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Yep!!!

I bet many of those kids who reject Rutgers or TCNJ as too close to home, too many kids from the same high school would have no such issue in accepting a spot at Princeton even if forced to share a dorm with 6 other kids from his same HS English class.

@twoinanddone I am not sure about that. I know two Princeton accepts just in the last two years that picked other schools. One went to Notre Dame and another Vanderbilt. Both boys.

Yep, same here just substitute Southern CA for Texas. My D said to us “I love California and may very well come back here to live but for the next four years I want to experience something different”. And we were okay with that.

@Cameron121- “Treat every app like it’s a reach for optimal results”. YES!

@ScaredNJDad, given her expressed first choices, make sure she shows lots of love to Bates. I think she will have a decent chance there. And in particular, don’t give up if she gets waitlisted, push, push, push. I expect that your GC will be able to advocate for her with Bates. IME, boys with similar stats have better rates of success; they get a bounce at LACs. These are schools that offer interviews, take them. Unless things have changed. Middlebury does not have a supplemental essay so fewer opportunities to make herself stand out from the pack. But if she thinks she likes Middlebury, she should definitely go for it, as long as she isn’t fixated. Having lots of school she loves is the path to a happier spring.

Also, if she is OK with rural schools, take a look at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, beautiful location on the water and a public LAC. Skiing not as much as an option but there are kayaks, sailboats, etc that all students can use.

OP, she wants out of NJ, but doesn’t want to go too far west? She is a strong student and would be a novelty and a catch for some further away places. Just saying.

My other bit of advice would be for her to show the love to some of the smaller places on her list. Visit. Go to recruiting seasons. Email them and ask (good) questions. Show her interest.

Make sure she opens every email she receives from every college and forwards the emails to you. They track that sort of thing, believe it or not.

Your top and mine are quite different. The highest ranking I’ve seen for Binghamton is 73 among research universities on Forbes. USNews ranks it at 89 among research universities. The highest ranking I’ve ever seen for any of its graduate programs is 50.

It’s a fine school, but “one of the THE [sic] TOP research universities in the entire nation?” That would be a no…unless your “TOP” is the top 100 or so. So, I don’t think those of us who don’t consider it a TOP research university should be labeled “dolts.”

Despite the rankings by publications, reality is that smart kids who want to stay in state for low tuition often choose the much smaller LAC-like SUNY Geneseo. I guess that’s kind of like NJ kids who choose TCNJ over Rutgers.

But why even apply to Princeton if they wouldn’t accept a spot at a NJ school because it was too close to home or too many from high school might go there? It must be that, in some cases, a NJ school is not all that bad.

I understand saying they want to go far away to college, to a mountain top in Vermont or a a valley near LA, but I don’t think any college is ‘just like high school’ because it is the state flagship and many from the hs go there too. I also don’t get the argument that the student needs a small class size (what is that - 15? 25? 40?) because my daughter at a small school often has classes that are 40+ and my daughter at a flagship has a Latin class this year with about 15 students in it. Both have lots of access to TAs and professors, extra study sessions, study abroad opportunities, etc. From my high school, most students went to the flagship, but a fair number went to Stanford and Pepperdine, and I don’t remember any of them complaining that there were going to be too many kids from the high school going there so they’d rather go to Montana or UNLV or somewhere to be by themselves.

Where does this idea they track you opening emails come from? It’s technically possible, but a poor indication of interest. Maybe we need to distinguish between the sort of colleges that might do it and those which know interest is more than reflexively opening email. After all, you still have an app/supp to produce.

I’ve read this many places, including from insiders here on CC. Seems a small step to take, to just open the email. I would imagine that any applicant who does not open email from colleges really cannot be very interested. So maybe it’s more a matter of screening out those who can’t bother to open the email.

@SyrAlum My kid from TX is a freshman in MA. There are 3 other kids from his SH class at the same school with him. One is even in his dorm. So, no matter where you go to school, there is no guarantee you won’t be with kids from your HS. Also, kids in NJ could go to school 10 states away and still be closer than a kid staying in state in TX or CA.

@twoinanddone. It’s often not literally being with kids they went to high school with it it being with kids that are “like” the kids they went to high school with. Although sometimes my D’16 does mean “literally” being down the hall from kids she went to HS with, as many of them choose to room together in college. There is a cultural difference between geographical areas in the US.

@lookingforward: Ithaca tracks whether or not you join their MyIthaca portal prior to applying. I have no doubt that they (and most others colleges) track you when you click or don’t click on a link supplied in an email. How else do they determine if their marketing material is effective? Of course that could be the conspiracy theorist in me rearing its ugly head.

I agree that many of the kids at Rutgers or other NJ schools are NJ kids. That’s not something that’s going to be fixed by going to any of the LACs in New England, or Philly, or Maryland. If a NJ kid really wants to get away from the culture, he needs to head to Montana or Arizona or California.

It seems that many NJ kids just don’t want to go to Rutgers. They don’t mind going to Maryland or a SUNY or Pitt, they just don’t want to go to Rutgers. Since they all feel that way, there are a lot of NJ kids at Maryland and SUNYs and Pitt.

“Bing is one of the THE TOP research universities in the entire nation, did you dolts know that?”

Yeah. No it isn’t. It is a midsized state school that does as well as it does because there are a lot of NYers applying due to the cheap tuition. It gets them through and out quickly-essentially processing them through. Take a look at the department reputations. Mediocre at best.

The experience that Binghamton offers students is not close to what they’d get at most well ranked flagships. There are about 40 states that have schools that provide better experiences to their students then any of the NY schools. But SUNY is cheap. It is cheaper for some OOS to attend SUNY then to attend the schools in their state. But are they busting down the doors to get into SUNY? Nope. For students who want college to feel very familiar to them and who like the idea of attanding a college with many other students from their high school, Binghamton offers what is as close to a public high school but grades 13-16 as you could get. It is a fine school for many students and there are strong students in each of the 4 Centers but don’t delude yourself into seeing it as a top research university. It simply isn’t. But, it offers a cheap efficient degree. For many students it fits the bill.

All state schools are going to have many kids who attended HS together. My daughter is at one of the “top” OOS flagship schools and one of her biggest complaints from day 1 was that there are lots of kids from the same HS who know one another and hang out together. She felt as though she did not belong. This was something that we did not think about when choosing schools and it made me wonder whether she should have attended a school in our state or a private school. Thankfully she found her niche and is very very happy now.

The SUNY schools are not for everybody, and I say this as a parent of a kid who attends a SUNY. My kid loves her school and if we had to do this again, she would choose the same one. Could she have attended a school with a bit more rah rah, activity, college town, etc? Absolutely. But attending SUNY will allow her to attend grad school with no loans.

My daughter who attends this “top” OOS flagship is exposed to research opportunities on a daily basis. She gets emails frequently, gets invites from her professors to come to research interest meetings, etc. When you visit the school they take you to the labs and tell you repeatedly that there is plenty of research for undergrads to get involved in. Although Bing is a fine school which will absolutely take you where you need to be in life, it does not offer the research opportunities that some of these other state schools offer. That does not mean that research opportunities do not exist; they most certainly do, but you have to seek them out. If my younger D attended Bing, she would absolutely be doing research. She would do everything in her power to seek it out, and she would. Again, Bing is a fine school that will get you where you need to be. The boy I know very well graduated Bing and moved on to Columbia for grad school. The girl I know graduated and went to NYU. Two kids I know graduated and are now employed in Manhattan, making enough money to live there with a roommate. Again, I agree that research opportunities are not “in your face” as they may be at other schools, but it is a good solid school.

The OP’s daughter is a good student who will likely gain acceptance to at least one school that she likes. Good luck!

Brantly and labegg, the question is really what you think adcoms do with that when reviewing you, whether it has any impact in a competitive situation. The most important place to show interest to a competitive is in your app, by how you understand the college and your match. Usually, the issue with not checking emails (which used to come up on CC) is kids who miss important messages related to their app or some opportunity they might qualify for. So, do check.

Lots of people look at colleges from their own perspective- I have to open emails, my state school will be full of similar kids, I’m great in my hs, so I’m definitely a top contender. It helps more, imo, to look from the colleges’ perspectives, what makes them want you.

And, it’s time to stop ragging on the SUNYs. Kids who are activated have strong experiences. Same for Rutgers, which is far better than its local rep. Sometimes, as twogirls is saying, it’s actually easier to get involved with profs.

Bing is ranked #72 research university. Do you have any idea how many there are in total?

Also-•Binghamton University’s Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science is ranked among the “Great Schools for Computer Science/Computer Engineering Majors” by The Princeton Review (2012).
•Binghamton University’s School of Management is ranked 23rd among public undergraduate business schools and 54th nationwide. (Bloomberg BusinessWeek 2014).
•Corporate recruiters ranked Binghamton 11th among all schools for the quality of its graduates; and students praised “the schools’ intimate feel and responsive administration.”

Its a lot better than “a fine or ok school” and for specific majors like CS and Business its really strong program.

some on here just insist on putting down the public option no matter how strong the curriculum and results are.

When I said that Bing is a " fine" school, I meant that as a positive. I was not implying that " fine" meant " ok." I have a kid at a SUNY school and I have always said that Bing has many many strong students.