On the standard tour, they walked by this older building and saw nothing of the labs etc, at the engineering building
on the main campus. They speak about research projects at the new engineering site, but I got the impression that the
new location is only for research, no undergrad classes nor labs. Is that true ?
Regardless, how are the facilities, the professors ?
Is the school hands on ?
Just looking at the staff for ME, decent but not like bigger ENG schools.
Far fewer profs in ME.
Considering Bing, Buffalo and Stony Brook as well as spending on private schools.
Not thrilled with SB since it’s a commuter campus and people are not real happy there.
Buffalo seems too big and I feel not taking the best students from my HS.
Hence, considering Bing, as a mid size school with campus life.
Also on the tour, they explained plans to grow Bing significantly, so might be more
like Buffalo after I graduate, hopefully not right away.
The private schools I am looking at seriously have under 5K undergrads generally.
The larger private schools also looked good, great labs and students, faculty.
Hook, have parent alum from Bing and from a very good private school, but trying to decide what is best
for me, now.
Wasn’t your son or daughter considering RPI or WPI or Cornell?
In terms of growth, Ive got another thread about the changes at Binghamton-asking current student to provide a review of how things are now on campus. Either way, I don’t think you’ll see the level of support for teaching ME undergrads that you’ll find at places like RPA or WPI or Georgia Tech.
My impression is that much of the so-called growth has already happened. The number of students increased greatly but the facilities were ill equipped to handle them, as was the staff. But I believe that was supposed to be fixed by now with a lot of new hires and new buildings. I don’t know if it has but that was the plan. So check that other thread. If you are looking for a school with 5K this isn’t it. Binghamton has over 13,400 undergraduates (faculty to student ratio of 1:20).
With Binghamton it is also smart to ask around and not to rely on what it told to you on tours. Who ever termed the expression"Get it in writing" may have had Binghamton in mind. Of course it is alway good to check out what you hear. Historically teaching resources were poor at Binghamton and the classrooms were poorly equipped with lousy audio-visual systems. The university typically blamed budget constraints.
At the beginning of the construction they were retro-fitting old rooms making the situation even worse. Hopefully this has improved. Faculty labs don’t really impact on students aside from very few who may work in one. But unless they tell you that there will be teaching resources in the new spaces I would not assume that to be the case. They may be devoted only to faculty labs. Binghamton University historically has put money into residence halls, snack areas and the sports arena then in anything related to teaching undergraduates which has seemingly been lower on the priority list. Binghamton isn’t alone in this. When high school seniors choose their colleges, they may focus more on the luxury of their dining facilities, residence halls and sports arenas than on whether teaching college students is a priority at the university. Filling the new residence halls is likely the priority over the teaching.
Yes my son will apply to a few tech schools, also considering larger universities with mid size ENG schools. Boston U and NU in Boston (great city),
Suny (great price). Hoping for some merit at the various private schools, but also looking to see if no merit aid, is t worth 40k more per year for any of these private schools.
I agree SUNY cuts corners. Some expensive private schools do as well. Priorities sometimes are wrong, I agree. I do lean towards the smallish tech schools though, both due to educational environment and possible D3 athletic involvement ( most of the larger schools we consider are D1 and not appropriate for athletics, but athletics are not the top priority so not excluding them either).