<p>In Buffalo, about the north and south campus, here's what I know as a nearby resident (but check it out with others or the website, as I don't want to be the very last word on this):</p>
<p>I see that all the undergraduates are at the north campus, while the south campus involves some of the graduate schools, hospitals, and particularly the medical and dental graduate students. Roswell Cancer Research and the Erie County Medical centers are all downtown, so the med and dental schools are there.</p>
<p>In other words, undergrad dorms are NOT divided between uptown and downtown. Undergrads live and study uptown. </p>
<p>As an undergrad, everyone he'd be involved in, and classes, would be on the north campus (Amherst). A train and trolley system link the two campii. Just please check the website to make sure the engineering is also in the north campus, and if so, you're really all set.</p>
<p>It has big brick buildings, green fields and green between the buildings if that's what is a real campus. I'd say the criticism that the brick building architecture is very plain and undistinguished is accurate. </p>
<p>It's not a sidewalk campus. Ringing the uptown campus in Amherst are many medium size and small suburban malls, the kind where you drive in and park right in front of some dozen small stores. It's quite accessible to students. I go often to the nearest movie house there, which is a Dipson theater with 2 films showing, but then there are carsful of UBuff students 3 miles away at the cineplex, too.</p>
<p>The students appear to depend upon each others' cars, the university trolley, bikes in good weather, or feet all over the north campus and at the nearby stores. There's a public city bus system, plus campus busses that let studenhts commute between campuses. I've heard that the north campus shuttle heads for the south campus without stopping to let passengers on or off, which might be due to the inbetween neighborhoods that have severe poverty and some crime. But the studnets speed through the neighborhoods on buses that don't interact with those neighborhoods except to hurtle through them without stopping. CHeck all this out but that's what I hear.</p>
<p>Some of the weekend life for the kids happens downtown on Chippewa Street, many clubs with a college crowd. There are a half dozen other colleges that feed into that social scene, including Buffalo State, Canisius, Damien, Niagara, Erie County Community College. Anyone of college age goes downtown who wants to go to those clubs, for dancing, eating, music. </p>
<p>There's an artsy neighborhood called Allentown that's closer to the downtown than the uptown.</p>
<p>Uptown (Amherst) I see undergraduates all the time from UBuffalo in the shops and malls, from Starbucks to Target to Friendly's. If there's a Buffalo Bills football game in the fall, the entire town is out for them, including students. Professionally, there's also the Sabres for hockey and with Toronto nearby (2 hours), when those two play hockey you need to have reserved tickets long in advance, it's so popular in the community.</p>
<p>That's all in addition to what the university itself offers in terms of teams, but I get the impression that UBuffalo students are part of these crowds at the Bills and Sabres games, which are all in college time.</p>
<p>Another place students go to from Amherst (north campus) is Niagara Falls, both in New YOrk State and across the Canadian border. Aside from enjoying the waterfall views from both sides, they just linger like tourists would and go to the shops, wax museum, butterfly museum, whatever catches their fancy on a weekend with friends. Serious inquirers like the geology and history tours run by the state park on the NY side.</p>
<p>A lot of people from UBuffalo originate from the NYC metropolitan area. As well, there's a huge population here from India, into its second generation, because someone from Buffalo decided to recruit from a particular region in India and after studying here, many medical and science professionals stayed and raised families here. My son went to high school with many whose parents had that biography.</p>
<p>It's a real food town! There are many fastfood places but also some regional things, from Buffalo Wings to Beef on Weck (a special kind of roast beef sandwich). Ethnic food runs the gamut from Asian, Indian, Irish, Jewish deli, Russian...all within a mile of the north campus. Plus all that usual stuff, the pizzas, Friendly's etc. </p>
<p>If his engineering interest is deep and quiet, he might like to visit the Frank Lloyd Wright architectural homes here, or the Albright Knox Art Gallery downtown with all kinds of fascinating modern exhibits, as their mission is to show modern art. They have free jazz concerts on summer evenings on the museum steps, and many other offerings. </p>
<p>On campus, there's a theater that shows performances by students, plus in town there's the Jewish Repertory Theater, Irish THeater, several African American theaters, and Shea Performing Arts Center that gets the travelling Broadway shows that tour the country. </p>
<p>Snow here is no worse or better than anyplace else you've toured upstate, from Syracuse to Buffalo. Some say the middle of the state is a rougher winter than here, but I don't know, it's winter for real. There are times when a lake effect storm jumps over Buffalo and lands upon Syracuse or Ithaca, so I think they have it worse than we do, but it's splitting snowflakes. An upbeat attitude and the realization that storms are harder on homeowners than campus students (because they have their walkways cleared for them), plus hot chocolate, is the best antidote. We get sunny winter days and less grey than the eastern part of upstate, but I don't want to sugarcoat winter anywhere. </p>
<p>There is new waterfront development in downtown Buffalo and other attempts to revive the downtown, but in general know that the city is the 8th poorest in the nation. I find a severe divide, in terms of appearance, at the borderline between city and suburb. It seems to me that UBuff undergraduate students fit themselves into the safe suburban environment of Amherst, full of community good cheer, sports, food...and go downtown for club entertainment, but do not interact much with the impoverished residents of the downtown. Going through the city is as if in a tunnel (within a bus or friend's car), just saying, "oh my, this place is depressed" but upon arrival in the downtown destination blocks, it's all collegiate and hot energy once again.</p>
<p>If you send your student as an undergraduate to UBuffalo you can anticipate
community spirit, fall colors, safe town, snow, a muddy spring...but no involvement with the city's deeper problems. Even a student headed for a downtown campus will head like a bee to the parking lots and huge buildings of the south campus, and do univeristy tasks. </p>
<p>I find plenty of good bargains on airfares from JFK and LaGuardia using JetBlue, Continental, Delta, or USAir nonstops. It's a commuter path, so there are nonstops. I visit my oldest S in NYC and have been pleased at this. From the airport in Buffalo to the north campus is a quick 15 minutes.</p>
<p>The Hillel at Buffalo is in good shape, and the area synagogues will also welcome any students who show up. The north campus is within 5-10 minutes of synagogues from every denomination (and even a mikveh!) so you can find plenty of resources, even though students find us geriatric.</p>