<p>@hong214
LMAO. yeah. it is bronx science. sleeping students are the symbol of bronx science…</p>
<p>@sharonsuny, i would not say they dont look at ur ecs at all. i rather believe they play minor roles.</p>
<p>I am a student a Stony Brook University. My college life summarize in one sentence: I love Stony Brook, I enjoy being here, and I hate the fact I’m leaving so soon.</p>
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<p>Stony Brook is a chill campus, lacks the student pride and for that reason is why many people say Stony Brook is horrible. I came in freshman year thinking “Stony Brook is horrible, has horrible dorms, horrible food, etc” as this kid posted. Everything changed when my girlfriend decided to attend the University of Connecticut as an out-of-state student paying a tuition/room and board of more that $30,000 bucks (SBU is ~$17,000 in-state, ~$24,000 out). I visited her dorm first day to move her in her North Campus quad and immediately said “***?”. I couldn’t believe what I saw in front of me, rooms half of the size of H-Quad, disgusting bathroom with shower stalls separated by a curtains, a single drain in the three showers. Everything was old. Paying for dining $2,500 for all-you-can-eat buffet while in SBU we pay at most $1,500-$2,000 for our meal plan which is more than enough to eat what you want. In my head, I couldn’t fit the fact that UConn was ranked Top 70 and that it was so expensive with such bad residences for their freshmens. My appreciation of Stony Brook changed and became more positive as I started going to other top universities in the Northeast and realized that Stony Brook is not bad at all and fares is very similar in comparison to many of these other institutions. </p>
<p>So why do people have such a negative opinion of Stony Brook??? the lack of pride, the lack of unity, and the [too] diverse student population who cannot tag along together to any particular event.</p>
<p>However I think the institution is putting effort towards change. The school has improved so much since I got here. Triples have been eliminated in more that 80% , new beautiful Residential Complex built in Kelly. Renovations of the Old Chem, Recreation center underway, renovations of the SAC and Kelly Dining, recent completion of renovations in Roth, new Simons center, Chemistry building renovated, new Computer Science building underway. Many things changing here. I just hate the fact that i’m about to graduate.</p>
<p>Stony Brook is not bad as people want to picture it. It does takes time to adapt, is not what many expect of a typical college in terms of events and parties, etc but I think is getting there. Every year it gets better. There has been a rise in events this last year and I think they are doing a better job in creating a positive undergraduate experience for many of us.</p>
<p>Many of us need to know that Stony Brook originally was a Teacher’s college. It then became a school known for Heavy Research and its great graduate programs. However, it lacked a lot in its undergraduate programs, it was only after the early 1990’s when Stony Brook administrators like Marburger III realized the need for improvement in undergraduate programs that things started to change. Since then Shirley Strum Kenny took over in the mid 1990’s and decided that a makeover of Stony Brook was necessary to better is reputation. She did a great job, and even though many criticized her, she is the main reason why Stony Brook landed the Brookhaven National Lab contracts, and why the undergraduate programs have widely improved. Things have changed so much in terms of undergraduate education, Division I athletics, undergraduate residential colleges (ITS, LDS, HDV) with the purpose of enhancing the undergraduate experience. Still, we need more change here and I’m aware of that. </p>
<p>But I also think that takes time and money. Money which becomes harder and harder to get everyday as New York State doesn’t prioritize higher education and constantly cuts it. </p>
<p>I, as a student, advocate for tuition increase to mantain the great quality of education, the increase of the out-state student population from 13% to 30% to make a stronger residential community and to get more funds for the school, this will create a permanent student population even on weekends and greatly improve the life of the undergraduate community. Even though I understand that SB is very important for the Long Island region, I believe that we need to lower the percentage of students from L.I because most of them tend to go home or commute and dont give much to the Stony Brook community, except Complaints. Becoming a National University means grabbing the best students of the country not only the region, and we still haven’t had much success on that that.</p>
<p>Also, the university is doing a great job in getting donations for new capital projects involving academic departments and the athletic departments. The new Simons center is a great facility donated by the Simons family, the Track & Field, the Joe Nathan Field, etc. Renovations are taking place in a couple of buildings but still more is necessary. Upcoming renovations for the Stony Brook Arena should help push the Seawolves to more regional success, and as we all know, sports are very important for the marketing of a University.</p>
<p>Also, a new Student Union (or atleast an expansion and refurbishment)would greatly help the experience of the undergraduate community. The current one no longer represents the greatness and size of Stony Brook University and it is almost useless and only has a SINC site, Deli, Starbucks, Wolfies Restaurant, a food court, WUSB, and no recreation whatsoever (the future recreation center will be next to it).</p>
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<p>Will all these needs, I still can say that I have learned to appreciate and love Stony Brook University. Quality education for a good price. I cant complain about my experience here. There is great people here and I have become friends with a wide and diverse group of students. I am set for graduation in December 2011 and I’m going to miss a lot this campus. I become accustomed to attending the Lacrosse games, basketball games, friday movie nights in Staller Center, and the concerts/events around campus. I’m surely going to miss these things as I enter the real world. :(</p>
<p>I’ve only just turned 17, so I guess I’m more prone to suggestion, but all of this is scaring me! It is quite likely that I will end up at stonybrook (still waiting for nyu’s waitlist decision) and I agree about the financial aid thus far…I got two 5,000 loans and a 4500 scholarship as an out of state student. But now that I hear all of this , I’m feeling less inclined about it being a great medical/biology school . . . . It was my 3rd choice because I’m orginally from Brentwood, long island, Columbia U was my first and then NYU…Based on this I really hope I get into NYU, although their financial aid is famous for being just as atrocious. I asked a lady about my financial situation and what I might get in aid, and she gave me this blank as if to say “What’s financial aid?”. Oye. God help us all -_-</p>
<p>Don’t count on NYU’s waitlist, there literally hundreds upon hundreds of people wait listed including myself. They only accepted 20ish or so off the wait list last year. You might as well be open minded and enjoy stony.</p>
<p>Janeej2011. Stony Brook has a great Biology programs, the same for other natural and applied sciences. Its a great place for the hard sciences. As you can see, some here have bad opinions of the school but mostly because they can’t adapt to College Life and want everything handed out to them in terms of social life, academics, etc. </p>
<p>There is everything at Stony Brook, just make sure you go out and get it because no one will hand you stuff out in a research institution like SB. </p>
<p>I personally love the campus, I was able to adapt, and it has been great this past four years. I came here wanting to do Computer Engineering, decided that Computer Science was more for me, and now I’m almost set for graduation.</p>
<p>Make sure you visit the campus, talk to students, and check SB out beforehand. It will help. </p>
<p>NYU is one great school and my sister went there, she was in the waiting list the first time she applied and decided to attend Binghamton, she then transferred to NYU and complete her undergraduate career there. She said the school is great. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Janeej2011, if NYU is the school you want, then I hope you get my son’s spot. He narrowed his choices down to NYU and Stony Brook, then struggled for weeks before finally choosing Stony Brook. </p>
<p>There were a few things that helped him decide: Stony Brook offered him the Presidential Scholarship while NYU offered him $60,000 in loans; Stony Brook is strong in science, which is appealing since he’s going to be a Bio major on the pre-med track; he was invited to tour the Brookhaven National Laboratory, which pretty much sealed the deal for him.</p>
<p>I’m not going to lie and say I’m not apprehensive after reading all the negative posts, but we’ve decided he will attend Stony Brook and if it isn’t the right fit, he can transfer to NYU. I’d rather he do it that way than go to NYU first.</p>
<p>I think people who go on a site like this to ■■■■■ blame the college first instead of blaming theirselves. My brothers both went to colleges that had the same rep as stony brook, and they found their own path. A person can live in a sewer and still have the time of their life if they want to. I am an incoming freshman, and already i have hundreds of friends from my quad (GO ROTH). and in a month were meeting up and having fun together. The OP should of transferred or done something with his life instead of rant and scare people like me</p>
<p>Thank you all for your calming comments. As i live in North Carolina at the moment (ew), it’s difficult for me to base my decision solely on what the internet says and I’ve decided to give it a chance although I was looking at Binghamton a bit because it seemed like a more social school. It’s too late to apply now so I just have wait and see. Worst comes to worst my sister says I can live with her in Queens and commute or I can just transfer, although I truly want the whole experience of being out on my own. Idk that Bing is a realistic choice for me because my mom doesn’t like that it’s so far upstate (we’re original downstaters) and she feels like it’s too isolated which = dangerous although I and everyone else knows Bing is right near a town =_=</p>
<p>I actually chuckled when I read that your mom feels Binghamton is dangerous because it’s isolated. You’re right…it’s not isolated, it is near a town and I’d be more apprehensive about my son attending NYU, even though he was born in NYC. Binghamton has a beautiful campus and I’ve heard the social life is better there, but neither one was a big factor on his list of things to look for in a college. He turned them down, too.</p>
<p>Good luck wherever you decide to go :)</p>
<p>Yes, however as downstaters we sometimes have fears of upstate being a sub-alaskian wasteland. -_- why, I could not say. It looks so great though! Maybe ill secretly transfer lol</p>
<p>Sent from my Ally using CC App</p>
<p>Katch614,
As I read your post, it reminds me of our situation in the past.
I am sure your son did very well in high school to receive presidential scholarship, which my ds also received. My ds was also accepted to NYU, but chose Stony Brook mainly for academic strength in science, research opportunity and Cost. My ds hopes to apply to a medical school.<br>
So, does my ds love Stony? Who really enjoys grueling premed years?</p>
<p>I am familiar with selective admission process of health professional schools.
Does the name of undergrad. make difference in acceptance to health professional schools? No!<br>
Acceptance to a health professional school is much about GPA and MCAT or DAT score.
Does a private school provide better education that will lead to better MCAT score? No!
I want to emphasize following point;
education loan debt is heavy burden for many graduates of health professional schools, and additional major undergrad loan does not make sense. </p>
<p>I think your son made wise decision for choosing Stony over NYU.</p>
<p>Thanks for the affirmation, wannabemd. I think my son always expected he’d go to a “bigger” name college and in the beginning, we found ourselves justifying his decision to attend Stony Brook by adding that they’d given him a scholarship any time it came up in conversation. His father kept pushing the fact that Binghamton is known as a public Ivy and that he’d have more internship opportunities in the city if he went to NYU. </p>
<p>It was my son who made the decision to go to Stony Brook. I don’t know if it’s the right fit, but it doesn’t matter, because I would’ve had the same doubts had he chosen NYU or another school.</p>
<p>If your daughter is on the pre-med track, would it be okay if I sent you a private message with a few questions?</p>
<p>KatCh614, you are welcomed to send me private message.</p>
<p>So it’s been four years since the OP. Are things any better now?</p>
<p>It depends on how you look at it. A lot of it is the same. I was tripled but detripled last week, its better to be tripled first because u appreciate the space more afterwards. The food thing is kinda annoying, but is to be expected, overpriced. Most of my professors and TAs are good, but I have a couple that should never be allowed to teach. The weekends at Stony Brook are quiet, U get work done, people leave, these things happen, just gotta deal with it, I went home once, only to replace a broken phone, it would easy for me to go home every weekend, two hours away, but I don’t. If you leave every weekend, you’re one of the reasons the campus is dead on the weekends. Fun at Stony Brook only exists if you make it exist. You have to create your own fun. Do I regret my decision, no. Do I regret the way I’ve spent the first couple weeks here, yes. All in all it is a good school, just depends on you. Just one freshman’s opinion.</p>
<p>It has been 3 years since I posted my response about my experience in SBU in page 5. I feel compelled to share with you my experience after I transferred out of SBU and general advice to all prospective college students looking back at my undergraduate career. I transferred out of SBU and into a small private school New England. I graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Finance and Economics. I now work at a law firm in Wall Street where I focus on a part of finance that I enjoy. Life is good.</p>
<p>I want to talk about what happened after I left SBU. I left SBU with a 3.6 GPA. Because of all the shenanigans that occurred in my freshman year about my writing classes, I research thoroughly about the school’s academic curriculum and any potential “traps” that would cause me to not graduate on time. Fortunately, the school was very charitable in the credit transfer and nothing would stop me from graduating on time so long as I do not fail any of my courses. I entered my junior year in my new school with no GPA, as transfer students do not have a GPA. Having no GPA in my school made me a very uncompetitive candidate for any of the summer internship recruiting when the career fair came. I need to emphasize how important it is for students to get an internship after the end of their junior year. It makes or breaks your candidacy for a full-time job after graduation. I ended my junior year with a 3.9 GPA without a summer internship. I then searched for any random internship that I could find on craigslist. I found one and I landed the internship as a blogger for a small startup company. The internship had nothing to do with finance and anything that I wanted to do. However, it was still important for me to work through this internship in order for me to fill up white space on my resume.</p>
<p>When senior year came, I was more prepared for my job search. I contacted my school’s alumni and asked them for feedback on my resume. With a 3.9 GPA and a strong resume, I was able to land 12 interviews. Unfortunately, I bombed all 12 of them. I prepared my resume that I forgot to prepare for my interview. Without a job offer, I got very depressed in my senior fall. I managed to cope with that depression at my final semester and ended my college career in my new school with a 3.7 without a job offer. I need to talk about my school’s alumni network. They were invaluable to me and are worth the private school tuition. I was able to get my resume critiqued by a hedge fund manager, a trader, and an investment banker. The alumni network in SBU surely would not have provided me that.</p>
<p>Before I move further, I’d like to address the differences between my new school and SBU. My new school was much tougher than SBU. However, because I was so dead sure about what I wanted to do, I managed to ace my classes in my new school. The companies that come to SBU to recruit are mostly science companies and computer software companies. My school was known for their business program so a lot of financial services firms come to recruit at my new school. My general advice for any prospective student is to look at what kind of companies come to recruit at your school, and pick a major relevant for those companies for you to become a fitting candidate. Moreover, don’t major in English if your school is known for its top quality engineering program. Basically, do not go to a steakhouse and order salad. </p>
<p>I also need to talk about the differences in social environment. For those students that are deciding whether they should go to a top school such as Princeton, but is thinking about going to another lower tier, cheaper school, due to financial situations, please heed my word and go to Princeton. Where there is a will there is a way. Take out loans if you have to. The return on investment is very much worth it. Not only are you paying for a better education, you are also paying for a better social environment. You could remember the stuff you learned in class but I’m sure, like me, you will forget everything you learned in school when you are one year into the workforce. The friends that you make, however, will be much more valuable than the friends you make in a school like SBU. As I said back in my previous post, I was very disappointed in my friends. When I went to my new school, the pedigree of my peers forced me to be better at everything I do. At first I was intimidated by them, eventually admiring them, and later I was able to stand toe-to-toe with them. My friends also work around Wall Street and we still hang out and grab beers after work at a local pub in Midtown. These are the friends you need to make and the caliber of school will be a good screen for you to make valuable, quality friends. I am not saying that SBU do not have worthwhile people, it’s just that a better school has a higher concentration of them.</p>
<p>One of the attorneys at my firm graduated from SBU with a degree in Computer Science and got his law degree at Wharton. He graduated as one of the top in his class. He told me he used to be the most arrogant and elitist person because his intelligence and lack of effort got him to the top of his class and he looked down upon the ones that barely tried. When he went to law school, however, all of that changed. His intelligence was on par, but his work ethic and his elitist attitude had to change. Everybody sitting in his classroom were from Ivy Leagues and were all top in their undergraduate class, yet there was no hint of arrogance. I am afraid for prospective students that are overqualified for a school like SBU would suffer from this “relative arrogance.” I hope prospective students who are already smart go to a school where there are people like you. Do not go to a school where you are competing against people who you were not supposed to be competing with.</p>
<p>After graduation, I immediately got a temp job at a big bank (thinkg of Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, etc.). However, it was not something that I wanted to do. Eventually through my network and my grit I finally was able to land the job that I wanted at my law firm. I paid off all of my $17,500 loans within 8 months partly because I live frugally and I still stay at my parents house. I plan on moving out when I hopefully get a nice bonus this Christmas. My aspirations now are to get my financial certifications and apply to a top business school (Columbia, Booth, Duke, etc.).</p>
<p>To summarize my points:
- Do not go to a steakhouse and order salad
- Go to a school with a strong alumni network
- Take out loans for your dream school
- Do not forgo Princeton for SBU
- Be critical of the friends that you make and be aware if they are giving you negative influence</p>
<p>I am free for any questions and comments. I hope that prospective students take my word. Things have changed since your parents went to college. I will give you the most candid and most practical advice. Ask me anything.</p>
<p>SocialDeprived, I’m glad things worked out for the better. I agree with your steak and salad comment. It’s important for prospective students to do their research when it comes to college. SBU is a science school, lauded for research. If you want to be an engineer or pre-med, then it’s a good school. I’ve heard the journalism program is good also. If you want to be an accountant, there are other schools that are better for that major, such as CUNY Baruch or Pace University. If you want an active social environment, take that into consideration when choosing.</p>
<p>My son is entering his third year at SBU in the fall. In my earlier posts, I had qualms about it being the right fit. Because he’s a social creature, I never pictured my son tucked away in the suburbs for college. The past two years have been rewarding academically. He works in two research labs and had the opportunity to run an experiment he thought up. The professors he works with couldn’t be more supportive and encouraging. He’s currently doing research at our local college for the summer, a position he landed because of his strong resume. </p>
<p>Socially, he has a group of close friends he lived with last year and will continue to live with in the fall. They’re not party animals. Rather, they’re all serious students, since most of them are science or engineer majors. He also has a separate group of friends who do party, but because a lot of them were on academic probation this semester, he saw them sparingly. His focus is primarily on his studies, but I wish he had more of a social life to balance the intensity.</p>
<p>My younger son is headed to college in the fall also. Initially, I was upset when he didn’t choose SBU for ChemE. Because he’s not as social, I felt SBU is a better fit for him, and that the college he chose would’ve been a better fit for his brother. I’m perplexed at how things turned out, but in the end, I guess it’s what they make of it that matters the most.</p>
eight years since this thread was created. Like melody10511 said, are things any better now?
@thiisbrazilian DS is a marine science major at SBU and a commuter. When he applied to colleges senior year, I tried to persuade him to go elsewhere. I knew of the shortcomings and issues that could hold a student up. He wasn’t listening. He has had classes canceled, been shut out of classes, has had difficulty reaching his academic advisor, had professors with limited hours or hours which conflicted with another course within the major. He went from full time student working part time to part time student working full time after his 4 years of scholarships ran out going into his 5th year.
There has been a push to bring in more foreign students because they pay full price tuition – the school needs money to keep building.
Dorm situations are triples and quads for freshman, with some students being housed 20 miles away at another local college’s dorms! To make matters worse, those dorms are in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE.
Kids self segregate. Asians with Asians, Hispanics with Hispanics, Whites with whites, blacks with blacks.
Lower level classes within certain majors are huge. Once a student gets to upper level courses, they are much more reasonable in size.
STEM. If you aren’t a STEM student, think about another school.
Still considered a ‘commuter school’. Come the weekend, residents who live on LI and NYC head home. You should see the train station on Friday. BUSY!
To do well at SBU one must be an aggressive self advocate with strong study skills.
Now DS is considering it. Both DS and I are trying to persuade her to go elsewhere. I hope she listens. There are small, private schools throwing mad money at her which would make the COA less than SBU. They have stronger alumni networks and very interesting internship connections.
Not that SBU is a bad school; it is a typical state school governed by Albany and overseen by overpaid administrators. You get what you pay for.