イサカ大学（Ithaca College）

海外の大学のアドミッション担当者にインタビューを行い、各大学の特色や学生生活、出願などに関するお話を伺います。
今回は、ニューヨーク州にあるリベラルアーツカレッジ、イサカ大学 を取り上げました。すべて英語で掲載していますので、最後まで頑張って読んでいきましょう！

Fast Facts

Name	Location
Ithaca College	Ithaca, New York, USA

US News Rank
#2 Best Undergraduate Teaching #8 Most Innovative Schools

# of Students	% of International Students	Student-to-faculty ratio
4,700	1% (47 international students as of 2025)	11:1

Average SAT® scores	Minimum TOEFL iBT® Score for International Applicants
1230–1370	4.0+ / 6 (Old Scales : 80+ / 120)

Interview

I. Academics

1. What are your most popular majors or areas of study?

Under the name “Ithaca College,” there are actually five schools. The school that has the greatest number of students is the Roy H. Park School of Communications. The most popular majors there are Film (B.FA.), Television, Photography, and Digital Media (B.S.), Sports Media (B.S.), and Theater Studies (B.A.). We are well known in these fields and have great connections in the industry.
The second largest school is our School of Humanities and Sciences, and I believe the most popular major in this school is Psychology (B.A.). After that, we have our School of Health Sciences and Human Performance. Our Physical Therapy program is the most sought-after because it’s a 6-year, all-in-house program from beginning to end, and you graduate with your doctorate. It is very much a professional, academic program.
And then, we have our famous School of Music, Theater, and Dance. Ithaca College was actually founded as a music conservatory in 1892. The most popular major is Music Education (B.M.) for people who want to teach music. In theater, the two most popular majors are Musical Theatre (B.F.A.) and Acting (B.F.A.). We hold, by some metrics, the number one Musical Theatre program in the nation.
Lastly, we have our School of Business, which is our smallest school. It has a total of about 500 students, and the most popular majors are Finance (B.S.) and Marketing (B.S.).

1. Would you say that Ithaca College emphasizes theoretical learning or practical learning?

We are very much a hands-on school. If you are a film major, you will be in a studio, operating a camera. We have students doing that from the very beginning of their education, for all four years. Likewise, when it comes to Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Athletic Training, the “classroom” is the clinic, where students get to actually work on student athletes, elderly folks from the community, and maybe children from the community, people who are actually coming in for care.

1. What is Ithaca College’s AI policy for students and the faculty?

We are still working that out, but right now, it depends on the professor. So, a professor could say in their syllabus that AI usage is not allowed or that some AI is allowed. I believe that the general sentiment at Ithaca College is that students are very much encouraged to produce their own work to the maximum degree.

II. Admission

1. What parts of the application do you and your colleagues particularly look at?

We look at everything in a student’s application, and maybe our focus will differ a little bit depending on the type of student. We look at students’ transcript and their grades throughout school, which is very important. But grades are not everything for us. For example, if someone wants to pursue Film at Ithaca College, even though they had bad grades in math or science, if they’ve done well in English and very well in film-related classes, we would not hold their low grades against them.
Also, we are closely reviewing the students’ Personal Statements. They must be detailed; if the word limit is 650 words, writing 600–650 is the way to go. Having good punctuation, good grammar, and good formatting is important because if we see an essay that is one long paragraph or one short paragraph, that is going to sour our impression. Being memorable is one hallmark of a winning application, but also being oneself is very important. One student wrote that one of the activities that she does is being a “professional cat cuddler.” She volunteers at an animal shelter and cuddles with cats so that they become a little more likely to be adopted by a family. She used hilarious puns in her description, like “so the cat finds the PURRFECT home.” It was a risk to say something like that in an application, but we loved it.
Finally, Letters of Recommendation are no longer required. However, if a student has questionable grades or if one year was significantly worse than others, I think that a Letter of Recommendation would be very, very important to give a greater understanding of the student.

1. Do you use the Common Application? Also, do you have supplemental essays on the application?

Most students apply using the Common App. We also accept applications through the Coalition for College application.
There is one short supplemental essay, which is “Why did you choose the program you chose?” In that essay, they can also tell us why they chose Ithaca in particular, but mostly it is about their area of interest. It is important because it is a chance for students to show their research into the school.

III. Financial Aid

1. What financial aid is available for international students?

There is a little financial aid available to international students, but it is not a great amount of aid. When it comes to international students, we are need-aware, meaning that we are aware of a student’s ability to pay, but we aren’t able to give them very much. Unless they have dual citizenship, they are not eligible to receive federal aid or take part in a work-study program to earn money.
One thing that I deal with a lot is that we ask international students to complete our Student Aid Index (SAI). So, students will fill out a questionnaire about their family’s finances and their ability to pay not just for a college education but also the Visa, the flights, etc. And we very much ask students to fill that out honestly with their parents, and if their answers indicate that they can pay for school, their application goes forward; but if they are not deemed eligible or they don’t have enough on that SAI, then we terminate the application.

IV. Student Life

1. Would you say that the college is connected to the local community?

Yes, I would say so. For example, we put on 12 main stage productions every single year, so community members will come up to see them. Also, students are taking part in ensembles and productions that might be taking place in town. And of course, students who are doing Physical Therapy and Health Sciences are very much embedded in the community. The town of Ithaca is a rural, forested, farm-based area, and is also at the top of a very big, beautiful, glacially formed lake. So, students who are interested in Environmental Science, which is a popular major in the School of Humanities and Sciences, can get real hands-on experience working in actual state parks and properties around the town.

1. Are students interacting with people outside of the university, and is that community going to be welcoming and engage with them?

Ithaca is a college town, so the town’s economic life revolves around the students. From when school begins in September to when it ends in May, the population doubles, and half the town’s population becomes students. So many events happening in town are geared towards students. As there is a very large population of students who come from East Asia, many restaurants in town are geared toward students from Asia. I can assure you that you will find the food that you love to eat.
Also, the actual location of Ithaca College’s campus is slightly removed from town. People are not walking across the campus on their way to the grocery store or a restaurant. But if students want to get into town, there are many ways to do so. It’s a 15-minute walk down the hill. There are buses students can ride for free, and students can have a car on campus for all four years. There is this nice balance of being somewhat cloistered and very integrated with the town.

1. Would you say students who come to Ithaca from abroad have high English proficiency?

I would say so. All the international students I’ve met have a high level of English proficiency. If students find that the language is posing a challenge or barrier, that is not the end of the story at all. Many offices work with students to help them. Our professors are especially accessible. So, a student’s professor is one avenue they can pursue, and the Student Accessibility Service is another office that can help. There is also an International Students’ Group.

1. How are you keeping international students informed of the changing visa climate or other requirements to be in the US as an international person?

We have a small group of international students, so a correspondingly small office. I believe there are two people, one of whom is called Diana Dimitrova, who has been working at Ithaca College for many years, and she is the person for international students for all things visa-related, for coordinating and touching base with students about their travel plans. She is very accessible, and students remain informed through her.
There is also a lounge just for international students where people can come together, just hang out, do work, maybe have a little celebration, or have some food and coffee.

1. Are first-year international students required to live on campus? What is the on-campus dorm situation like? Do most live in the city?

Whether you are international or domestic, all students must live on campus for their first three years. We are very much a residential campus; we have dorms. Many of them are very close to the classrooms, the gym, and the dining areas. So, students live on campus for their first three years, and then as a fourth year, you have the option to live off campus. Some students will live in some apartments just down the hill from Ithaca.
Also, there’s a variety of dorm styles. There is one dorm that has female-only residence; otherwise, the dorms are mixed. Even some bathrooms are mixed as well. We do keep all the first-year students near each other, so if you are a first-year student, you’ll be on the same floor as other first-year students. That is to help students build community. International students can also become Resident Assistants (RAs), and this is common among international students. RAs are obviously students who work as sort of liaisons, taking care of the folks on their floor. There is a student from India who is an RA, so he gets a single room and a nice discount on his housing and dining for his work.
There are also other styles of housing available, such as apartment-style housing or suite-style housing, where you’re living with five or six other folks. You might each have your own room, and you share a kitchen and a living room. And those are more likely for third- and fourth-year students (i.e., juniors and seniors).

1. During the longer vacations, such as winter vacation or summer vacation, are students able to live in the dorms?

Yes, students are able to stay in their dorms, especially international students. A lot of students who have jobs on campus are also around. There’s an international student from Nepal who I am familiar with. She’s been around campus throughout the break, working her job, doing studies, hanging out, things like that.

1. Can you tell me about some of your popular student organizations? What are the students doing to hang out?

There are so many kinds of organizations. I think we have about 250 or so on the books. If there’s something someone wants to do, we probably have a club for it. If a club doesn’t exist yet, students can make their own. One service-oriented club is Guiding Eyes for the Blind. Members train Labrador puppies to be seeing-eye dogs. You will see students on any given day walking around campus with a puppy in a blue vest, always training them. We have a new club called Drone Squadron. This is for people interested in film, television, or photography. We have some incredible, highly valuable, and state-of-the-art equipment that student organizations can borrow for projects. There are also many dance groups. IC Unbound does a mixture of modern dance, jazz, and ballet as well. There are obviously many music ensembles. We even have a Macabre Theater Ensemble, if you want to do some dark, scary puppetry and theatrical productions.

V. After Graduation

1. Do you know the percentage or the number of students who are leaving with their four-year degree?

The percentage of students who are graduating with a diploma in five years is 87% or 88%. Even students who might take a leave of absence for a year or more graduate. We work hard to keep our students on campus and make sure they are getting the support they need.

1. Do you know roughly how many have secured a job post-graduation?

The Business School has a very high rate; it’s between 98 and 99%. The Film School, likewise. The School of Music, Theater, and Dance is very successful; almost everyone lands a job. There’s a much higher percentage of students who are going directly into a job than those who are pursuing graduate-level education. I’m not sure of the exact percentage. When it comes to the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance, they have a very high job placement rate, and often, for those who graduate at the graduate level, they work at a clinic, gaining their hours of experience as part of the curriculum, so that’s 100% successful!

1. Are there any recent graduates whose accomplishments you’d like to share?

I recently ran into a student who had come back in to get a transcript. The student had graduated a year before from our Musical Theater program. The student is from Florida and got a job immediately in a touring production of a Broadway musical. It was going around the entire country, and that was a fantastic start. I also ran into another alumnus at a high school I was visiting for work, because she works at the high school as a music teacher now.
We also have some very fancy-pants graduates; there are people like the CEO of Disney Incorporated, Bob Iger. He graduated from Ithaca College in 1973. He started as a camera hand on set for movies in Hollywood and worked his way up, and now he’s a big-time CEO. There’s also David Muir, who is a very popular news anchor for the TV channel ABC. He was a moderator of one of the presidential debates in 2024.

VI. Other Questions

1. A lot of our students and their families are very motivated to start preparing as early as possible. Do you have any advice for kids in high school, or even middle school, to prepare to study abroad?

Even from a young age, it is important to develop a memorable, distinct personality. A student who has a passion that they genuinely like to pursue. Maybe it’s dance, maybe it’s music, maybe they have a little business that they run online, maybe they draw cartoons. Anything like this helps students make a more compelling and interesting case for themselves, perhaps in their essay or in their activity list. This makes their application stronger than someone who just has good grades and high test scores. Something to know about American schools is that we are not simply looking for high grades; we are also looking for personality. We’re looking for how well you might fit into our student community.
I would encourage students who are young to begin considering, “Do I have or do something that makes me unique?” I think a lot of other higher education systems don’t emphasize uniqueness or individuality. They’re focused on proficiency, good grades, and collective morality. In the United States, distinguishing yourself beyond your grades is something students should think about.

1. Do you have any academic programs for high school students?

We have several Pre-College Programs for high school students. These include the Summer College for High School Students, Summer Music Academy, Summer Piano Institute, Summer Theatre Conservatory, and Tech Innovation Summer Academy. High school students also have the option to take Ithaca College classes as non-degree students. Many summer classes are available online and are asynchronous so that anyone, anywhere can experience an Ithaca education!

1. Can you tell me why you’re passionate about your school?

I personally like the fact that we are a small to medium-sized school and that we are a liberal arts school. Students come here from everywhere and do everything together. I also like the emphasis on music that we have here. My parents are musicians. I’m a musician. A lot of musicians in the state of New York have been through Ithaca College. Having that touch of music and theater influences the way everything else also happens, very subtly, but it’s there. It’s a flavor that I love having. There’s a critical nature that comes along with that.
Ithaca College and our town are known for being very accepting, welcoming, and inclusive. We’re often ranked number one in the nation for our LGBTQIA+ students. We create space for people to feel welcome. You can explore who you are here at Ithaca College and in the town. Also, Ithaca is a very progressive town that has often been rated one of the happiest towns in the country! Recently, CNN ranked us number one among the 10 “America’s Best Towns to Visit 2025.”
The community is very engaged with the college. I came to this position both for the nature of Ithaca College and the nature of the town. We have a lake, we have this incredible farmers’ market, we have music performances year-round… even festivals like Chili Fest, Chowder Fest, Music Fest, and Ithaca Fest!
Also, this is a light-hearted place. Students are doing excellent work, but there’s no heavy, oppressive pressure to be perfect and amazing. If you walk around the campus of Cornell University, also in Ithaca, the air is a little heavier, and students are pressured to be incredible. Students here find a balance between greatness and doing the things they love. People who visit our campus often say, “Sam, I’m here with my daughter, and we’ve visited six schools already, and your school… I can feel the ease, the comfort, the joy that fills the air.”
I always remind students: You’re going to spend four years at a college; think about what kind of atmosphere you want to be in. I think Ithaca College has a pretty good one!

YGC invites you to visit our campus in Yoyogi to meet with our advisers and instructors and learn more about studying abroad. We offer a variety of programs to support students who aspire to attend top boarding schools and universities all over the world!

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