<p>binghamton v. geneseo
when we went to a geneseo info session someone asked a question about the differences -- since they are the two most selective SUNY's a lot of students look at both. the admissions officer rolled her eyes and tried to explain that they were just different -- geneseo is a lac, binghamton a university center.</p>
<p>if you look just at the campuses, you may not be struck be a great difference -- red brick buildings, scenic hills surrounding. binghamton campus a bit bigger. but as already discussed, geneseo is really very rural. despite what many from NYC may think, Binghamton is a city -- the campus is actually in a suburb of Binghamton - Vestal -- with all your typical suburban fast food and chain stores. The City of Binghamton itself is fairly convenient to campus -- both by campus owned bus and public bus. It's no NYC, but depending on the type of things you're looking for there are opportunities for internships. </p>
<p>I think either locale can be culture shock to someone from a bigger city (particularly NYC/Long Island) -- and since so many kids from NYC/Long Island go to them, you'll hear a lot of criticism of the locales as not being very exciting -- can also lead to some upstate vs. downstate tensions among the students if they let it. </p>
<p>I think sometimes students feel that if they "have to" go to a SUNY they want to make sure they are going to the "best" which they translate as most selective -- and then they can spend 4 years complaining about being in the "middle of no where." Go and visit any of the SUNY's your d is thinking about.</p>
<p>if a more cosmopolitan atmosphere is important you might want to look at Albany or Buffalo. New Paltz has also gained a lot in both popularity and selectivity in recent years.</p>
<p>What about SUNY Purchase??-- They are supposed to have a very good creative writing program.
I am going to look for my copy of the BIG RED BOOK from Cornell- it's 3 years old but I have trouble following all the info on the diiferent schools websites. My real quick reply about Cornell is to check out the Ag. school aka- College of Agric. & Life Science (CALS) and look under the Communication Department. You might be able to "cobble" a curriculum together that might interest an "English" major.
Cornell is funny with admissions. I think they are really good at "sniffing out" who really wants to take advantage of the particular program and who is applying because they think it's the "easiest" Ivy to get into.<br>
My kid was lucky- she had the right grades, SAT's etc- pretty similar to the Janes's d, but I think coming from a union household and taking alot of history and social studies AP classes showed that she was truly interested in that area of study (ILR).</p>
<p>1500 SAT here and waitlisted at cornell, but thats CAS and not one of the SUNY subsidised campuses. it really shouldnt be a shock to see people with 1500+SATs rejected/waitlisted from cornell, its an ivy, they reject probably half or slightly less of 1600/2400's</p>
<p>Couldn't find the book- I had to resort to looking at the Cornell website. It's so confusing and I don't have as much patience as I used to have.</p>
<p>But re programs at Cornell: Go to the CALS website and look at the Academic Programs - which include Communication, Information Science and a host of others. If by chance she would consider teaching HS math, there is also a program in CALS- the "Cornell Teacher Ed Program". I was lucky- ILR is a stand alone program and it actually did intererst my kid. You may as well check out ILR and Human Ec but they are generally more social science based.</p>
<p>You may also want to check out Ithaca College. They have a good communication Dept. and I think they are quite generous with merit aid for the right kid.</p>
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Cornell is a great school, of course, but so so so hard to get into. I know people with 1500+ SATs that were denied.
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<p>We've had 22 kids getting in (I think over three years) with scores as low as 1200 and as high as 1600. Only 3 were denied with scores over 1500. Our resulat for Geneseo look identical. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same 3 kids that were denied.</p>
<p>Stony Brook has started a new School of Journalism, and it looks good, judging from the caliber of folks involved in the start-up. It's worth checking out.</p>
<p>It is very easy and costs little to apply to both Geneseo and Binghamton. In the meantime, I would research other options. There are a lot of good private colleges which will offer decent financial need and merit packages for kids with SATs in the 1400's.</p>
<p>We are looking at some privates, and OOS. Penn State Schreyers Honors College, Fordham, maybe Manhattan, Loyola, Lafayette, will include Ithaca now and possibly Hobart and William Smith. </p>
<p>Penn State's Schreyer Honors College has a good rep, but you won't get much merit money OOS and the school is really expensive. So I doubt it will turn out to be the financial safety you're looking for.</p>