Student Profile
Alec
- Class: Junior
- Major: Psychology
- Gender: M
- High School: Ledyard High School (Ledyard, Connecticut)
- Transfer Student: N
Big Picture
This town is absolutely beautiful when the weather's nice, but we get more days of rain/snow per year than Seattle, and the winter can seem like it lasts forever. This year we kinda skipped spring altogether... it snowed in mid-April then jumped to consistent sunny weather in the 70s out of nowhere. The view of the lake/sunset from campus is incredible, it never gets old. When the weather IS nice, there's always people out on the quads throwing a frisbee around or just laying out in the sun. Also, cliff jumping at the gorges is popular. Because it's awesome. The student body (roughly 6,000 undergrads) is a great size because there are always new people to meet, but you'll spot people you know on campus all the time, too. Parking on this campus kind of sucks. This is the first year I've had a car, and even though I live about a mile from campus I walk to class because driving really isn't much faster or convenient. I lived happily for 2 years without one, though, bumming a ride when I needed it from friends.
Academic Life
Professors are more than happy to talk with you, generally, if you make the effort to go see them outside of class. A lot of them seem to really enjoy teaching, classes aren't just an obstacle in the way of their research here. I've loved my experience with the psychology department here. Through your three semesters on research team you get to work on original research under one of your professors. The team I joined focuses on the effects of television, and while some of the work is tedious some is really interesting. Looking back, though, I wish I hadn't spent two years as an "exploratory" (undeclared) student, because I could easily have double majored.
Student Body
The atmosphere of the student body ranges a bit depending on which school you're talking about. As a psych major in Humanities and Sciences, I'm pretty relaxed. I'll wear jeans and a t-shirt pretty much every day, but I know some students in the Park (communications) school make more of an effort to look nice. Music majors are crazy, they're busy as hell all the time. Lots of sporty types in Health Sciences and Human Performance. Around half of the student body is from somewhere in New York state, but we have plenty of international students as well. Lots of upper-middle class white kids, but not overwhelmingly so. There's a sizable gay population here, and a very accepting atmosphere and community in general. Sometimes I'm shocked by how intolerant people seem when I go back home, I feel like Ithaca's really ahead of the curve when it comes to being accepting of homosexuality. Lots of liberally-minded students.
The Best Things
Constant stream of cool things to do, if you pay attention.
The Worst Things
The weather, if you hate the cold.
