Although I'm not a vet student at Cornell, I did my undergrad there and I work at the vet school, so I know the area pretty well. I've grown to love it here; I think Ithaca is a great community with everything you might need. I know plenty of people who dislike Ithaca, however, partly because it's sort-of isolated, but it definitely has tons to offer once you get over that idea. Anything you might need is within a 10 minute drive of campus: grocery stores, gyms, downtown shopping area, mall, movies, many big chain stores as well as tons of cute boutique shops. Ithaca is well-known for having amazing restaurants, too, including the world-famous Moosewood. There are also lots of beautiful gorges and nature preserves (Cornell has the Plantations arboretum, which is gorgeous and has miles of walking trails).
The overall feeling of the city is a little liberal and hippy-ish, but obviously there is a lot more diversity within the campus community. From what I've seen of the vet students, they seem to be one big happy family and enjoy doing a lot of stuff together, from plays to fundraisers to parties. If there's anything else I can think of I'll add it later...
