<p>Hey everyone, I'm thinking of going to Univeristy of Buffalo, but I won't be able to see the campus until I get there because I live 8 hours away. Can anyone tell me how the campus is like? How good are the dorms, the gym, the handball courts? What facilities are there? Is the business school nice? How friendly are the people? Etc... Thank you for your help everyone!</p>
<p>i have the same question too````</p>
<p>SUNY Buffalo has a bit of a generic SUNY campus. I was able to visit SUNY Stony Brook (about 8 hours from UB, so you might have too?) and UB has a very similar feel to it once you step on campus, but I do like UB slightly more. One of my favorite buildings at UB is the Center for the Arts, the walls on all the floors are painted with art and the Center for the Arts Cafe has some of the nicest workers I’ve ever met. The people that go there are mostly art majors so they’re all really open and friendly too.</p>
<p>For dorms: Governor’s is an older dorm complex where a lot of the Honors College kids dorm. My friends there say it’s small and it feels dirty. Ellicott has slightly bigger rooms and is less maze like, but it’s still just a college dorm. The sophomore housing, Grenier dorm, is new and very nice, clean, and environmentally friendly. So the dorms are nothing too special, but they’re decent.</p>
<p>The Alumni Arena gym is nice. Lots of weights and machines (both weight machines and cardio machines). There is also an indoor running track, a swimming pool, and the gym courts. I don’t know how the courts are in general, but they have scheduled times where you can use them and those are posted online. There is also a gym in Richmond dorm in the Ellicott complex so you don’t have to go all the way to the academic spine to work out in the winter. When it’s warmer out, there are nice running paths by the Ellicott dorms too.</p>
<p>I’m not in the business school, but I have been in the Alfiero center where I think some of the business school is hosted and it seemed clean, not as busy as some parts of the school. If you’re asking about rankings and reputation, I don’t know how UB’s business school ranks.</p>
<p>As for the people, everyone in Buffalo seems to be really nice, or at least the people I’ve come in contact with. Most of the Freshmen at least will be in the same boat you are and trying to make friends. Some of the upperclassmen are really nice too. My first week at UB I didn’t really know anyone and I was sitting outside one of the buildings wasting an hour before my next class started and looking really scared when a junior came over and introduced himself and started talking to me just to tell me to be less nervous.
It was really easy to make friends once I joined a few clubs, and once you join a club it doesn’t matter what year you are. Some of my closest friends right now are all a year or two older than me because I met them through clubs. </p>
<p>If you have any other questions, I’ll do my best to answer those as well :)</p>
<p>Stony brook is 45 minutes away from me by I didn’t visit or apply there because they don’t have an accounting major. The only suny I visited was binghamton and the campus was amazing, so I hope buffalo is just like it. Thank you for the answers to my questions, you helped me a lot! Just one more question… How is the food? Thanks!</p>
<p>If you liked Binghamton then UB won’t disappoint - in my opinion it’s much nicer. My daughter is a junior there and my son is an accepted freshman so we’ve made several trips up there. Some people say the campus is “institutional” - to which I reply “well duh!”. Yes - it’s a lot of boring looking brown brick buildings - it’s a SUNY, not Harvard. But there’s also a lot of green space and lakes. I agree with the previous poster about the dorms - Governors is supposed to be a quieter dorm and is closer to the academic spine, but for some reason the rooms make you feel like you’re in a basement. Ellicott seems brighter and newer even though it was built around the same time. Ellicott rooms are bigger as well. As for the food - it’s not a five star restaurant but it does seem better than regular cafeteria food and there are many options outside of the traditional dining hall. If you check the UB campus dining site you can get quite a bit of information on where food is being served and what they’re serving. UB also has advantages that not all schools offer. The north campus is in Amherst which is an award winning safe and beautiful suburb. UB offers free busses to the mall and supermarkets there. There is also a HUGE bookstore on campus that carries a lot more than books as well as a CVS, convenience/grocery stores, several tshirt and gift shops, and a hair salon! UB also offers free movie nights and big open parties in the student union. There is a club for everything and those are really great ways to make friends. UB offers a lot of information for prospective students on their web site, including photos and videos (youtube) of the dorm rooms, campus, etc. Last but not least - the people are very friendly. Every time we’ve visited there we’ve had students come up to us and ask us if we needed help and almost everyone smiled or said hello as they walked past.</p>
<p>Thank you so much! So as an incoming freshman which dorm should I go to? I would like the bigger rooms, clean, n</p>
<p>Thank you so much! So as an incoming freshman which dorm should I go to? I would like the bigger rooms, clean, not too noisy, and not too far off from campus.</p>
<p>Freshmen choices are Governors (closer to academic spine, fewer people to the corridor bathroom, mostly honors students, quieter, smaller rooms, dark & dingy, traditional dining hall, convenience store, so-so gym), Ellicott (farther from spine but with constant shuttles, bigger and brighter rooms, a few more people to the corridor bathroom, more social, newly fully renovated dining hall, food court, convenience store, nice gym), or South Campus (bussing to north campus where most freshman classes and majors are, the oldest rooms, suite style bathrooms, older facilities, health center, at the edge of Buffalo so not the safer Amherst suburb, walk to a discount strip mall). Notes: 1) most Governors rooms are allocated to honors students; 2) Wilkeson & Spalding Quadrangles in Ellicott are dedicated to freshmen; 3) South Campus is only convenient if your major’s classes are there - I believe it’s the health professions i.e. pharmacy & nursing - but if you wait too long to put in your housing deposit Ellicott & Governors fill up first and late-comers go to South Campus.</p>
<p>I think Elliot sounds the best for me. How far is it from freshman classes if you need to take a shuttle bus? The campus must be huge!</p>
<p>The campus is pretty big but not unmanageable. The academic spine runs across the center with Ellicott at the north end. You can see campus maps on the ub website. It’s less than 10 minutes (and that’s with 3 or 4 stops along the way) on the shuttle from Ellicott to the spine. The walk is 15 - 30 minutes depending on the weather, how fast you walk, and where on the academic spine you’re headed.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.buffalo.edu/buildings/maps/NorthCampus_bus-routes.pdf[/url]”>http://www.buffalo.edu/buildings/maps/NorthCampus_bus-routes.pdf</a></p>
<p>The food is decent here, we have a Moe’s, Jamba Juice, and Tim Hortons in the Union. We also have a brand new dining hall, C3, in the Ellicott Complex. (It’s in Red Jacket dorm). The food in C3 is better than the other dining halls on campus and it feels really clean because it is brand new (just opened in October).
There are also a few decent places to eat in the Commons by the academic spine, but they don’t accept the meal plan. </p>
<p>As for distance from Ellicott to the academic spine, it’s usually a ten minute walk to the Union and then only about five minutes from there to wherever you’re going. (Though it might take more than five minutes if you only take the indoor routes). If you take a shuttle bus from Ellicott to the Union, it’s only a 2 or 3 minute ride (there is a Ellicott-Union express bus on the weekdays during peak class hours, the North Campus bus will have a few stops before it gets to the Union and the South Campus bus goes straight to the Union, but it waits a bit longer to leave). So it possible to leave the dorms ~10 minutes before class starts and get there on time, but you really should plan on transportation taking 15-20 minutes just in case because you would still have to walk through the spine to get to class and the halls get a little crowded in the 10 minute transition between normal class times (especially in the winter when no one wants to go outside).</p>
<p>Take the 8 hour trip and visit. Considering you might be spending the next 4 years of your life here (and possibly up to $80k), spending 2 days on a visit seems very reasonable.</p>
<p>So far i’ve been satisfied with most things.</p>
<p>North Campus gym (Alumni Arena): This gym is nice; much better than the one on South Campus. I’ve never really seen it too crowded though sometimes all the treadmills can be taken up but if you wait a couple minutes then eventually somebody gets off. There are A LOT of options. The only problem is that its a long walk since the closest stop is the Student Union; this is especially brutal in the winter.</p>
<p>South Campus gym (Clark Hall): The gym is fine and i’ve never seen it crowded but the inside of the building is kinda rundown and has an extremely weird layout. The public showers are usable but are unfinished, the walls are sheetrock. The building needs renovation desperately. But overall, if you need a workout then you can get the job done.</p>
<p>Elicott gym: [I have no experience with this gym, I heard its good though]</p>
<p>As for the Campus:</p>
<p>North Campus: This is the main campus and where the most activity is. It’s an okay campus, it’s very walkable. Most buildings are brownish concrete/brick buildings so it’s not too attractive but it does have a campus feel. Tunnels connect almost all of the buildings so you never have to go outside when its cold. Parking is crappy so during the main parts of the day you have to park all the way in the back if you have a car and aren’t staff (though you sometimes get lucky and get a good space).</p>
<p>South Campus: This campus is mostly gorgeous historic buildings but theres some disgusting cold war/soviet style tin trailers and housing project style dorm buildings that ruin the ambience which is a shame. Parking is not too bad but not great.</p>
<p>As of right now in 2013, I rate the appearance of the campus as a 6/10. There is a plan called UB 2020 to make the campus more attractive&walkable (that is currently in the works).</p>
<p>And just about everybody that I have came in contact with tends to be very friendly. And I say this as a person who is from an ethnic group that has historically faced hostility. Most people have been nice both off campus and on campus. Most people are extremely helpful with directions and appear excited when you ask them for directions. Most people hold the door for you.</p>