Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Just to add to this and in consideration for the lake towns thread that you made OP, there are places with colleges like Oswego, Geneva, Fredonia, Aurora and Jerusalem/Keuka Park in Yates County that are on or very close to lakes. I would say out of these places, Geneva offers a small city with cultural diversity and on a Finger Lake, with Hobart and William Smith Colleges being located there.
If you don’t mind small, Aurora is in between Auburn and Ithaca, as well as the home of Wells College and also on a Finger Lake.
Oswego is the biggest out of the bunch and is on Lake Ontario. It is about 40-45 minutes from Syracuse and home to SUNY Oswego.
Fredonia is adjacent to the small city of Dunkirk, which is actually on Lake Erie and is a diverse community with a pretty large Hispanic population. It has the state’s first mayor in state history of Hispanic descent. Fredonia is a village of about 10,000 people and home to SUNY Fredonia.
Jerusalem/Keuka Park is home to Keuka College and is on Keuka Lake, a Finger Lake. Penn Yan is the closest community of some size and the county seat. The area is known for its pretty big Mennonite population.
Forgot to mention that Plattsburgh is also a small city with a state college(SUNY Plattsburgh) and is on Lake Champlain. It is also home to Clinton CC and it is interesting due to its proximity to the Adirondacks, as well as Burlington VT and Montreal. It also, I believe, is the first city in the state to elect an openly gay mayor(who was a Republican).
In terms of the bolded, something to consider are the towns outside of Ithaca. For instance, Trumansburg, Dryden, Newfield, Groton and Lansing may be worth looking into in terms of that area. Keep in mind that the county/metro area has one of the highest educational attainments in the country up there with the likes of Boulder CO, Ann Arbor MI, etc. Many faculty and staff at Ithaca area colleges live in those districts and even some in adjacent counties as well.
As for other communities, places like Oneonta(has Hartwick College and Oneonta State), Brockport(west of Rochester and home to SUNY Brockport), Hamilton(in between Syracuse and Utica in Madison County, home to Colgate University), Clinton(outside of Utica and home to Hamilton College), New Paltz(in Ulster County and home to SUNY New Paltz) being worth looking into, with others like Potsdam(is home to Clarkson University and SUNY Potsdam) and nearby Canton(home to St. Lawrence University and SUNY Canton) also worth consideration due to the multiple institutions of higher learning(both of those communities are literally within 15-20 minutes of each other).
Also, similar to the Ithaca area suggestion, I would also look into suburbs that are near colleges in the bigger cities, as they are many times suggested to faculty and staff that work at the colleges/universities there. For instance, in the Syracuse area, the Jamesville-DeWitt and Fayetteville-Manlius school districts, both are among of the "best" in Upstate NY, have a strong contingent of Syracuse University/University Hill(inc. SUNY-ESF and the multiple hospitals)/Le Moyne College/even colleges in Madison County further east(SUNY Morrisville, Colgate, when Cazenovia College was around) employees.
So, in the Buffalo area, a town like Amherst(Amherst Central, Williamsville and even Sweet Home SD's) will have a strong college/university presence due to University at Buffalo and Daemen College being in that town.
Niskayuna is a town with very good schools not too far from Union College in the Union Street corridor of Schenectady. Parts of Guilderland and South Colonie SD's near UAlbany and North Colonie is home to Siena College(Loudonville the community it is in, is in that school district) and is also close to UAlbany. With North Colonie, parts are close to Troy and in turn RPI and even HVCC. So, you may have faculty and staff from those institutions that live in the district. Same in terms of parts of South Colonie, which touch Schenectady/Schenectady County and perhaps Union College staff.
Brighton in the Rochester area is close to University of Rochester, RIT, is home to a Monroe CC campus and is close to Nazareth and St. John Fisher Colleges in Pittsford, is a town that comes to mind with very good schools, a likely strong academic influence and is a relatively culturally diverse SD. Pittsford itself is another town in the area with very good schools and is many times viewed as THE best SD in Upstate NY, as well as its most affluent.
In the Binghamton area, Vestal is home to Binghamton University and is viewed as arguably the best SD in that area.
In the Utica area, New Hartford is a sleeper, high achieving school district that is close to Utica College, Mohawk Valley CC, and is in between Utica and Clinton/town of Kirkland. So, it may also get Hamilton College staff. In fact, I know of a former New Hartford HS Women's Basketball star, whose father works at Colgate. So, that illustrates that some staff from that university, and even those that work at the SUNY Poly campus in North Utica/Marcy (may) choose to live in that district.
Hyde Park outside of Poughkeepsie is home to Marist College, Dutchess CC and the Culinary Institute of America.
Another thing with these communities/school districts in these bigger areas(and even some of the smaller communities), all tend to relatively culturally diverse in terms of suburban towns/school districts in their areas, which is likely due to the academic influence.
I hope this helps, but this at least should give an idea of places to look into, among some others.
Here are home listings for some of the communities mentioned in this post...
Another community that comes to mind due to being in between the eastern suburbs of Syracuse and the SUNY Morrisville and Colgate campuses, as well as having a college until last year is Cazenovia: https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...87331?view=map
^I will say that if you don’t mind a smaller community closer to the Canadian border in the North Country/Adirondack portion of the state, places like Potsdam, Canton and Plattsburgh are your best bets due to having the college presence, good schools and proximity to French Canadian culture. Many of the people in that part of the state are of French/French-Canadian descent.
What give an edge to Potsdam is that I believe it has been viewed as the “best” school district in that portion of the state and SUNY Potsdam is home to the highly regarded Crane School of Music. With the latter, you have the chance at attending orchestra concerts, as this is based in the community: https://www.onny.org/
With Plattsburgh, you aren’t as isolated, as you are only an hour from Montreal and can take a ferry over to Vermont to get to Burlington. It is a bigger community and due to being on Lake Champlain, there are multiple beaches in the area. It also offers private school options from Pre K-12th grade(Seton Catholic), which also gets some international students and perhaps even some from Quebec.
Both are about an hour and a half from Ottawa and about 2 hours from Montreal. Syracuse is about 2 hours and 15-30 minutes away. Watertown and the Thousand Islands are about an hour and 15-30 minutes away. You are also minutes from the Adirondacks.
Here are the colleges in that area: https://www.potsdam.edu/ (good for those in music and for those looking to be a teacher)
I had a conversation with a co-worker that graduated from Clarkson in Potsdam and she stated that the towns are pretty busy when the colleges are in session, but can be pretty quite when the students are away. So, that may be something to consider for those looking into that area.
^I will say that if you don’t mind a smaller community closer to the Canadian border in the North Country/Adirondack portion of the state, places like Potsdam, Canton and Plattsburgh are your best bets due to having the college presence, good schools and proximity to French Canadian culture. Many of the people in that part of the state are of French/French-Canadian descent.
What give an edge to Potsdam is that I believe it has been viewed as the “best” school district in that portion of the state and SUNY Potsdam is home to the highly regarded Crane School of Music. With the latter, you have the chance at attending orchestra concerts, as this is based in the community: https://www.onny.org/
With Plattsburgh, you aren’t as isolated, as you are only an hour from Montreal and can take a ferry over to Vermont to get to Burlington. It is a bigger community and due to being on Lake Champlain, there are multiple beaches in the area. It also offers private school options from Pre K-12th grade(Seton Catholic), which also gets some international students and perhaps even some from Quebec.
Here is a recent interview from Mountain Lake PBS about a concert related to the school and gives an example of events that take place in the community: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppRfY-LOKWQ
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
