<p>I would definitely recommend taking a ride down to PA and checking out Susquehanna. My son goes there and as one poster said, it's within the two hour range. He just was home for the weekend and I have never seen him so happy.</p>
<p>This is a kid who really did not do well in high school or up to his abilities. He never took responsibility for completing his homework etc and he is doing great. Handing in all his work, getting better than average grades and has a lot of really nice friends. Is engaged in club hockey and intramurals, and volunteer work, which the school is very big on. They are great with aid if that is an issue.</p>
<p>In short, here is a kid who was totally shy, quiet and lacked confidence and he has completely come out of his shell. This is a place that takes B students in high school and allows them to thrive.</p>
<p>For those that are lurking and looking (since NEMom said her son is not interested), I live quite near Hamilton as well. It is very competetive to get into. A beautiful campus though. It is in a very quaint, small town but there are shuttles to nearby Utica (I see them all the time at the mall) and I think a lot of Hamilton students (who tend to be on the upper middle class to wealthy side) bring cars anyway. The lack of merit aid is, from what I understand, balanced out by pretty good need based aid for the not so wealthy (which is what they are leaning toward). </p>
<p>That said, Utica is not exactly a metropolis but just wanted to soothe any fears that a student without a car would be stuck for 4 years in Clinton, NY w/ nothing to do.</p>
<p>I can always tell the Hamilton students from the Utica College students though when they are milling around at Barnes and Noble. The Hamilton kids are definitely more of the Abercrombie crowd.</p>
<p>Came across this thread & I thought I would chime in. Daughter #3 does not have stellar statistics, but we are looking at Wells College, Elmira College, Alfred University, Hartwick College & Eugene Lang College. I believe that both Wells & Elmira do need male students desperately & offer merit aid to entice them. We may also look at Susquehanna University & Moravian College in PA. </p>
<p>Trying to find a good fit for D#3 has been a challenge. D#1 graduated from UCONN & loved it & she is big on sports-basketball, football etc. D#2 is now a senior at St. Lawrence University & loves it there. A bit remote, yes, but she has never complained about being bored or a lack of things to do. The financial aid at SLU has been fantastic & they meet about 95% of your need. D #2's boyfriend is an English major at SLU, I believe. </p>
<p>Now Hartwick uses the Federal Methodology (FM) for aid so I am not too keen about Hartwick-their financial aid statistics aren't very impressive. Alfred & Elmira are both (IM) Institutional Methodology schools so I do hope that D #3 will look at them as the IM schools are very favorable to us when it comes to financial aid. I understand that Alfred has a housing shortage, so it isn't guaranteed for all 4 years. Moravian & Susquehanna are also IM schools.</p>
<p>Growing up in Northern New York, I never really heard anything negative about Hobart. My older brother is a Hamilton alum & my younger brother a SUNY Oswego alum & I am a Syracuse alum. Being an Orangewoman is a challenge when both your parents & daughter are UCONN alum.</p>
<p>We are going to visit Eugene Lang in Manhattan on October 26th for an Open House with D #3. D #3 really doesn't have the stats for Hampshire, Bennington, Marlboro or Sarah Lawrence, where she would like to apply, but Lang may be a good match for her. (if she wants to live in Manhattan) </p>
<p>It is all so mind boggling & our son is right behind D #3, he is a high school junior.</p>
<p>I thought I would revive this thread. Does anyone have personal experience with any of these schools:</p>
<p>Elmira
Hobart and William Smith
SUNY Oneonta
Ithaca College</p>
<p>Some comments that I have read and heard, and perhaps some people could comment here or send a PM to me. I am only going to focus on the negative comments. There are plenty of positive comments that I have read and heard about regarding all 4 schools:</p>
<p>Elmira-very small, over obcessed with Mark Twain, no name recognition, too much hand holding with too many students who are not interested in learning, which seems to impede classroom learning for those who are more studious. The neighborhood is dangerous especially at night. There is little to do in the area. There is a big imbalance of very wealthy students. The career center is not strong for those trying to look for jobs and internships.</p>
<p>Hobart and William Smith-The town is boring and one needs a car to get to Rochester. There are too many very wealthy and arrogant students who are not open to friendships with students who do not come from families with similar wealth. The frats are of some influence for men. The winters are unbearable, and it is usually cloudy.</p>
<p>SUNY Oneonta-I have read many negatives, but have read that these no longer apply because there have been many recent changes. I do not know what those changes are and if the negatives do or do not still apply. I do know that they only have 4.5% out of state students.</p>
<p>Ithaca-not enough financial aid. The rest of the negatives are those that I have read about just about any campus. Since it is a hilly campus, and since many buildings are interconnected, I am sure the winters are interesting there as well.</p>
<p>I'm not sure where you heard some things you mentioned about Elmira. I wouldn't say it is unsafe at night based upon my visit. It is in a residential area with small businesses that seems to be reasonably well kept. No significant commercial areas in the immediate vicinity, so no hang out problems. Actually, the Saturday night I spent in the area (Memorial Day weekend) was pretty dead.</p>
<p>In addition to the obsession with Mark Twain, add the color purple and octagons. Just about every door you can see is painted purple. Most of the flowers you see are purple (with a few yellow ones - the other school color). It is a bit over the top on school spirit, perhaps not the taste of many. My D's first impression of the place (vacant) was very positive. I imagine though that one could tire of it.</p>
<p>I'll agree with the "little to do in the area". You need a car to get to many things in the town (it seems quite spread, as there is no vertical building to speak of).</p>
<p>SUNY-Oneonta-Named one of Kiplinger's 100 best values in public colleges, ranked in top tier universities-masters-north in USN, 37.9 acceptance rate out of more than 12,500 applicants (for a class of less than 1500) for class of '08. This is how things have changed.</p>
<p>Also, on another thread, Oneonta is regularly mentioned as the, or one of the, nicest SUNY campuses.</p>
<p>For 2008 over 900 scholarships were awarded to students above and beyond financial aid because it has one of the largest endowments for a SUNY.</p>
<p>Oneonta has worked hard the last decade to be a college of first choice. It is geared towards a B+/A- student with 1100/1600 -1175/1600 SAT's. </p>
<p>The school changed because a decade or so ago, because of budget cuts, the school let in students with lower credentials to get more money. Some of these students were less desirable (think police blotter). It was recognized as a mistake and adjustment were made so that it was not done again. </p>
<p>It is a good school definitely worth visiting.</p>
<p>morrismm, thanks. Do you think that an out of state student would feel uncomfortable? We are not exactly from another part of the country, since we are from NJ. It seems that it is currently priced so that OOS costs are equal to NJ's instate costs (before scholarships at Sunys or NJ public Us). Still, they only have 4.5% of students from OOS.</p>
<p>If anyone has any other info about HWS, Elmira, Ithaca, or Oneonta please contribute. Also, thanks for those PMs. It is all very helpful!</p>
<p>Northeastmom -- Your son may have fewer problems adjusting to the culture of Oneonta than some of the kids I know who are current students there. Oneonta has a very large percentage of LI/Downstate NY kids. I know a couple kids from rural high schools just south of Albany who enrolled as freshmen this year; one is thinking of transferring out and the other was initially unhappy but is finding her niche. The complaints? Too many kids "aren't like them." I also know a couple upperclassmen who adjusted to life at Oneonta just fine. One came from a family that moved Upstate when he was in middle school, while the other comes from a family that traveled extensively so their children could see what life was like outside the rural bubble. I think a New Jersey student would feel right at home with the average Oneonta student. As you noted, however, OOS students are somewhat exotic at Oneonta, as they are at most SUNYs.</p>
<p>I think HudsonValley is very accurate. The culture shock at the SUNY's are usually based on upstate vs. downstate breeding. So NEMom- if your son feels comfy with metro NY kids, he should be fine. </p>
<p>as a born and bred Brooklynite, I can attest to the "intra-state" culture clash when I attended Oswego. I hear their downstate population has increased much since I attended 30+ years ago. </p>
<p>I remember when we toured cortland with my d- and I did ask the question about % of upstate/downstate kids-- the tour guides response was that the downstate kids felt there were too many kids from upstate and the upstate kids felt too many kids were from NYC/LI. I then knew that there was probably a good mix of kids from all over the state at Cortland.</p>
<p>ps- I think Oneonta also has a pretty sizeable Jewish student population too. (more than most of the other state colleges). IMO, I think the Oneonta campus was really very pleasant and the school had none of the "institutional" feel that you might get at a state school.</p>
<p>Marny: hillel.org is screwed up re: Oneonta....says that there are 30,000 students there (yea, I know it's gotten more popular, but not that popular) and 1,500 Jewish students. Do you know of more accurate numbers? thanks....</p>
<p>rodney- I'm not that familiar with the #'s, but I read in one of the weekly Jewish publications that they had a very high Jewish population in comparison to the other suny colleges. I thought it was about 30 % Jewish- which sounded very high to me. But if they are getting a good chunk of kids from Downstate, it certainly is possible.
and yeah- it certainly isn't 30,000 kids at Oneonta.</p>
<p>D #1 graduated from high school with a male student who enrolled at HWS & he ended up transferring to American University. His main complaint was that there were too many rich snobby kids & he was very unhappy there. He loved AU & graduated in '07, his interest being politics as I recall. While his situtation is probably not unique, as many students do transfer after freshman year, I wonder if those Overnight Programs some schools offer can help avoid this type of situation</p>
<p>I just learned of another college that is probably about 70 minutes from Ithaca -- Mansfield University (in Mansfield PA, natch, about 20 miles due south of Corning NY). I know nothing about it except that it's part of the Pennsylvania state university system (i.e., not the "Penn State" system, and not the independent public universities like Pitt and Temple, but a peer of Indiana University of PA, West Chester, Kutztown, etc.), and it has a lovely, isolated location.</p>
<p>SLUMOM, I looked up their financial aid at the National Center for Eucational Statistics. List price is 48,325/yr. and only 72% of students receive institutional grants.</p>
<p>So, then 28% of students do not receive institutional grants from HWS. I thank you for your post about this website, National Center for Educational Statistics, that has a lot of great stuff on it. I wil have to bookmark it for future reference. If my H knew how much time I spent on CC, he would probably shoot me. </p>
<p>Growing up in Northern New York, I honestly never heard anything negative about HWS.
D #1's friend's experience was the first time I heard anything that was not flattering about that school. Of course, this was just his personal experience & I am just posting it here. I don't know if his situation was his own exageration or not.</p>
<p>I had just made inquiries today (December 4th) of Elmira College & my D's counselor told me that they have started something new for out of state students. If you visit before January 31st of your senior year, you will receive an Out of State Award, worth $10,000 or $2500 each year for all 4 years. It doesn't have any academic requirements & does not appear to be based on need. Obviously if you have great need & you receive a lot of aid, it can't exceed the amount of tuition, room & board. Just thought I would pass that along as Elmira College is one of those colleges within 2 hours of Ithaca, NY.</p>
<p>SLUMOM, thanks. I was aware of the 2500/year because this is posted on their website. I believe that one just needs to visit by a certain date during the year they are applying. The campus is lovely, and their Mark Twain collection is quite interesting. I am concerned that they are heavy on the C students. Did your daughter's counselor have any opinions about the school as a whole? If you have any specific info please feel free to send a PM. My son did like the school, and your right, it is something like 25% male (I could be off a by a small percentile).</p>