FIrst off if your not a liberal don't bother going here.  I'm not a liberal nor a conservative, I'm a moderate but here even that is slightly frowned upon.  yes, they do have a Republican CLub on cmapus, all five people who were either already weird or tried to create power in numbers joined. 

The scoial at Ithaca exists but only if you're there long enough to be a aprt of it.  Unlike most colleges, ithaca doesn't have any kind of Greek life, it was banne din the 1970s due to a nasty hazing incident.  Most people go to the Cornell frat parties which are huge, luxurious, and always served with Keystone or Nadi Light.  Beyond the awful beer Cornell and Ithaca share a slogag “Ithaca to bed, Cornell to wed.” Catchy, right?  See that's the mentality that is fostered because guys at Ithaca have the upper hand because there's less of them, and usually the guys are attractive.  Because of this they have a “wham bam thank you maam” policy and rarely stay with one girl for too long.  In this scenario Ithaca girls go to Cornell and hook up with Cornell guys who are supposed to be a little more genuine and mature but aren't.  I've dated both sides, and both sides are at fault. 

Ithaca has a lot of extracirricular activities and they are always addign more to the list.  However, if you're not a humaintarian nor an enviornmentalist you might feel a little out of place.  A lot of people care about the enviornment there and a lot of social activities such as Service Saturdays and student groups like Habitat for Humanity are based on a foundation humanitarian work. 

It's cold and mountainous.  A lot of people say hills, but don't be fooled, its more like climbing mountains.  This is especially difficult considering when girls want to go out we wear heels.  It's fine until the winter rolls in and your slipping and tumbling.  Also if you ever walk to the Commons, the town of Ithaca, there a whole 100 feet that does not have a road, no actually road, but rather its a sliver of dirt on the side of the highway.  Deers run out at you while driving, the Gorges are awlays worth seeing, and Ithaca has the highest number of restaurants per capita in NY state. 

Moving onto actual important stuff.  Ithaca's academics are good in some departments and bad in other.  The Journalism and COmmunications school is one of the best on the eastern seaboard which means you'll geta good education but its highly competative.  The physical Therapy department is also stellar. 

As a business major, I was neither satisfies nor challenged.  I wasn't satisfies because Ithaca just recently recieved their international accreditation for their business program.  Whereas school such as Bentley and Bucknell have had it for over 20 years.

The classes at Ithaca are pretty cool though, International Business and Fairy Tales were two of the best classes I took and even my Statistics class was enjoyable. 

If after reading this you feel Ithaca seems good then go but definitely visit the campus before you go.  There's nothing special about it, the building are an odd assortment (some old some new), and Cornell isn't as close as you think (socially and geographically.)