Hey everyone! Exactly a year ago I was offered a spot in the Binghamton Advantage Program and I accepted the offer. I remember having a lot of questions but not many places to find answers. So I am here to help! You can ask anything.
Do you think it is worth going to this program instead of a traditional 4 year college? I got into SUNY at Albany and Seton Hall.
Do you know if there is any downside when applying to grad/medical school going this route? Any information you have would be helpful. Thanks in advance!
My daughter was just accepted to the Advantage Program. Would you recommend it?
Jjrny07, I would say this strongly depends on your major. Binghamton is a great school with a great reputation. At the end of your 4 years your degree will be from Binghamton and SUNY Broome will not be on it. You are considered a transfer student though which honestly doesn’t really matter. I am a psychology major my other friends in this program are bio Chem, pre med and linguistic majors. They all feel they made the right decision coming here. Hope that was helpful!
Vescon, again I think it depends on your daughter’s major. Here’s what they don’t tell you about the program. The busses are risky. Sometimes they don’t show up or they are very late or they leave ridiculously early and you’re late to your class.(this happens once or twice a month) Thankfully all of my professors have been very understanding since a lot of other Broome kids rely on the bus as well. There’s a 95% chance that your roommate is also in the advantage program. They tell you that it’s random and you’ll probably get a BU student but they room the international students together then the athletes stay together and the BAP kids stay together. Next thing is I am not getting a good education at Broome. I’ve only had 3 good professors the rest aren’t qualified to teach. However getting the 3.0 will be the easiest thing in the world. Also your GPA will not transfer over to Bing. Once your daughter is at Binghamton she will have a clean slate when it comes to GPA. If your daughter decides to join BAP please PLEASE tell her to be careful with what classes she chooses at Broome. I can’t tell you how many of my friends took classes at Broome thinking the credits would transfer to Bing only to find out Binghamton doesn’t accept the credits. Which means they have to do another year at Broome which is every BAP kids nightmare. Do not be fooled the advisors at Orientation do not know what they are doing. They will recommend classes that will not transfer and screw you over. There is an easy way to avoid this. If you search ‘Binghamton Transfer Credits’ into google and choose the first link it will show you how to check which classes will transfer. Or you can call Binghamton (NOT BROOME) and they will help. Other than that I honestly love this program. It gave me a second chance to come to my dream school and I don’t regret my decision. I feel apart of BU campus and also apart of Broome’s campus. I meet a lot of BU kids and most of them don’t know I’m in BAP cause it just doesn’t come up in conversation. Others do and they honestly couldn’t careless. I feel very welcomed and loved on both campuses. Also they tell you that if you’re in BAP you can’t join a frat or sorority but I know A LOT of BAP kids who are in frats. They have no way of checking so BAP kids are apart of Greek life and no one cares. Let me know if you have anymore questions!
Hey man, I’m so glad you are here to answer some questions and I just want to thank you. I was just wondering how the transfer process is. I’m considering the BAP program but am not sure how if I can do this and still be in the Pre-Med major; could you clarify this for me? Thank you so much!
SunnKnee. So firstly to get into medical school you don’t have to be a premed major. You can major in Bio, Chem, Neuroscience and so on. Secondly, you don’t actually declare your major until your sophomore or junior year. So when you can be in BAP but not have a major yet then once you transfer to Bing declare your major as premed or biology or whatever you want to do. Hope that helps!
I’ve been, somewhat obsessively, comparing stats for the schools I’ve been accepted to and I think this is the best one. However I’m concerned about financial aid. I was told to add Broome to my fafsa so will I be getting a financial aid package from them or from Binghamton? And is this package as substantial as one from say UAlbany? Also is there much to do off campus or do most people just stay on campus (Binghamton) for social life and clubs? The town when I visited didn’t seem to have much life
Okay so I received financial aid from both Binghamton and Broome. I am not too familiar with the financial aid. But mainly everything goes through Broome. I don’t know anything about UAlbany’s package.
There isn’t much going on off campus. There’s usually parties every night downtown though. On campus there are lots of clubs and also little events they try to hold for us. We have Late night which can feel like middle school sometimes but it’s fun.
So I’m currently a BAP student and I can’t tell you much about financial aid because my parents deal with that but I can tell you about the rest. This program isn’t bad at all. It’s the same as doing a traditional 4 year because ultimately if you meet the GPA requirements at the end of the first year you have an automatic transfer back into Harpur for your sophomore year. I’m a potential nursing student taking hard science classes and it was a lot easier to take them a Broome because the classes are smaller so the professors give you more one on one time and are personal, etc. It forms as a nice transition to college. To answer about pre-med I have like 4 friends in BAP who are all pre-Med it doesn’t make a difference starting at Broome. Ultimately you’re getting a Bing degree. Another perk is freshman can have cars on campus first year if you don’t want to have to take the bus. You can use everything on Binghamtons campus and and Broomes you can be apart of clubs. The only things you can’t do is play D1 sports or join Greek life but being a regular freshman at Bing you can’t even join Greek life until spring so it’d only be waiting one more semester. Hope this helps!
You can join Greek Life if you really want to. You’re not supposed to but they don’t check and I know a lot of guys from BAP who are in frats
Are the BAP kids housed together and/or are they housed with regular Binghamton students?
BAP kids are in Break housing. Not every residential communities has break housing. Newing, CIW and Mountainview have break housing so BAP kids are limited to those three communities. Within the break houses there are BAP kids but also international students and athletes who attend BU. 95% percent of BAP kids have a roommate who is also in BAP. I only know one person that doesn’t have a roommate in BAP but all of his 4 other suitemates are in BAP.
I have an additional question. The 18K tuition is only for Broom and then when you transfer you pay for Bing’s tuition right? Also, I’ve been reading some reviews saying how the education you receive in Broome won’t necessarily prepare you for Bing once you transfer. What do you think about that?
Yes you pay Broome’s tuition and Binghamton’s housing and room and board fees. Then when you transfer you pay Binghamton’s tuition. And they are right. Being at Broome is like being in high school all over again. I have some friends who were in BAP last year and transferred and they told me that the transition hit them hard but they managed fine. If you’re worried about it just don’t make your schedule for your first semester at Bing hard. It’s only the science and math classes that are difficult at Bing too. And Bing doesn’t really want their students to take more than two math or science classes in one semester.
Currently how are you enjoying the program? I’m currently considering going to CUNY and then transferring since it’l be cheaper.
Is it suggested to basically to take your pre-reqs while at Broome. Or, does Binghamton’s advisors, guide you, knowing you are a BAP student.
Club sports/Intramurals can be played at Binghamton?
If you are use to being a city kid, is the adjustment hard? Or, enough to do to keep you busy.
Thanks for all infor. Very helpful.
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When you have an option to choose between BAP and 4 year Geneseo, which one do you think is a better option? Geneseo has accepted me into premed program. And at BAP , I will be majoring in Biochemistry. Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Hi Vescon. My son was also accepted into BAP. Will be visiting the campus on Sat to make sure its the right choice for him. We went to the open house last yr. It was during a snowstorm and school break. Not much going on. I have family and friends kids that are there or graduated. They loved it. Financially its a no brainer. Reinforcing minimal debt after college. Good luck to your daughter!