<p>To be clear, Geneseo is not the SUNY designated honors college. One doesn’t exist as a single campus. Many SUNYs have honors programs, including Geneseo, Binghamton, Albany, etc.</p>
<p>I didn’t think that Geneseo is a SUNY deignated honors college either but from their web site “Geneseo, the most selective institution in SUNY, is considered New York’s Public Honors College.”</p>
<p>Many states have a public honors college, often when there are selective LACs nearby, so that there’s a public option for that. Geneseo actually was a model after which many such colleges were set (and which other systems try/have tried to copy). It doesn’t mean there’s no honors college/program at the other campuses. A good example would be St Mary’s of Maryland (public honors college) which does not prevent UMD-College Park from having an excellent honors college, too. They’re just different types of experiences, for different profiles of students.</p>
<p>This is interesting discussion. I get the argument that SUNY schools differ mainly by academic “qualities” of student body which are measured by SAT/ACT/High school GPA (however imperfect…). Without going into argument that everyone should work their hardest and not to look for easy way out (which I agree with), does it mean that the same student would get higher GPA at a “lesser” school? Student, say academically average, would be taking the same classes, having the same study habits, working his hardest but at a “lesser” college course grading curve would work to his favor. Not talking about pre-med here or big 4 accounting firms or where UG prestige matters, but on average wouldn’t higher GPA from a “lesser” school provide more opportunities for a job or graduate school or research or even staying on track for chosen profession as OP is asking? Or is there a danger that student’s study habits will be influenced by less academically inclined peers and he won’t try his hardest anymore, won’t learn as much and even can get completely derailed? Should one pay close attention to graduation rates at SUNY Oswego (58%) vs SUNY Binghamton (86%)?</p>