Ithaca College Paper Format & Writing Requirements

Ithaca College at a glance

A private college on South Hill above Cayuga Lake in Ithaca, New York, known for the Roy H. Park School of Communications, an integrated music, theatre and dance school rooted in its conservatory origins, and Bombers teams in the Liberty League.

The campus sits in Ithaca, New York, operates as a private institution, and enrolls about 5,000 students — a scale that directly shapes how writing support works. Founded in 1892 with an acceptance rate around 75%, Ithaca College pairs selective admissions with the large-course writing loads typical of its category.

Citation styles Ithaca College actually requires

Ithaca College courses predominantly require MLA 9 or APA 7. That is not a trivial preference: it decides your title page, heading levels, in-text punctuation and reference format on every graded document.

• MLA 9: used across humanities and writing-sequence courses
• APA 7: used across social science, nursing and business courses

Verify against the specific course syllabus anyway — instructors can override departmental defaults, and the first paper is where they enforce it.

The writing requirement, decoded

An Ithaca Seminar sequence anchors the first two years, and communications, business and music majors add media analyses, business plans and program notes; writing tutors support drafting through the Writing Center in the library.

Plan the sequence early: composition requirements compound, and students who defer them discover the advanced seminars — where the writing-intensity lives — conflict with major courses later. The registrar's degree audit shows exactly which flags remain; check it each semester.

Three things about Ithaca College papers that surprise new students

• Founded in 1892 as the Ithaca Conservatory of Music by violinist W. Grant Egbert, the school grew into a full college and did not take the Ithaca College name until 1931.
• The Roy H. Park School of Communications runs one of the nation's oldest student-operated television stations, ICTV, with the Park Center for Media Arts housing broadcast studios and screening rooms.
• The campus sits on South Hill above Cayuga Lake, the longest of the Finger Lakes, in a college town also home to Cornell University.

None of these appear in the course description. All of them appear in the rubric. Students who learn them in week one report smoother first-semesters than students who meet them at the deadline.

Assignments Ithaca College students face most

• Essay — most frequently assigned across Ithaca College's programs
• Coursework — most frequently assigned across Ithaca College's programs
• Literature Review — most frequently assigned across Ithaca College's programs
• Annotated Bibliography — most frequently assigned across Ithaca College's programs

Popular programs at Ithaca College include communications, music, business administration — each pairs the assignment list above with its own capstone or practicum expectations, detailed on our subject pages.