I so agree with you about living in ithaca - it is a nice place to live for a few years while you study law - in fact i visited ucla and I was so turned off by the city of LA - who wants to live in such a bad ass overpopulated expensive area for 3 years - i view law school as my last opportunity of solace before working in big law, albeit at times it will be tough, but still it should be peaceful - my top choices are duke, michigan, and cornell specifically because of their locations - and afterwards, i can still hopefully get as top job in a ny or la firm