)? Anyone with direct experience (good or bad)?

My oldest took a hard look at Ithaca a few years back. He was interested in their TV/Film program.

We spent a few weekends in Ithaca and the surrounding area as we also looked at Hobart.

Ultimately my DS chose another school. As the parent, I was not happy with Ithaca’s value proposition. I thought it was too expensive for what it offered - which I recognized was an excellent TV/film program.

Their aid/merit was not very compelling and my concern was that if he pulled out of their TV/film program for any reason the rest of the student cohort was not that strong. These were my impressions so you may have a different impression.

Ultimately my son attended a T40 SLAC with a significantly better package.

My youngest looked at a lot of mid sized schools - and it turned out most of them were Catholic. We are Catholic but not practicing.

Her list included Fairfield, Providence, St. Joe’s, Marist, Loyola Maryland among others.

Of the above list Marist reminded me of Ithaca.

I realize the catholic schools may be a non-starter for you but for my DD it was the sweet spot of mid-sized schools.

Good luck to your daughter.

Marist is no longer affiliated with the Catholic Church.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
inferiority complex with Cornell a few miles away.

Huh? Do BC and Tufts feel inferior because Harvard and MIT are nearby? Would you turn down Villanova and Swarthmore and Haverford because your ego couldn’t handle mingling with Penn students? I guess no one should go to NYU or Fordham either. There might be valid reasons to dislike Ithaca, but this one feels grasping to me.

Except that the schools you mention are in huge metro areas of seven million people or more, and Ithaca is a very small city of 32,000 -- less in fact than the combined student bodies of Ithaca and Cornell. Ithaca's a fine school with some highly regarded programs, but realistically in Ithaca you're always going to be bumping into Cornell students, some of whom will be great kids and others of whom will be the smug, self-absorbed offspring of Ivy-obsessed DCUM parents, who will taunt Ithaca students as cheap dates and future support staff for Cornell's young geniuses. Now, some college kids have thick enough skin to just shrug that kind of obnoxiousness off, but others might want to spare themselves (especially at Ithaca's price point), particularly since many other Ithaca-comparable colleges are available that aren't (almost literally) in the shadow of a cross-town Ivy but are instead the most highly regarded college in their particular town or county or region. Apparently that wouldn't be a consideration for you - congratulations, you're a role model for all of us -- but it could be for some.

[Anonymous]

Visited a friend at Ithaca. Town is cute but it does feel in the middle of nowhere, it’s freezing most of the school year and more than a little depressing

[Anonymous]

Ithaca's a fine school with some highly regarded programs, but realistically in Ithaca you're always going to be bumping into Cornell students, some of whom will be great kids and others of whom will be the smug, self-absorbed offspring of Ivy-obsessed DCUM parents, who will taunt Ithaca students as cheap dates and future support staff for Cornell's young geniuses.

Have you been there or just spitballing? Cornell is a mix of elite programs & state school departments so quite a few of the students are actually down to earth. The Ithaca kids do their own thing and really aren't concerned about Cornell.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone tell me why Northern colleges (especially) don't rearrange their Academic Calendar to have ~ everyone attend in the Summer and not in the Winter.