Students unhappy at Stony Brook, but happy at Binghamton? True?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stony Brook University - SUNY
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<p>Here are my experiences with Stony Brook:</p>

<p>1) Campus residences sucks. I've dealt with them personally. They wouldn't let me request roommates and even gave me an attitude about it.
2) MOST, not all, professors don't give a ****. Why? It's a research school.
3) The food is overpriced, but we do have better food than most schools.
4) The new parking rules make no sense. Hmm, let's raise the price of tickets and lower the amount of parking spots available because we're always doing construction. Smart?
5) The career center has no idea what they're doing. I went to them with specific questions about internships and they couldn't help me.
6) The music scene is dead. The Tabler Arts Center is for practicing. And the open mics nights aren't advertised enough to get a lot of people coming.
7) So many commuters.. Enough said.
8) My department itself sucks. I'm a math major and when I try to get information from the department they usually blow me off.</p>

<p>So, okay, after all this how can I possibly like this school? Well, I actually do. Yeah, no joke. I have friends that hang out on the weekend. But if they weren't here, there's no reason to be here. So if you're a new student, STAY AWAY!!!</p>

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<p>I agree. Advising mostly sucks, so your best advisers are typically your old classmates.</p>

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<p>Most of this thread is just flogging a dead horse, but I can't resist making a few points.</p>

<p>Food: In 3 years of subsisting mostly on campus food, I have not gotten food poisoning once. I'm sure some people have the misfortune of delicate stomachs, but I don't think it's nearly as common as has been implied. Some of my friends have had bad reactions on occasion, but most of them could be traced to a lack of common sense (e.g. if something at Jasmine looks a little crusty and congealed like it's been out for a while... it probably has! Pick something else). My girlfriend has an incredibly finicky stomach, but she hasn't gotten food poisoning from campus food any of the many times she's eaten with me in dining halls. Nutrition-wise, campus dining has made a huge effort over the past couple of years to offer a wider variety of healthier options. I still have issues with those healthier items being too high priced, but they're definitely there. It can be harder to find healthy stuff if you generally eat at off hours, since some options shut when it's not peak lunch or dinner time and the ones that stay open late tend to be fast-food type stuff. Nevertheless, healthy food is available if you want it.</p>

<p>Parking: Sucks. I hate the changes they're making, and I hate it even more that they're pretending it has to do with "reducing the campus carbon footprint" when it's really about lining pockets. If you commute, you have to leave enough time to take the bus to the middle of campus, which is frustrating.</p>

<p>Housing: Depends. A lot of the people in campus res are very nice and helpful. Some are not. Some are well meaning, but seem nasty because they simply don't have the resources to give people what they want. It's not their fault that housing is underfunded due to SUNY rules about where the money for renovations and new building can come from. It is Shirley Strum Kenny's fault that housing is way over capacity, because she decided it was a good idea to increase the size of the student body without expanding the corresponding infrastructure to support a larger population. Whoops. Regardless, I've had very good experiences living on campus, and I'm glad I had the opportunity. Whoever mentioned that you shouldn't leave the dorms unless you're 100% sure you won't want to move back was right--you will not get off the waiting list, ever. However, off-campus housing isn't nearly as bad as some people are making it out to be, and is in fact substantially cheaper than living on campus. Finding someplace within walking distance is hard, but not impossible, and the space you'll have is usually much nicer than a dorm room.</p>

<p>Overall satisfaction: I love it at SB, and most of the people I know do too. The opportunities available at Stony Brook are amazing, so get involved and you'll have a great experience.</p>

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<p>"Overall satisfaction: I love it at SB, and most of the people I know do too. The opportunities available at Stony Brook are amazing, so get involved and you'll have a great experience."</p>

<p>This is so true. My son had a pretty good experience. Once he made friends on campus we never saw him. He even got a part-time job on campus and continues working there along with his full-time job. When he chose to go to SB he told us that among the SUNY's SB was going places and it has. In the four years that he was there we saw the school evolve. It just got better and better and continues to do so in spite of the state cutting funds. It is an uphill battle for all the SUNY's and I believe NYer's deserve better. But, for the money, graduating with little to no debt is a major accomplishment these days. So, make the most of your education. SB is a good school.</p>

<p>Forgot to add, I have been to other SUNY campuses and by far SB is the prettiest. Lot's of greenery and that zebra path is awesome! So is the stadium.</p>

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<p>First Post!</p>

<p>I'm about to enter SUNY Cortland as a freshman this fall. I do plan on transferring after a year to a college with a more robust and varied Pre-Medical program. My question is: which college should I be looking for? My Sat's were 1840 and my high school GPA was hardly exceptional. What should I do in Cortland and which colleges should I be focusing on for pre-medical?</p>

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<p>Hey everyone,</p>

<p>Im currently a sophomore at stony brook and honestly i couldn’t be happier. I got into Bing and all the other top suny schools but i chose stony brook. I just want to take this chance to defend stony brook. </p>

<p>****ty professors: Classes are huge! however making the effort to meet your teachers/ TA’s isn’t going to hurt. People expect to be spoon fed what to study and what to review, Get some motivation and study the whole damn book.</p>

<p>Ugly Campus: Stony brook was designed by someone who built jails and its not exactly art, but who the hell cares. YOUR HERE TO LEARN! I am happy that the campus is plain because instead of investing in how the buildings look our school is investing in education!</p>

<p>No social scene: Grow some damn balls and make some friends the old fashioned way. OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND TALK TO PEOPLE!</p>

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<p>while i think most people know how much i hate SB, i will say a few things:</p>

<p>professors - some are actually wonderful. you will get the few who don’t care about anything but their research, but a lot are great if you go to office hours and genuinely care about what they’re trying to teach you. i think that this is especially true for the psych and soc departments. linda wicks, susan brennan, and patricia whitaker are great, so if you can, get into one of their classes.</p>

<p>parking - park where ever you want and fight the tickets. i did that basically my entire time there and out of the 100 or so tickets i got, i only paid 2. if it matters that much to you, just do what i did. south p isn’t horrible, though it is very inconvenient. the buses are generally on-time. i refuse to stand on buses so i mostly just busted my way to the front of whatever line there was and got a seat, so that’s also an option. no one will say anything to you, and if they try, just ignore it. they can’t pick you up and move you.</p>

<p>i agree that there is no social scene, but i think they’re trying. they have all those weird little carnival things and whatever. wait for the moonbounces, those are great. where else will you be able to play in one after age 7? </p>

<p>advising - i had nothing but a great experience with my advisors. really interested in what i wanted to do, were supportive through the transfer process, and helped me work things out from day 1. </p>

<p>and that’s really it. i don’t think there’s anything else even slightly okay or good about sb, but the things i just mentioned i thought were worth hearing.</p>

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<p>

According to the good ol lessons of an engineering professor. The campus was “speed built” or something along those lines where they were designing buildings as quickly as they were put up.</p>

<p>

Amen to that. One of my teachers held office hours on the sunday before a final
(the teacher wasnt in charge of making it) just so some of us could go over the stuff and even though there was no requirement for the teacher to do(no canceled hours during the week or anything).</p>

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<p>Binghamton is a school that went Division I in basketball over the objections of its faculty, and is now paying the price for corrupting its academic standards, harassing faculty who try to maintain those standards, and recruting thugs for its basketball team-- many of whom had a hard time staying out of jail, that is, when they weren’t being given B’s for no-show classwork. The uncovering of this scandal has led to its basketball coach being placed on academic leave, its athletic director’s resignation, and the retirement of its president under a cloud.</p>

<p>Following an independent report on the scandal, many faculty are concerned that the administration will clean up the athletic department but not address the corruption of the school’s academic mission.</p>

<p>SB’s parking, food quality, and being a suitcase school aside, many of the Bing faculty are demoralized by the basketball scandal, and this could have an effect on the educational life of the students for years to come.</p>

<p>From the NY Times 2-27-10 [At</a> Binghamton, Concerns That Sports Are Still the Focus - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/sports/ncaabasketball/28binghamton.html?sq=binghamton&st=cse&adxnnl=1&scp=1&pagewanted=2&adxnnlx=1268281284-sK1zuaHKC3K30ovH56/wtw]At”>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/sports/ncaabasketball/28binghamton.html?sq=binghamton&st=cse&adxnnl=1&scp=1&pagewanted=2&adxnnlx=1268281284-sK1zuaHKC3K30ovH56/wtw)</p>

<p>“The whole report is that the university does damage control rather than addressing the issues, and their response is to do more damage control,” Wright [a thirty-year professor] said.</p>

<p>After the audit was released, Carl Hayden, the SUNY chairman said, “I would fall off my chair if Nancy Zimpher’s [SUNY chancellor] recommendations didn’t apply the lessons we’re living through.”</p>

<p>To some on campus, those words are hollow.</p>

<p>“I don’t have faith,” Wright said, “that Binghamton can straighten itself out.”</p>

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<p>This guy Ironically Unsure has been at Cornell for a couple of years and he is still posting about how much he hated going to SB. Dude, it’s really time to move on.</p>

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<p>1) i’m a girl
2) it clearly says cornell 2012. aka i’m a sophomore and haven’t graduated yet. “couple years”? maybe you’re at sb because you can’t do math. and i didn’t even say anything bad this time. it’s time for you to get over yourself. thanks.</p>

<p>and i also keep posting so that no one makes the same mistake i did and so that they know the truth when they’re considering sb. almost everyone i knew/know at sb went for one reason: dirt cheap. are they happy? not even a tiny bit. can they leave? no, because they either don’t have the gpas to get into a better school or can’t afford it. no one i know stays because they want to. your friends might be different, but honestly, i can back up everything i say i hate about sb so don’t start for no reason.</p>

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<p>Glad your a girl.</p>

<p>I know people who love SB. I know people who hate Cornell.</p>

<p>Why don’t you post on the Cornell boards and tell people how happy you are at Cornell?</p>

<p>Some SB grads will live wonderful, productive and happy lives. Some Cornell grads will live miserable, unproductive and unhappy lives. Think about it. </p>

<p>And stop bragging that you are at Cornell. It’s very tiresome. And it’s not exactly Harvard or MIT.</p>

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<p>Idk, from word of mouth, Binghamton seems to get overwhelmingly positive reviews from alumni and current students, some of whom were top students and got into bigger name schools (Cornell, NYU, etc). Stony Brook
 mixed reviews and, from what I gather on this board, isn’t for many people. I know a few people who actually transferred from SB to CUNY! Unfortunately, however, “knowing people” isn’t the most reliable source for calling making judgements.</p>

<p>Yeah, college is what you make of it, but the difficulty of “making it work” really differs between schools.</p>

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<p>oh, ruby, you make me smile. i do post on the cornell boards. i don’t know anyone who isn’t happy here, but know tons of people who are miserable at sb. and honestly who cares if it’s not harvard or mit? i would never go to either (i got into other “better” ivies, just for reference. cornell just happens to be perfect) and we’re still talking top 15. stony barely makes top 100. and it’s not bragging. it’s proving that if you want to leave and make a difference for yourself, it’s possible. anyway, lots of love and well wishes to you ruby. i hope your life is as wonderful as you always thought it would be <3 </p>

<p>one last thing, if there are any stony students looking to get out, feel free to PM me because tons have already, and i would be more than happy to help you.</p>

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<p>Yes, everyone is happy at Cornell.</p>

<p>Just look out before those gorges pull you in.</p>

<p>[Ithaca</a> Police?Release Identity of Female Gorge Suicide Victim | The Cornell Daily Sun](<a href=“http://cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2009/08/27/ithaca-police release-identity-female-gorge-suicide-victim]Ithaca”>Ithaca Police Release Identity of Female Gorge Suicide Victim - The Cornell Daily Sun)</p>

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<p>there isn’t an extraordinarily high death rate at cornell. while i was at stony, there were 3 deaths also. they just don’t publicize them as much. the gorges just give those already unhappy people a way to kill themselves. and it’s really sad that lives were lost, so i think it’s pretty rude of you to try to make your point by using someone’s suicide. losing a life is sad no matter where they were from. that’s really disrespectful.</p>

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<p>latichever there are suicides at EVERY college.</p>

<p>Ya got numbers to prove that cornell’s suicide rate is higher than most colleges’?</p>

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<p>I totally agree, which was my point. I think there are happy and unhappy people at any school–both SB and Cornell.</p>

<p>I did find this: “Cornell was battling a reputation as an intense school with a high suicide rate. The university was named the most stressful of 15 top schools in a 2000 book that surveyed students.”</p>

<p>[Bucking</a> Privacy Concerns, Cornell Acts as Watchdog - WSJ.com](<a href=“Bucking Privacy Concerns, Cornell Acts as Watchdog - WSJ”>Bucking Privacy Concerns, Cornell Acts as Watchdog - WSJ)</p>

<p>Ironically unsure: It’s no more disrespectful than your somewhat gratuitous rants against SB to cite a well-known reputation of Cornell for suicides–even if the rate is no higher. From the same WSJ article: “Stressed-out students have sometimes joked about wanting to ‘gorge out.’”</p>

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<p>and SB has been rated in the top 3 most depressed student bodies by the princeton review consistently. </p>

<p>i completely disagree. talking about people who decided to take their own lives to prove a point against ME is way more disrespectful. and i always say that what i say is my opinion. there are people that i am still in touch with at sb who like it, but many don’t. and one of my brothers is going to go to sb (only because all he needs is a degree and then he is guaranteed a job. where he goes doesn’t matter, he’s only going because it’s dirt cheap). so fine, everyone is different. i am still allowed to give my opinion, regardless of whether or not it ruffles a few feathers, as are you. the difference between us is i haven’t been personally attacking you or other posters.</p>

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<p>I’m a Junior at SBU so I have no stake in this posting whatsoever. I’ve just had a positive experience here and I would like to encourage you to consider the school because you could have an amazing college experience if you come with an open mind. </p>

<p>Students at Stony Brook are not unhappy and a blanket statement like that is so illogical that I am surprised so many people actually believe it. Those who have hoisted SBU to the top of the “unhappy” list actually needed to seek out the Princeton Review and rant about the university (one of our on-campus newspapers did an expose on this two years ago). </p>

<p>Indeed, many students are very studious and very driven which causes a lot of self-inflicted stress. In fact, I am a very active member of the campus and I have not met “unhappy” people only people who choose to overwork themselves intentionally. True, most classes are difficult and a lot is expected of you, but people still make time (and there is still plenty of it) for their other activities and social life. </p>

<p>In regards to an earlier comment, people are rude here if you are impolite to them or do not respect their culture/background which is similar to the experience you would have anywhere else in the world. </p>

<p>Truthfully, the food was terrible a few years ago. BUT, we have a new food service on campus now and they are quite good! They make a variety of food (mexican, italian, american, middle eastern, indian, chinese, vietnamese, southern, deli-style, meditteranean, european) every day and there are always vegetarian, vegan, halal, and kosher options. We just got a California Pizza Kitchen on campus and if you like fast food options there is a Wendy’s, Dunkin Donuts, and Taco Bell (none of which carry my food of choice but they appeal to many). Of course, some things are not nearly as good as others but there are always options and once you come here you can see what you like and value. </p>

<p>Some people like DECS, others don’t. They’re a good way to diversify your background and most people create a plan out of them to pick up another major or minor. Honestly, if you came to college and didn’t take classes outside of your major, how would you know what you really liked?</p>

<p>Also, considering unhappiness, I know at Cornell that there’s a bridge that at least one engineering student jumps off of each year. We don’t have anything like that here and I think that’s a testament to how exaggerated the Princeton Review list is. </p>

<p>Another point: Teaching Assistants. The chance of having a good TA is the same as having a good professor. I would say that most of the TAs I’ve had truly care about the subject they’re teaching. After all, they’re usually graduate students who are currently studying it and will one day teach it themselves. To categorize TAs as being unhelpful or inadequate is just flat out wrong. Because they’re currently studying the topic, their knowledge is probably fresher or even more current than that of the professor. </p>

<p>Old Chem does not smell bad. And honestly, there’s no reason to drive to class unless you live in West Apartments which you wouldn’t in your freshman year anyway. Everything is about a 10 minutes walk from the residence halls unless you live in Roth so you can keep the freshman 15 off. </p>

<p>It’s really easy to get lost at Stony Brook because there are so many students but that’s really up to you when it comes down to it. If you do not make an effort to make your professor notice you and you go to your advisor to talk about your future, you will not get lost in the system. Stony Brook is really for self-starters. Like SBUadmissions said, people are willing to help you, you just have to seek them out first. </p>

<p>Good luck making your decision.</p>