<p>Do you have many international students? And do you find they integrate well? How easy is it to get down to NYC?</p>
<p>Hello! I’m curious about the freshman dorms. Are you allowed to request if you want West, Richmond, or Davidson, and does applying early decision affect that at all?</p>
<p>Do you know anything about the athletic recruiting process at Union, specifically, how much pull coaches might have?</p>
<p>Are the majority of the students at Union from Long island and New Jersey?</p>
<p>^ a lot of students that I’ve encountered are from New York State just in general. Quite a few of my friends are from NYC in particular. Not so many from NJ but a few. But this is not to say that you won’t easily find students from other parts of the country and even outside of the US. I’m from Florida and I’ve met a few other kids from FL. Also, I’ve met classmates hailing from Colorado, Texas, quite a few from Cali, and others outside of the US-Estonia, Vietnam, Iran, Poland. </p>
<p>Hope that helps! :)</p>
<p>How are math and econ departments at Union?</p>
<p>Hi! I am happy to say that I am coming to Union in the fall after applying early decision. I am probably going for a theater/english double major. (still on the fence though…)</p>
<p>I loved the theater when I came and visited! Do you know if Union has an improv/sketch comedy troupe?</p>
<p>Also, in your opinion, does your major tend to affect your social scene, as in the people you primarily hang out with? I’m guessing with frats and sororities that’s not the case.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Just checking in to say I will be back to answer questions and haven’t forgotton about the thread, just got back to school and haven’t set up my computer. I’ll get all the answers up tomorrow as I’m posting from my iPhone right now</p>
<p>Our son just got admitted to Union and it is one of his two top choices, the other being Skidmore. I have posted essentially the same questions on a Skidmore thread, but they are appropriate for Union as well.</p>
<p>He is a very passionate math student and is extremely good at it, i.e he will undoubtedly start by taking junior and senior level courses as a freshman. In contrast, he is ADHD and struggles with writing. He is also somewhat awkward socially, although very sweet-tempered. This leads to several questions. What is the population of math centered kids like at Union? Do recent alums or current students know of unusually advanced math students on the campus and, if so, how does the faculty handle the situation? How good are the supports for someone with his disability and how good is the writing skills support program?? He is also very interested in theater arts. However, we wonder whether a student like him, with enthusiasm but no secondary school experience will feel somewhat marginalized. Finally, we would appreciate commentary on the Jewish life at Union.</p>
<p>We would be grateful for any feedback.</p>
<p>I can answer some parts of the question-
I have several friends who are currently math majors and know a senior who is a physics and math double major. They are all awesome people and I don’t think I’ve ever met some many people who like math in my life (I personally am terrible at it!)
In terms of the disability question, there are a great many resources on our campus to help students-I am a student note taker so I have been to the student resource center quite a few times and they are more than willing to help students not only adjust to college life but help them throughout their time spent at Union.
I know a few people who are new to acting and its pretty easy to get started with our theater department and we have a few improv clubs that welcome new members.
As far as Jewish life at Union, the Hillel as well as the Chabad house are amazing. I am far from home and Jewish so, being unable to come home for Passover or Yom Kipper made me worried. However, Union made it so that I didn’t have to feel bad about not being able to go home and the services/dinners were great. There are a ton of Jewish students on campus and there are a ton of students on campus that are not Jewish. Services are pretty casual and we have friday night dinners every week as well as activities throughout the week in order to encourage Jewish learning after high school-for example, each week there is a lunch and discussion at Hillel.
I hope this helps!</p>
<p>Thank you for your very helpful comments. My son is almost certainly going to accept Union’s offer of admission. When I wrote my comments above we were not aware that cross-registration at SUNY Albany is allowed and they have an extremely strong graduate program in mathematics, so he should have no great trouble mixing independent study with graduate courses as that becomes necessary. If there are Union students, most especially math majors, who could comment on their experience taking courses at SUNY Albany, that would be really valuable to us. Thank you again</p>
<p>Manwich thank you so much for all your answers. I have read the entire thread and it was extremely helpful in helping with my college search. I was just wondering if you knew any specifics about the premed program and in specifcs the neuroscience major? Also, do you know about the workload of a typical premed student? Is it possible to balance sleeping, studying, joining a frat, and an intramural or two? Thank you</p>
<p>I recently visited Union and I love the campus!!! However, I am wondering what the social experience is like with such a small school? What is there to do on campus and off? Do you find your self ever getting bored because of the smaller size?</p>
<p>Hi Manwich and others, </p>
<p>I’m soon to be a freshman at Union and I was just wondering what your take is on fall term class registration. How do you suggest I spread out the load, with the GenEd requirements and all? I’m thinking I will probably take Calc, and then am unsure as to whether or not the Freshman preceptorial is included in your 3 classes. If so, what preceptorials do you think are the best and would you recommend getting another core requirement out of the way with the third class, or just choosing something your particularly interested in. Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>Just graduated from Union and I’m back at home for a bit, so if anyone has questions I might actually get around to answering them now!</p>
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<p>I have a number of friends who do exactly what you hope to do. One of my housemates was our student graduation speaker this year: bio major, fraternity brother, cum laude graduate, and now deferring med school for a year to go on a Union fellowship working in rural Ecuador. Union is certainly a work hard, play hard environment…a pre-med track will be academically challenging, but certainly not so much so that you won’t be able to get out and have fun.</p>
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<p>There is generally a lot going on on-campus throughout the week, and certainly a lot to do off campus if you look around. Freshmen are not allowed to have cars, so there’s more time spent on campusthough the downtown has improved dramatically in the past few years and seems to be on track to be a very nice college town. As you move towards senior year the activities on campus may seem a little more played out (comedians, concerts, events, frat parties etc), but the world around Union really opens up. My friends and I were even a little disappointed that we were really starting to find the coolest places in the area just as we were getting ready to graduate. The capital district is vibrant and full of things to do and restaurants to go to. Between Schenectady, Albany, Troy and Saratoga there are tons of fun things to do.</p>
<p>In the last year or so we’ve discovered an amazing family style Italian restaurant (Augie’s in Ballston Spa), an authentic German-style biergarten (Wolff’s in Albany), an independent movie theater that shows hard-to-find movies (Spectrum in Albany) and more.</p>
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<p>You have plenty of time to explore whatever interests you freshman fall. My advice would be to explore things that interest you that might also satisfy requirements…keep in mind you have various requirements like WAC (writing) classes, a math class, history, two science classes etc. I planned ahead enough that I took classes that satisfied requirements and interested me…you should wind up with lots of electives if you plan ahead enough. My spring term senior year I took three random classes as I’d finished GenEd and my major requirements, while some of my friends were still taking important classes required for graduation.</p>
<p>Your precept will be one of the three classes you take in the Fall…as far as which one to take I know that they change the course descriptions every year so I can’t make any recommendations, though I see that professor Sargent is teaching one and I really enjoyed his classes.</p>
<p>i was wondering what your thoughts on the minerva system are and how it compares to systems at other universities
also, what are your thoughts on the greek housing system
finally, your thoughts on the trimester system because i am going to go premed and most medical schools set their prereqs by semsters of courses not trimesters so how would that transfer over?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t think there would be a problem with the prereqs transfering over. A trimester course at Union would cover the same amount of material as a semester course at another college. Because you would be taking only three courses per trimester, the material moves at an acclerated pace and you will have more hours of class per week.</p>
<p>A few quick questions… how much benefit is there to doing an interview? To applying early decision?</p>
<p>I read about union in several sites and all of them complained about the college administration. Whats it like? Is it really that awful??? Whats the life like for internationals??</p>
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<p>The administration is, for the most part, fine, however there are certain elements that can be frustrating: some of the people who are supposed to help students and make college life better (student activities/registrar etc) can be unhelpful. I don’t think that this is particularly worse than other schools. I understand that there has been a great growth of student services and support staff in colleges in the last few decades (part of the reason for increases in tuition), which has contributed to a growing bureaucracy at many schools. This is certainly visible at Union as it is at other schools, and is part of the growing pains of the changing face of college life.</p>
<p>As far as life for international students goes: I think international students can have a good and normal college experience—there’s certainly a good population of international students who support each other and who are seemingly well integrated with the rest of the student body.</p>
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<p>I think there is just as much benefit to an interview as at other schools…certainly a greater benefit if you’re a little weak academically but can come off well person-to-person. Applying early decision can make a big difference because you’re making the commitment earlier that makes the admissions department’s life easier.</p>