Bing tops list of “Public Ivies”

This is one writer’s viewpoint.

4 Likes

Here’s another: there are no public Ivy’s little Ivy’s, southern Ivy’s, western Ivy’s, HCBU Ivy’s, women’s Ivy’s etc.

There are plenty of colleges as strong, or stronger, than some of the 8 in the Ivy League athletic conference. But they should tout their own strengths instead of applying a BS moniker.

12 Likes

Bing happens to be an excellent school, and one with a reasonable price tag even for OOS students (relative to other schools). I would have been very happy if my daughter chose Binghamton.

One big reason why she crossed it off her list was because she wanted to do research, and she/we had a very hard time finding students who participated. She also had a very difficult time finding professors to speak with about research, even after getting their contact info from admissions. Nobody got back to her after several attempts. In contrast, all of the professors at the school she ultimately chose got back to her within 24 hours, and she had no problem participating in research and being published (several times). Many times she simply knocked on their door and was invited in to talk about opportunities.

She graduated HS 6 years ago, so things may have improved regarding undergrad research. Regardless, Bing is an amazing school and every single kid I know who attended has done very well.

My advice is to look into Bing’s research opportunities if this is something you are interested in.

I am well aware @skieurope . The point is that the writer is impressed with Bing. My kid goes there and believe me, it’s not an Ivy. The purpose of the post is to show that Bing is a good school, not that it’s pretending to be Harvard. :slight_smile: A college advisor wrote this, not Bing.

@twogirls , my son isn’t interested in research, but he knows kids who are. I think Bing has had many teething problems and your D’s experience with lack of communication reflects that. I have to say that there were issues with rapid expansion about 4 or 5 years ago that I think are easing up a bit.

It’s really an amazing school. I continue to be impressed by the graduates from Bing (and I know a lot).

As research came up, I thought I’d link this page:

The State has poured money into Bing over the last few years. Since my son first started, we have seen fantastic improvements on campus.

Here’s a more well-known public university rankings list. Bing climbed to #33, up eight positions from last year.

1 Like

As a minor note, the twelve schools in the original source appear to have been arranged alphabetically. In any case, thanks for sharing the article, @Lindagaf.

The author says “If you were looking for the best value, excluding merit scholarships, it’s Binghamton.” You’re right, it is alphabetical.

Saw this press release. How is Binghamton NOT a flagship school? I realize that Gov Hochul has her allegiance to the town of Buffalo. Maybe Stony Brook is to woo centrist Republicans for her next election. Is this political? Flagships are Stony Brook and Buffalo but not Binghamton? Odd. UB, Stony Brook earn flagship status - UBNow: News and views for UB faculty and staff - University at Buffalo

1 Like

I was pumping my fist, yelling at the clouds, agreeing with you.

BUT, then I clicked on the link to review the list and saw that Cal Poly SLO is there. So, I changed my mind. There are public Ivy’s. :rofl:

2 Likes

Thanks, Lindgaf! I really like the way this guy thinks. :+1:

2 Likes

Since when does a governor get to decide which is the state’s flagship university? Frankly I doubt that this will matter to anyone.

3 Likes

This was a huge miss. What they should have done was combine the upstate medical school with Binghamton (as most of the students do their clinical work in the Bing area anyway) and made that a flagship. Yes I’m a Binghamton grad and of course would want Binghamton designated as a flagship, but also most people realize it’s the top SUNY and has been for years. Kids applying to Michigan, Cornell, and the Ivy League apply to Binghamton (even if as a safety), not BUF and SBU.

Clearly the governor was giving her home base area a boost.

3 Likes

“vision to make SUNY the best statewide public higher education system in the nation.”

UC is by far the best state system. How much extra funding is NYS putting into higher education or is it going to be adhoc and incremental? When I lived in NYC twenty years ago, I considered Bing to be the flagship for recruiting, followed by Albany and SB for STEM.

Not sure how much money the state is putting in to the SUNY system overall, but I can tell you that they have poured money into Bing. I have friends whose kids are at UBuffalo and it seems like a fair amount of money is also being spent there. The governor’s announcement is odd, but everyone knows Bing is the best, so it doesn’t matter. :smiley:

5 Likes

@Lindagaf - I think the alumni has been quite generous in their financial support. I need to look at the numbers.

1 Like

We are in South Florida and at D23 School College Fair this week Bing was there and it is on her list now

3 Likes

Actually, when you think about it, UB and SBU make perfect sense if you’re only going to pick 2 flagships. When the announcement was made, I thought it was arbitrary and capricious with the governor simply serving her home town interests. But it’s not. Regardless of the prestige of Binghamton, UB and SBU are the only AAU schools in the SUNY system.

What is a flagship anyway? Usually the oldest, biggest, and most prominent university in the state system. UB is in fact the oldest and largest of the SUNY research centers, so they’re an easy choice. A flagship is also where the most research dollars tend to be channeled. That brings SBU into the picture, and it has the 2nd largest enrollment of the SUNY campuses and neither Bing nor Albany are within 10,000 students of them in total enrollment. AAU designation speaks to their level of research dollars. Throw in their affiliation with Brookhaven Labs, and I think that they too become the logical choice for a second flagship campus.

The real questions are Why? And Why now? And Why two?

New York made the conscious decision 70+ years ago when SUNY was founded to have 4 separate research centers and NOT to designate a flagship. So, this is a decision to abandon a long established tradition. Why? What was the compelling interest to decide that any of these campuses needed to be designated as a flagship? Why now? Politics of the moment? Something else going on?

And why two? Flagship by definition is the lead ship and as such almost always singular. That would be UB. New York as the newest state university system left behind what was seen as an antiquated notion even in the 1950s as many states had multiple research universities by then with the state’s land grant campus often being a second one. So why shrink from 4 to 2 in the 21st century? And if someone feels the need to have a flagship at all, then why not just have one like everyone else?

1 Like