Binghamton v. Rutgers

Parents Forum
41

I disagree with our UNC-W person all the time, but no, Rutgers can hold its own compared to at least UNC-W and NCSU, UNC-CH is a public Ivy (and forget about trying to get in there from out of state, unless you are actually Ivy material).

In terms of safety …
http://patch.com/new-jersey/newbrunswick/new-brunswick-25th-most-dangerous-town-nj

So violent crime rate is 5 per 1000, you do realize Bing has 7 per 1000, one of the most violent cities in America. Piscataway is super safe at 0.81.

yes, it’s urban, but … there are a lot of cities in the US that are not as safe. And many of the 6 campuses are far from the city of New Brunswick, there are no homeless lurking around near Busch or Livingston or Douglas or Cook and it is a good long walk from the College Ave main area to downtown as well.

If you think NB is one of the worst towns in the US - you just don’t travel much, do you ?

The six campuses, unless you NEED to go to all of them, you aren’t going to be on the bus all day … and if you WANT to go to another one, it will offer a different flavor or different offerings. Each campus has its own atmosphere, but that is kind of good too … lives smaller than many equal size flagships.

140 full-ride scholarships just start the offerings for scholarships.
The honors college on College Avenue and all the honors colleges at the various schools … they all offer a lot.

If you live in NJ and aren’t loaded, you are quite foolish to not consider Rutgers-NB, a major research university, and TCNJ - a up and coming regional small university. There are not many schools that offer a similar education for $35K full-pay.

I know nothing about Bing, but south of NJ and NY, no one has ever heard of it or thought of going there. And, it’s a lot colder than Rutgers, which is even warmer and less snowy than northern NJ and less windy and cold than NYC. Even before global warming, it was rare to really have to deal with snow on campus in winter.

42

Thanks for your replies everyone! I didn’t think I would get so many responses. Just so you all know, I have visited both, but I’m pretty adaptable when it comes to the big school/small school thing, and Rutgers feels a lot smaller feel once you’re on the individual campuses, at least that’s how it felt to me. This did put into perspective ,however, the overall cost of attending Bing over Rutgers. For those of you suggesting TCNJ, I’ve already applied, but I’m regular decision, so I don’t really want to put a lot of faith in it when I won’t know my status until April. Is TCNJ really the best option for pre-law over these two, if I were accepted?

43

My DD picked Binghamton…Among Top in Best Out of State Value

http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-public-colleges/index.php

Rutgers has 33,000 undergrads at New Brunswick
Bing has 13,000

Rutgers: 90% return after Freshman year
Bing: 92%

Rutgers:
SAT Critical Reading: 520 / 640
SAT Math: 570 / 700

Bing
SAT Critical Reading: 590 / 670
SAT Math: 620 / 700

Rutgers 4-Year Graduation Rate: 59%
Bing 4-Year Graduation Rate: 68%

44

Rutgers NB is quite a bit larger than Binghamton and has a very different feel. I have to say that I laughed at descriptions of New Brunswick as some kind of post-apocalyptic hellhole. Not exactly. There is a lot of stuff going on (concerts, theater, restaurants. etc.) . I really don’t think the OOS premium for Binghamton is worth it. We’re not talking about UNC or UVA. NJ students who want a big rah-rah campus environment will often choose Maryland or Penn State over Rutgers NB, and I understand that. But I really don’t think that Binghamton is immensely more appealing that Rutgers NB for a driven student who wants access to some culture and economic opportunities.

45

I totally agree. While I would normally refuse to touch any NJ school with a ten-foot pole, I will say that I’d rather go to Rutgers over Binghamton.

46

Did anyone who responded go to either school? I went to Binghamton for pre-law and academically, it’s consistently one of the best state schools in NY (sometimes Geneseo or Stonybrook top it depending on the year). When I applied (granted it was a long time ago), I was valedictorian of my high school and got a partial scholarship to Brown. Sadly, my parents couldn’t afford to send me to Brown AND law school so off to Binghamton I went. Mind you, the salutatorian of my high school got waitlisted for Binghamton the same year and ended up at Geneseo. Binghamton has a great reputation in the NYC area but it’s best known for their School of Management. Half the school of management graduates had jobs with the big 6 accounting firms before they even graduated. The area around the campus is beautiful but has a very typical upstate NY feel. Technically the campus is in Vestal but the city of Binghamton (which is where most students move to in junior and senior year) itself can be seedy in some areas. Most of the students are from NY with a majority being from Long Island. It seems that it’s a school for people who couldn’t get into/afford Cornell or the other Ivy’s.

All that being said, I would not go to Binghamton if you intend to go to law school. Save the money for a great law school and go to a state school. Binghamton’s pre-law program (which really is just the Liberal Arts College or Harpur) is good but not as well known as their Business School and I’m not sure if it will give you a competitive advantage. My advice is to save your money, go to a state school and get the best grades you can get and study for your LSAT’s so that you will eventually go to a top law school. Binghamton is a great school and their out of state tuition is very reasonable compared to other states but when you’re talking about paying for 7 years of school (including law school), those $ add up.

47

My kids went to Binghamton and TCNJ. Rutgers was just too big for them. But both of those other schools are under $30,000.

48

TCNJ is gaining in popularity as people start to recognize that it is a “hidden gem.” The campus is beautiful, it has the feel of an LAC as opposed to a large state university, and it is not an easy school to get into.

I always feel the need to defend Binghamton because the school receives a lot of negative publicity on CC. It happens to be one of NYS’s top state schools, along with Geneseo. Binghamton is also not easy to get into if you live in NY. I have a family member who is there right now and he told me that it’s not easy. He had a 4.0 in HS; not the top top student but certainly a strong student. He was majoring in one of the sciences on a pre med track but has since changed to a different health care field. I have three other family members that graduated in recent years. One went on to grad school at Columbia. One is working in the city, and the other is taking a year off and doing grad school applications. I have another friend whose kid did not make the business school and transferred to another SUNY. The school of management is not easy to get into.

SUNY Binghamton is in a typical upstate area. It is not good or bad- it is what it is. There is no college town but there are certainly things to do right outside the school. There are hotels, movie theaters, restaurants, etc. To me it looks like a typical upstate suburban area. From what I understand, off campus housing is spectacular and the students love it. The on campus housing is beautiful, but yes, the academic buildings need some sprucing up. You can’t compare Binghamton to other state schools such as Michigan, UVA, and UNC, however making that comparison does not seem fair to me. Those schools are very expensive if you do not get FA and are very difficult to get into OOS. There are plenty of kids at Bing who did get into those schools, but had to turn them down due to finances. Some students choose other schools such as Ohio State because OS has become very generous with merit money.

Binghamton is a state school. The vast majority of students come from NYS, specifically the down state area (NYC and surrounding counties). Sometimes, for some kids, the school feels like a continuation of HS. This is because many of the students who attend are similar to the kids they went to HS with. One of my kids attends a “top” OOS state school and the exact same thing was originally reported by her. That concept is not unique to Binghamton.

The bottom line is that Bing gives you an excellent “bang for the buck” if you are a resident of NYS. It is also reasonably priced OOS (relatively speaking).

49

Outstanding post by twogirls. Could not have said it better. I attended Binghamton two decades ago. My sister went there. My wife. Brother in law. Quite familiar with school. Its reputation amongst professional schools is outstanding. Same goes with large finance companies. Yeah, if you want to work in LA, they may have heard of Rutgers more than Binghamton. But if you want to work in the Northeast, everyone knows that Binghamton has produced very smart students for many years. My son was just accepted to the School of Management. He loves the school and will probably follow his parents there.

Anyone who claims that Rutgers is somehow superior to Binghamton - hasn’t attended either school. TCNJ has become uber selective in recent years. LOVED the campus. It is probably the only school that could possibly pry my son from my beloved alma mater.

50

What is the price difference for the OP? Nothing against Binghamton at all; it’s a very solid school. But I don’t see an economic rationale for an NJ resident to prefer it over Rutgers NB. Its graduates don’t, as a rule, have better employment outcomes or graduate school admissions than Rutgers students. As with so many of these decisions, it depends on whether, for the individual student, the extra money is worth it for a different environment or experience.

51

Went to Rutgers back when New Brunswick was really shady, before J&J and lots of investment. However, geography doesn’t change, and the bad areas of NB were not on-campus, they required quite a stroll to get to. Stuff-yer-Face was not in a bad neighborhood, and Mario Batali worked there around the time I was there. It is nicer now. If you had to be in NB, like one of my very poor friends who was trying to make an off-campus apartment work, you could be in a pretty bad neighborhood.

anyhow - your choice also depends on your major. For STEM fields, Rutgers seems to hold a clear advantage, much higher ranked engineering school than Bing, much higher ranked science and comp sci departments, etc. These are located in Piscataway, that has very low crime statistics and is … a former golf course … and very nice, way more suburban than College Avenue, main Rutgers campus.

I still think, if you take of the NJ mud colored glasses, Rutgers is a very typical flagship research university … It is also considered a very high research activity university … the rest are not. Rutgers engineering honors programs back in the dark ages required research to graduate.

And Bing is cold, cold, but is almost NY flagship university (NY should probably fund one much better than others so they can have a flagship to attract faculty, research dollars, and students). Stonybrook is really more of a flagship, based on research classification (very high vs high for Bing).

TCNJ is like a lot of small schools elsewhere, providing a good public inexpensive alternative to a liberal arts college. And before you get too excited, it is being ranked with regional north universities, not on national scale, so no it is not the #1 public, that would be … Berkeley (possibly Cornell public divisions). TCNJ is not Berkeley, can we agree on that? Top western public regional is CSU-SLO. South = James Madison.

And, for many people these publics are absolutely the best option, the cheapest one the best option, because they are often middle class and first generation college and just should not be borrowing lots of money for an equivalent private or equivalent OOS university. Not everyone, actually nearly no one is getting huge merits, so pick one and enjoy getting an education.

Your high schools classmates will either be there at Rutgers and you can shyly wave, or will be off somewhere likely overpriced and you really honestly never have to see them or their snooty friends again. Who cares what the neighbors think of your school - what matters is what employers think … and I think they think Rutgers is just fine. Similarly TCNJ is just fine and Bing is just fine (maybe even better if in-state makes it drop into the $20s).

52

@PickOne1 I agree TCNJ is quite a bit overrated.

53

Maryland is probably no safer than Rutgers NB. It looks safer, but that’s an illusion. Its seemingly nice suburban location is surrounded by some really poor areas, and good mass transit makes it easy for thieves from DC to roam about the campus waiting for students to leave an expensive bicycle or electronic device unattended for 30 seconds.

I’m not saying to rule out Maryland – there are good reasons for its popularity. Just remember that if you go there, you need to think like a city dweller, not a suburbanite, no matter how pretty it looks, or you and your possessions will soon be parted.

My son went to Maryland, and several years after graduation, is still very pleased that he did. But he had bicycles stolen three times, even though he used a good lock, and one day when I was at his off-campus apartment building, a girl was hysterical because she had left two suitcases next to her car while going upstairs for another load of luggage, and when she got back, the suitcases were gone forever.

After graduating from Maryland, my son went into a graduate program at the University of California at San Diego (which is actually in the pricey suburb of La Jolla, not in San Diego itself). He saw people reserve seats in dining facilities by leaving their phones or laptops on the tables. After four years at Maryland, he thought they were out of their minds.

54

Completely OT, but I just wanted to clarify that La Jolla, while obviously not part of downtown San Diego, is within the San Diego city limits. Having lived and worked in beautiful and sunny San Diego, I can assure you that there is plenty of crime within both the city and county limits (even in its most beautiful areas), facilitated by the freeway system.

55

facts are facts. TCNJ very justified in earning the rank as the #1 public in NJ for undergraduate. Seriously, please stop the mis-information. it has higher admission standards, and better teacher student ratios. Again, for undergraduate they are a great school . top 75 most competitive schools in the nation as per barrons, #1 regional in the north public and #3 (tied with Bentley) overall by USNWR . And it’s a regional because of its focus on UNDERGRADATES which is exactly what all these young people should be concerned with right now. Its the #20 ranked accounting program in the nation, its the #2 ranked Ed program in the entire nation, its got a top 60 accredited Business program ( and the highest ranked by far b-school in NJ). Its got a renowned Chem, and STEM program with the edition of a new 100 million dollar facility. Owe and Money mag ranks it top 75 overall in the nation, could go on and on. Fact is , it’s a terrific school for undergraduate degree and a tremendous value, use your cash on grad school.

56

Yes, College Park is the bicycle theft capitol of Maryland. If you have a bike in town, bring the best lock you can afford. However, my impression is that there is little violent crime near the University.