I think that the size of Ithaca College is great for students. There are about 6,000 undergraduates which I think is the perfect size. It's not so small that you know everyone, as a senior, I still meet new people every weekend, but at the same time, it's small enough that I don't feel lost in a sea of people. I see a lot of people I know while walking around campus or when I go out at night.

The city of Ithaca is pretty dynamic for a small city. In addition to Ithaca College there is also Cornell University in the same town which makes for a huge population of college students. There are two main hangout areas, the Commons which is closer to Ithaca College and Collegetown which is in Cornell's neck of the woods. Both areas are filled with cute coffee shops, small stores selling anything from bongs to Seven Jeans, and amazing bars and restaurants representing many different ethnic food types.

One thing that people must be prepared for when they come to Ithaca is the weather. The winter weather is pretty miserable, it is pretty gloomy, windy and cold. It's definitely not fun to walk to classes in the middle of a snowstorm, but it's worth it to make it through the cold to get to the warmer months. When it's warm out there are a lot of waterfalls and gorges to go which are very beautiful if you're into the outdoors. Ithacans are generally pretty outdoorsy so there's a ton of ways to get outside and do something fun. Some of my favorite memories from Ithaca are going down to the gorges when it's warm out. Students walk down and sun themselves on the rocks and then jump, sometimes 60 feet, into the water.

I really recommend the Exploratory Program for incoming freshman that don’t know exactly what they want to do. It allows you to not declare a major until the end of your sophomore year so that you can take classes in whatever area you want. I came in to Ithaca as an Exploratory student with the idea that I may want to major in journalism and after taking an introductory journalism class, I applied to be in the program.

Generally the classes at Ithaca College are a good size, about 20 people average. There are a few introductory classes that are around 100 people but it definitely doesn't get any bigger than that and as you get further along in your major, the class sizes tend to get smaller. Because of the size of Ithaca College, people get to know the people in their major pretty well and can often be really tight knit groups.

I can't speak for all Ithaca College students, since there are so many different types of academic programs, but as a journalism major, my classroom experience has been mostly hands-on. We learned how to write stories and interview people by actually going down to the police station or city hall and doing it. At least for Park majors, there is really top of the line video, audio and photography equipment that we get to use for our classes. So in my broadcast news class, we learned how to use video cameras and editing equipment and made broadcast news packages and for my photojournalism class we used the Cannon 10D cameras to go out and shoot pictures.

I think that though Ithaca tries to present itself as a racially diverse college but there is still a lot of work to be done. I had a friend come to visit me from University of Rochester who commented to me “Wow, there are no black kids at Ithaca.” This of course isn’t true, there is some racial diversity but in my experience, the African American and Hispanic students tend to stick together and not interact as much with the white majority. Though the minority population isn't high, there is still support for minorities at Ithaca College. A couple of years ago there was a lot of controversy because we had classes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and so after meetings with the administration we now have the day off.

Though there isn't really a typical IC student, the majority are from upstate New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey or Pennsylvania. In general people are very open-minded, opinionated, intelligent and easy to talk to. I'm continually surprised at how un-cliquey IC is. With so many different programs and student interests, you would think that groups would stick together but most people are open to hanging out and mingling with everyone else. It's not at all weird to see a girl wearing Ugg boots talking to a guy with massive dreadlocks or a guy wearing a Giants jersey eating lunch in the pub with a hipster chick.

IC is definitely not the type of school where people are studying at the library on a Saturday night. Ithaca is a very social school and people like to go out and have a good time. Drinking is one of the most popular activities and I honestly don't know that many students that don't have a few drinks on the weekend. There is no greek life here but there is at Cornell and so sometimes people go over there for frat parties, but otherwise, there are plenty of house parties and some decent bars. The bars are either real dives or classy with overpriced drinks, either way, it's usually a fun time, though the bars do close at 1 a.m. which can be a bummer.

But if you choose not to drink, there is other stuff to do. There are multiple places to see plays, some awesome independent movie theaters plus Cornell Cinema which plays some mainstream and also some totally underground movies and a ton of art galleries. Though the concerts at IC are usually pretty lame and under-attended, some cool bands come through the town like Ani DiFranco, The New Pornographers, The Roots and if you stick around in the summer you have to go to the Grassroots Festival in Trumansburg.

The Farmers Market is also a great thing to do on Saturday or Sunday mornings if you can drag yourself out of bed before noon. It's a covered outdoor market right on Cayuga Lake where you can get vegetables, fruit, organic meat, cheese and flowers. There are also vendors selling amazing prepared foods. My favorite thing to do is grab a breakfast burrito and fresh-squeezed lemonade and eat out on the dock.

The best day of the year is without a doubt the Cortaca game. The rest of the year the sporting events are sparsely attended but the football game against Cortland State is the epitome of IC school spirit. Everyone wakes up that Saturday morning at 7 a.m. to get ready, painted faces and all, then heads to a pre-game party, then to the game. Even if you hate sports, you still go to Cortaca and support IC against pretty much our only rival school.

I think that Ithaca College is stereotyped as being a school full of pot-smoking hippies.

In some sense, yes. The campus atmosphere and the town itself are extremely liberal and there are definitely people that one would categorize as "hippies". There is a common bumper sticker that reads: "Ithaca: 10 Square Miles Surrounded by Reality". But that is by no means the only type of person at Ithaca College. Ithaca has a lot of good academic programs which draw different groups of people. For example, the physical therapy program and athletic programs draw those that are really into sports, the Park programs attract more artsy, film-student types and the music school draws, of course, those that are very into music.