<p>Alright so due to financial circumstances, I will be attending Binghamton University in the fall. I only mention financial circumstances because I was admitted into significantly "better" schools (ex. WUSTL and Swarthmore). Now there is this rhetoric about Bing being a public ivy. I know that this is obviously just a reference to top tier public universities that offer a "ivy like" experience at public school price. Is there really any legitimacy in these claims? Like CalBerk, UCLA, and UMichigan I understand why they can say that, they have a high achieving student body and spectacular staff much like the ivies. Like I like Bing a lot and I am certainly not trying to trash talk, but is the "Public Ivy" rhetoric legitimate, or do you think it makes the most sense relative to other public universities. I just feel like colleges longing to be ivies is getting embarrassing.</p>
<p>I think that trying to label different groups of colleges as “Ivies” with different adjectives in front of them just makes the perceived prestige and mysticism of the Ivies grow; it’s honestly very counterproductive to constantly compare every school (even top schools) to Ivies because it just perpetuates the idea that the Ivy League is the only “worthy” group of schools in the nation, which is frankly not true. I have several friends of mine who currently attend or will be attending Binghamton next year and they’re very happy. It’s a fairly high caliber public school (though the UC system seems better than SUNY system recently), but to call ANYTHING a “public Ivy” just makes no sense. The students are by no means underachievers or unintelligent, but there’s really no comparison and it’s silly to keep calling everything an “Ivy” as though it magically makes a college better. That said, Bing is still a great school.</p>
<p>Congrats on your acceptance by the way, and enjoy college to the fullest.</p>
<p>Yeah I agree with you completely. I think if any college really wants to make a mark in the field of collegiate excellence, they have to create their own niche. Like you never hear Stanford, UChicago, Duke, or NWU calling themselves _ivies or the ivy of the _ because they don’t have that inferiority complex. While the Ivies will probably always get the cream of the crop solely based on prestige, I think that a ton of other colleges have more to offer the cheap flattery and imitation. Thanks, and I’ll certainly try.</p>
<p>It’s not like Binghamton designated itself a public ivy; that was somebody else’s label and it’s only one of the awards/rankings that Binghamton lists in the literature they keep sending me.</p>
<p>I get what you’re saying. I too wish I could afford the better schools I got into, but I’ll be a Bearcat this fall and I’d rather get excited for it than be bitter all summer.</p>
<p>Yeah, sorry rebeccar if it sounded like I was being ungrateful and/or *****y. It was just food for thought. See you there lol.</p>
<p>Bing is definitely a good school, but I associate U of M and Berkley with “Public Ivy” status. I agree, it is a bit of a stretch. Remote makes a very good point too. </p>
<p><a href=“Who should do my recs? - Applying to College - College Confidential Forums”>Who should do my recs? - Applying to College - College Confidential Forums;
<p>If we want to treat “Ivy” like a designation of prestige rather than as a sports leagues, the public Ivies are more commonly thought of as UMich, Berkeley, UVa, UNC.</p>
<p>That said, Binghamton’s a great school in its own right. But I think the idea that it’s a “public Ivy” is a stretching it, as it simply doesn’t have the resources of the Ivies or the schools above. As a high-achieving student, however, you’ll be in great position to take advantage of the best opportunities at Bing, so such differences may not matter to you at all.</p>
<p>I’ve noticed that a few of the better SUNY schools call themselves “public-ivies”</p>
<p>Binghamton currently has the most academically competitive student body, overall, of the four NYS “flagship” campuses. From that perspective, it offers the best undergraduate “branding” available to many people who need to be price-sensitive and are New York residents, and do not have affinity for the specialized curricula of Cornell’s contract colleges.</p>
<p>Compared to the small top tier of public universities nationally, Binghamton is much smaller and does not have the premier research reputation of those other schools. Their longstanding research reputation has carry-over effects for general reputation and prestige. Binghamton is not nearly as well known, hence regarded, nationally much less internationally, as these schools are.</p>
<p>Seems to me that development of public university systems in the Northeast was done in the context of coexisting with large numbers of pre-existing outstanding private universities, to a much greater extent than was the case in places like Michigan and California. Also politically NYS spread the wealth around the state, rather than creating “true” flagships that “did it all”. Feels like that, anyway.</p>
<p>I’m not a huge fan of the concept of the public ivy. I think any university included on such a list can stand on it’s own merits. It’s hard to discuss public ivy’s without first understanding where the term originated from. Where you take it from there is pure opinion and speculation.</p>
<p>For lack of a more general source…wikipedia…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[Public</a> Ivy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Ivy]Public”>Public Ivy - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>A later book in 2001 (The Public Ivies: America’s Flagship Public Universities, by Howard and Matthew Greene of Greene’s Guides) expanded the list to 30 universities.</p>
<p>Binghamton is usually the back up school for those who apply to the top schools in the Northeast. And because of that, many, like yourself, decide to go to Binghamton because the deal is just tooo good, 15K a year for a pretty good education, hard to resist. </p>
<p>Main idea is, you will have plenty of students that had your situation, and decide to go to Binghamton. This means you will be surrounded with high caliber students( one of the most important aspects of a university, as well as Alumni Network- this is what makes a school great). Many students I know that go to Binghamton have received acceptances to NYU, CORNELL, BU,BC, ETC. At the end of the day, Binghamton is a good enough school with Northeast recognition( reputation wise). </p>
<p>What school are you going in(harpur? SOM?)? what are you going to study?</p>
<p>I’m going to study philosophy, politics and law. It’s an interdisciplinary major. I would not care so much about the prestige and name recognition if it was not for the fact that I want to be a professor. Even considering, if I work my ass off I know that at the end of the day I will be fine.</p>
<p>According to an old prior CC post, 793 PhD and Doctoral Degree earners during the period 1994 to 2003 had received their undergrad degrees from Binghamton. That was the 72nd highest undergrad origin. So it would seem that this is in fact an attainable goal from there.</p>