Hey there. I’m currently a freshman at Binghamton University, and i’ll be honest. I hate it here. I’ve tried my best to be positive, and I know its still early, but I just hate everything about it. My first choice when looking at colleges last year was Rutgers, and I only chose Bing because it was cheaper. Now I’m starting to really regret that decision because I don’t know if it was the right choice. So I may transfer next year. I was hoping you guys could give me some advice, if anyone goes to Rutgers and could tell me about the student life, that’d be awesome. If anyone has suggestions for college in the NYC/NJ area for an outgoing, passionate, and social psych major, I would really appreciate it. I live in NY and my price range would be no more than 20k. My financial aid is high, so colleges like Rutgers that should cost me 40k end up costing around 20k-25k if that helps. Thanks, I really appreciate it.
What does Rutgers’ net price calculator actually estimate for you?
https://studentaid.rutgers.edu/npc/
What don’t you like about your current school. Make sure that the school you choose is not likely to be similar in terms of the things you now dislike. Also, it is still very early. It takes a while to get used to college.
Also, are you wrestling for the school? If so, do you plan to do so for Rutgers? Had you gotten in last year?
@lostaccount I’ll do the calculator later but last year after financial aid, my offer was 22k. And I don’t like most of it. I hate the cold weather, the environment is anti-social, hostile, and boring. The clubs are not interesting at all. I just don’t feel like its the right fit. But yes its still early, and I’m really hoping I change my mind and enjoy my time here. also I’m not wrestling for the school, because i’m not good enough for the D1 team and theres no club wrestling here. In rutgers they have a club team and I do plan on joining it. I did get accepted last year.
People say that some students who start out hating Binghamton end up loving it. It is good that you still hope you grow to like it. You may want to consider what exactly it is that you don’t like (like what makes the clubs boring-what wouldn’t be boring; what makes it seem anti-social and hostile) so that you can be sure that Rutgers won’t simply be a repeat of it. If it is the large impersonal nature of the school, you may want to consider a school like Geneseo or a smaller school in NJ.
Recheck the Net Price Calculator and make sure it allows you to run it as a transfer student or it won’t be accurate. Did you get merit aid last year, or need based aid, or both? Transfer students generally don’t get offered the same aid as freshman students, so your cost now is likely to be much higher.
If your parents can pay $20k out of pocket you could transfer to one of the other SUNYs. Stony Brook and New Paltz are both closer to NYC than Binghamton, but SB is a commuter school and New Paltz is much smaller than Binghamton so I’m not sure you’d like either one of them better. @rebeccar went to Binghamton and I think her brother is attending New Paltz, so she could probably give you some pointers on how to make Binghamton more enjoyable and insights into what New Paltz is like.
@lostaccount no I’d prefer a large school like Rutgers, that also has a lot of school spirit. @austinmshauri It was need based aid but yes i’ll check. Yah I’d rather not transfer into a different SUNY. Also Stony Brook rejected me last year. But the commuter school would bother me because of the lack of social life, and with New Paltz i’m not sure I want a smaller school.
@Mishek, I ran Rutger’s Net price Calculator for a transfer student from NYS whose parents make $30k, and who scored 600 on each part of the SAT, and has a 3.89 GPA. The net price it gave was $35k. The only aid offered was the federal Pell grant ($5k), an SEOG grant of about $1k, and a $5k school grant. I don’t think it will be affordable.
How much can your parents pay out of pocket? Are they paying $20k for Binghamton or is it covered by Pell, TAP, the federal loan, and some money from your parents? If it’s the latter, you aren’t going to get a better deal than that and transferring to another SUNY is your best alternative to Binghamton.
If it helps, I was miserable and homesick at Binghamton at first - it really took a few months to actually feel like home and now I have only amazing things to say. Don’t take this personally, I’d say it to anyone, but a lot of times people have a hard time finding their niche and are quick to blame the school and imagine that it’d be instantly better somewhere else. More likely, the hard time you’re having would happen almost anywhere. I don’t imagine Rutgers would be a wildly different scene than Binghamton. Binghamton students in my experience are very friendly and social; there’s so much going on downtown all the time, what kind of social scene are you looking for?
Mishek, unfortunately Binghamton obliterated the wrestling team quite a while ago and then went for Division 1. A disaster in every way but the result was to make playing for the school (in most sports) a lot less likely for NY (and even US) residents. Could you start a club team?