<p>Yeesh… sulsk, just because you live on Long Island doesn’t mean you’re an expert on Stony Brook. You could hardly be more wrong if you tried. Have you ever even been to the Stony Brook campus? Or are you just another Long Island kid who thinks they know what it’s like because their brother’s friend’s ex-girlfriend’s brother went to SBU 10 years ago and you heard he didn’t like it?</p>
<p>kayler, Stony Brook is not a suitcase school. At all. Over 90% of freshmen live on campus, and studies of students’ ID card usage show over 80% of resident students are on campus on an average weekend. That means that the average number of people on Stony Brook’s campus on the weekends (not even counting students like me who live off campus, but spend most weekends hanging out there) is more than double Brandeis’s entire student body. Hardly a negative in Stony Brook’s column.</p>
<p>As far as student life in general, the best way I can think of to sum things up is that there really is something for everyone at Stony Brook, and if you put yourself out there it’s completely impossible to get bored. There are always events going on, always parties to go to, always new people to meet and new things to try. The student body is exceptionally diverse by nearly any measure you can come up with–racially, ethnically, religiously, socio-economically, and intellectually. As I wrote in another thread for someone making a similar decision: If you like big parties, we have those. If you like hanging out with your friends and talking about the nature of consciousness until 4am, you’ll find plenty of people to do that with. If you like staging Improv Everywhere style awesomeness, you’ll be in good company. If music or theater or art is your life, we’ve got your people (and your practice rooms/performance spaces/darkrooms!). If you want to learn archery, ballroom dancing, capoeira, belly dance, crew, rugby, or taiko, if you want to Take Back the Night, fight for queer rights, or work on a political campaign, if you want to write a play in 24 hours, or race a boat you built out of cardboard and duct tape–we have clubs and events for all of those. If you want to paint yourself red and freeze your butt off at the football game, you won’t be alone, and if you’d rather stay in and talk about how awesome bacterial genetics is, you won’t be alone either. There are even people who’re up for all of the above. I’ve gotten to know an amazing number of brilliant, interesting and fun people at Stony Brook, and I wouldn’t trade my experience here for anything.</p>
<p>Comparatively, Brandeis is very lacking on the diversity and variety front. It’s also a much smaller school, which can be a bad thing or a good thing depending on what kind of experience you’re looking for. In terms of research opportunities in the natural and social sciences, Stony Brook wins hands down. In terms of course selection, you’re bound to have a lot more options at Stony Brook unless your major academic interests are Judaic Studies, Hebrew, and the Middle East.</p>
<p>It would be easier to help with your decision-making process if you gave us a clearer idea of what your concerns were. What are you thinking about studying? What hobbies and ECs are important to you? What are the main things you’re looking to get out of college?</p>
<p>Finally, it’s an incredibly bad idea to start off somewhere with the intent of transferring. Coming in with that mindset you’re bound to shortchange wherever you are, and your experience will definitely be poorer for it.</p>