Is commuting a good choice?

@intparent fortunately parking is free on campus

@intparent if i go to hunter my commute will also be around 2.5 hours combined

But it is still longer for SBU, and for Hunter it sounds like you would be on the train – so maybe could get some work done during the commute. If you are driving, you can’t read or do homework.

@sybbie719, What are some options for this student? She’s from Brooklyn. Aren’t there CUNYs that would be less of a commute than Hunter and Stony Brook?

@austinmshauri you can only imagine how horrible is Brooklyn college’s education. Just horrible

@intparent to be honest it’s impossible for me to study on train or a bus. I just can’t concentrate.

It’s not 1.5 hours from Brooklyn to Stony Brook— even when there’s no construction. And there’s never been no construction!

@bjkmom oh really? My google maps is showing 1.5 h that’s why I though so

I’m from Downstate New York so I know a little about our public schools. What’s wrong with Brooklyn College?

You need to add up the number of hours for

  • commuting
  • attending school
  • working your part time job
  • studying
  • sleeping
  • general self-care (eating, showering, laundry and other chores, seeing a friend or relaxing, etc)

Does it add up to needing more than 24 hours a day? If you choose not to use transit, remember that you can’t drive safely when exhausted.

@austinmshauri I don’t want to say anything bad in terms of cunys but mostly people go to suny and private, Ivies, if they have a chance. For example in Brooklyn college labs aren’t equipped well and I want to have a good lab where I can do my research. Stony brook has great labs and research opportunities, as well as the professors are extremely knowledgeable and respectful. They can be great mentors. If cuny is that great why people go i.e to Cornell and take loans.

People avoid CUNY and SUNY schools because they don’t always value what’s in their own backyard. It’s familiar and accessible, so they think it must not be valuable. Some kids don’t want to go where their classmates are going.

I thought you were interested in early childhood education. Does that involve a lot of lab courses?

@austinmshauri no I’m going to pursue a career of a denral oral surgeon or orthodontist. I will be biochem major with minor in pharmacology at stony brook, that’s where I applied

Oh, biochem majors definitely need a lab. But you have to protect your GPA then. Traveling 3 hours/day won’t help that much.

I had no idea the OP is from Brooklyn. I can’t imagine why you are not considering Brooklyn College. If Dental School is your goal, you should absolutely consider it. Brooklyn College sends people to Medical and Dental schools every year.

@gallentjill I didn’t apply to Brooklyn college. The choice is between hunter cuny college and suny stony brook

If you can’t afford to go away to the colleges you are accepted to, you may need to wait a semester and apply to Brooklyn.

The choice doesn’t have to be between Hunter and Stony Brook. You can take a gap year and apply to Brooklyn College for Fall 2019. You may even be able to apply for next spring. Check their website for application guidelines.

I willl Write a more detailed post later. But I will answer the main points

Op is woefully misinformed about CUNY. She is most likely getting her information from either other students or people who really don’t know schools. Hunter who hands down has one if the best nursing programs in NY, is an excellent school as most of the 4 year CUNY schools.

You can probably get in to most of the SUNY schools and not have the grades scores to get into Hunter, City, Queens, Baruch. and Brooklyn. Each CUNY had their own niche as to what they are especially good at. Hunter is an excellent choice for pre-med/pre-dental.

Most of people who are talking bad about CUNY are probably not getting into Hunter, City, Brooklyn, Baruch or Queens.

Don’t think that because Stony Brook has a dental school that it would be easier for you. It won’t, because many schools frown upon inbreeding (taking a lot of students from their undergrad program into their grad program) because it limits the diversity of though and students have their experience in a vacuum).

The reality is, your family cannot afford to exhaust their savings for you to dorm at Stony Brook. You really don’t need to leave them in a precarious financial situation(which you would be doing ).

** Commuting**
I would not even imagine trying to commute to Stony Brook.

Things you must consider in addition to the 6 hours of traveling. You will be paying approximately $600 in commuting cost . There is no big Saco gd between commuting and dorning.

Currently s monthly ticket from zone 1 (penn station, Brooklyn, Jamaica ) to stony Brook is $391/month add

A 30 day metro card from your house to the LIRR is $121 a month

Then you must take a bus or a cab from the LIRR to campus. This is going to be costly. Don’t depend on the campus shuttle. FActor in money for this as it will most likely be car service since you need to get to class on time. As a student getting PELL you cannot afford monthly car fare of almost $600-$700/ month

Other things to consider:

LIRR just got a new president on Friday, because the line has had it’s worse on time service in 18 years. There have been constant delays to the point where people are stuck in Penn station not being able to get a train. Don’t get me started on the weather. We just experienced a weekly Nor’easter during the month of March where there were extensive delays on the LIRR. Big snow storm, you are not going to have service or extensively delayed service.

This is not conducive to someone who wants to study pre-dental

To hunter you are going to take the #6 train to 68th street or depending on where you are in Brooklyn most likely the F train to 63 and lex. It is going to be a much easier commute.

I would not even transfer to Brooklyn because depending on where she is in Brooklyn, it is probably easier to get to hunter vs trying to take a train into Barclay center and getting the 2/5 to Brooklyn college. Being in the city will give you more opportunities to intern and shadow because there will be more options.

** tuition**
If you have a combination of 3k from TAP and PELL, you are eligible for an excelsior scholarship. Apply today. This money can be used to pay your tuition.

Pre-dental/pre-med are intentions not majors. You can major in anything and become a dentist as long as you are taking the required series of math and s science courses I had a very very very successful dentist who was an art major (as you can imagine her specialty is cosmetic dentistry)

You are going to need money for dental school. Spend your $121/month on a 30-day unlimited metro card and enjoy hunter.

@sybbie719 yes, you are right. I don’t want to spend money for the dorm and I thought that commuting will be really tough if that is 6hours plus , yeah, I also calculated the money for the tickets which I cannot afford. Hunter has 37%acceptance rate and I got in and I should be lucky. Brooklyn college is 40 min away from me, i could take one bus, but bc is just not for me, personally. Probably yeah, i will go to hunter. At least it is just for two years, as i am a transfer student. So I will already be preparing for my dental school entrance exam. So I’ll save the time from commute to study