<p>Starting this up in hopes of garnering some helpful input from those of you who have experience with New York State's University system.</p>
<p>I'm very familiar with Purchase College and am aware of it's great arts program, but wonder what it's like for, say, a liberal arts student...and how the students there feel about it being "stuck" out in the middle of some acreage in suburbia without a college town... </p>
<p>Would love to hear about the other SUNYs as well - the plusses and the minuses - the Honors programs - and more.</p>
<p>I'm guessing that I'm not the only person reading CC that might have interests in these programs - at least there've been a few posts of late that have gotten me to "come out of the closet" and start a thread or two on these programs. :)</p>
<p>We visited Geneseo last week. It is one of the most selective SUNY schools. The campus was beautiful and I really liked what they had to offer, but D wasn't thrilled with the location. It is Rural with a capital "R". Basically in the middle of nowhere. D get sout of the car and states "it smells like cows"..which it didn't. She's a city kid and this was way too "middle of nowhere" for her. She did meet a few kids who graduated from her HS (she was wearing a varsity jacket..they stopped her to say "hi" even though she didn't know them). They LOVED it there, so that made her feel better. It's still on her list.
I am insisiting she apply to some SUNY schools, for financial reasons, and most would be considered safties I guess. She wants communicaitons or journalism, so she will also be looking into Buffalo & Plattsburgh.
I have heard very good things about the SUNY honors programs.
It seems that aroound here...Staten Island, Brooklyn etc. the most popular SUNY seems to be Binghampton but they don't offer what my D wants.
Also, when I was looking at schools for myself, way back when, certain SUNYs such as New Paltz, Albany & Oneonta had "party" reputations. Even though that isnt the case anymore I can't seem to get passed that reputation.
SUNY has a good reputation as far as value goes. I have told my D that if she is planning on grad school, which she is, SUNY may be a good option since it's affordable, the money saved can be used for grad school.</p>
<p>Apparent...yes, Syracuse is on top her list. We visited there as well as Ithaca while we were upsate. She really liked Syracuse and they are well known for their journalism. I know there is merit $ and of course all factors will be weighed when making the decision. Thanks for the info.</p>
<p>Hi! Suny-Oswego graduate here and Husband Suny-Albany. As NY parents, we too are considering SUNY schools for daughter. We will continually ask the question is it worth it to spend more $ at college X than to send d to SUNY. Only time (and acceptances) will tell. If you haven't gotten a copy of the SUNY Viewbook, you should. You can probably get it from the Guidance office or through the SUNY.edu website. It gives you a bit of info on every campus- including community colleges and special programs at Cornell. (Cornell is not SUNY- separate application and tuition costs are higher. My older d is in Cornell-ILR program). You do need to study the different programs. If you are interested in teaching, neither SUNY Albany or Binghamton have undergraduate programs. I was a bit surprised by that, but I was told by several people that their kids applied to New Paltz or Oneonta for educ. as some university centers don't have ed. majors. Recently, one of the students on cc stated she was transferring from Albany as she was now interested in physical therapy and SUNY Albany did not have a program in that field. So if you are interested in the liberal arts most SUNY's will be ok, but if you are looking for a particular program, you need to see if it is available at that campus. For my own daughter, though she states she has no clue what she wants to major in, all her interests are sports related. So we're considering SUNY schools that have a recreation type major. Those include Brockport, Oneonta and Cortland. She may also apply SUNY Albany as she would like to be in a more urban area and who knows maybe she'll decide to major in the social sciences. Also from our Nassau county HS, Albany and Buffalo seem to be popular, as a lot of our kids find Binghamton and Geneseo too rural. I guess there are not enough shopping malls in the area. Anyway get a copy of the Viewbook, it does give alot of info on each SUNY campus. Good luck.</p>
<p>Marny...though not SUNY, your D may want to look at Ithaca. They have some nice athletic training programs as well as sports management. Costly school, but they do give nice merit & it's beautiful.</p>
<p>Thanks Yankeegirl- Though she loves her sister, I don't think she wants to be in Ithaca too. Also if we decide to spend the big bucks, it probably won't be for an upstate private U. as she hates COLD WEATHER. We're considering mid-Atlantic public U's like Temple-Towson and a few others. We'll be looking at a few schools over the Passover recess. Her SAT/ACT scores are going to be a major factor as to the schools we can consider. She took the ACT this Sat. and will take her first SAT in May, so I'll have a better idea on what schools to consider real soon.</p>
<p>Had to laugh at your daughter's "It smells like cows." comment, yankeegirl! The rural thing is what could be seen as a negative, but as others have so often reminded - things change pretty quickly in the college pursuit.</p>
<p>marny1, thanks for the tip about "the view book", I will definitely check that out soon. :)</p>
<p>My husband and I both went to SUNY Oswego and graduated in the early 80's. I am familiar with Oswego, Oneonta, Cortland, Albany Binghamton. Albany, Binghamton and Buffalo are in fairly large cities and not as rural as the others. My son applied to Buffalo as a financial safety, but we also looked at Towson University in MD(public around 23K oos) he and found the location to be more to his liking. I believe they are comparable. The main problem for my son is that the SUNY's are in cold, rural areas. There is not a lot to do in the way of cultural events, sports, etc. without a car. My husband and I were not happy at Oswego, but that was years ago. So many schools have a party reputation -- so it's hard to say. It would probably depend on the kid. I have heard good things about New Paltz, but we never visited. Cortland is good for teaching, and I know a few phy ed teachers who went there as well. Be sure to look at the schools--some kids are not bothered by the rural locations, but mine definitely was.</p>
<p>Appreciate your input both as a grad and a parent, chocolate. The whole location side of the NY State Universities will, I'm sure, be a problem for my offspring, as well - cold and rural don't seem to be her climates. </p>
<p>Interestingly, I was just looking at U of MD at Towson's website the other day. ;) Thanks for bringing up the comparison. :)</p>
<p>I graduated from Plattsburgh and went on to do my grad. work at Binghamton. My daughter applied (and was accepted) to Geneseo and Binghamton as financial safeties. She didn't really like either and was relieved when her first choice school gave her a great fin aid package!</p>
<p>If you don't like cold Plattsburgh is probably out. It's not quite as rural feeling as Geneseo. It's far north but the city is larger (not big, but bigger than Geneseo!). It's a quite pretty part of the state, and I love it but it may not be her cup of tea. </p>
<p>I graduated in 1990 so things may have changed, but it was very much a party school. It was possible to opt out of that, but most conversations on campus by Thursday afternoon were about going downtown or what parties were happening where. The greek scene was fairly active and there have been several nasty frat related incidents.</p>
<p>The school was small for a SUNY and I found the teachers for the most part welcoming and caring (much more friendly and much better sense of community than Bing.). Although not at all a selective school you could get a good education if you tried. The honors program was small but worthwhile. The teachers seemed to be either there for the long haul with families and lots of ties to the local community or just using P'burgh as a step to bigger and better things. Many of the folks I worked with in the late 80's have moved on to other schools. </p>
<p>A friend of my daughter's was given a nice merit scholarship to P'burgh, but has opted for Binghamton. P'burgh was just too far north for him :-)</p>
<p>Blumini,
Another thing we considered was opportunity for internships. Albany, Buff and Bing are large enough cities where opportunities abound. The really rural campuses do not have the same opportunities. I was an education major at Oswego and my student teaching assignment was 35 mins away from the campus. I could not get anything closer. Hopefully things have changed!</p>
<p>One of the things we liked about Towson, it that it is 10-15 mins from the city of Baltimore with frequent and reliable transportation. They seem to do a good job with assisting students with securing internships. (They say they do, anyway!)</p>
<p>My brother-in-law works for a large financial firm in NYC and hires grads from all types of schools: Duke, Harvard, CUNY's and SUNY's. He says he looks at the quality of the internships along with the recs obtained from those internships (as well as GPA) when deciding who to interview. And this large well-known firm likes to hire from many types of schools, not just the most selective. Things to keep in mind...</p>
<p>You might also log onto <a href="http://www.studentsreview.com%5B/url%5D">www.studentsreview.com</a> to get an idea about each SUNY campus from current students. For example, at Binghamton it seems to be love it or hate it, depending on where you went to high school. Some take issue with Binghamton's declaration of being a "public Ivy" and others don't like its campus social life dominated by down-staters. Other SUNY campuses are discussed as well on the website.</p>
<p>We Oswego Alum's stick together. I agree with Chocolate's assesment about internship opportunities. Since many of the campuses are in remote areas, I believe internships may be limited. If my d goes into sports management or event planning, being in a small town won't be beneficial. As my d also seems to like urban areas, we will be giving serious consideration to State U's outside NY such as Temple-Towson & VCU and we may look at Montclair State in NJ. My guess is if she goes to a SUNY, it would be Albany or Brockport as that campus is relatively close to Rochester. I really can't see here at either Oneonta or Cortland as those towns are pretty rural. I do believe that SUNY and CUNY schools are the best bargain for NY families. Most kids will definitely get a fine education. I am a believer that it is not where you go to school but if you took advantage of all the opportunities the school has to offer. FYI- Al Roker was a graduate of Oswego. There have been many successful people who are SUNY & CUNY graduates so these schools should be given serious consideration. PS- Chocolate Where did your son finally decide to go?? Anyway-Good luck to all!!</p>
<p>Marny1
He has it narrowed down to 2 --Towson and Quinnipiac. Although a decent student and an athelete, he is shy and not loaded with confidence. We have worried from the start of this search how he would fair at a large school--fit seems to be very important for him. Quinnipiac offers a fair amount of hand-holding and might be the better fit. He knows a few kids going there and he did get a few dollars from them. We will have two in college his junior year and three in college his senior year, and according to the finaid people, he will qualify for substanial finaid those years. (We will have a fairly stable EFC over the next several years). Will the private be doable? We have been doing a lot of soul-searching, hand-wringing, and calculating these past few weeks. The finaid picture could change a lot in two years, so what I was told was based on past precendent. My husband is leaning toward the private because of the type of kid he is; I go either way depending on the hour of the day. He will make one more visit to Towson on the 23rd with my husband and brother-in-law (whom my son adores and is the NYC bigwig I referred to in an earlier post). He is so worried about strapping us financially, but the difference in cost could be marginal according to what I was told. Qunnipiac is his first choice, but he has said several times that he will happily go to Towson. He will have more in loans at Q.</p>
<p>My girls are much more social and fit in easily wherever they are. They both want to go down south where even private schools are much less expensive. We will look at publics down in VA and NC and some lower priced privates.
And we will be scrimping, scrimping and more scrimping for the next seven years.
Oh, the angst!
PS, Is your daughter a junior? If you are looking at oos publics, one school we all loved in VA was James Madison. Even though it is large we know a few kids who go there and rave about their experience. If he gets off the waitlist (statistically improbable), who knows... Also, I have heard good things about UNC Wilmington.</p>
<p>The real problem with the SUNY system, as I see it, is the extreme lack of diversity in the students. Because SUNY really doesn't have a national reputation, you end up at school with kids who are ONLY from New York State - and mostly from the NYC metro/Long Island region. For those kids it probably feels like high school all over agian. For everybody else you feel like an extreme minority. </p>
<p>I think in some ways the SUNY system is just spread too thin. It also suffers from a lot of political shenanigans. Do a news serach on Robert King (chancellor) and you'll see what I mean.</p>
<p>Yes, unfortunately, I am sure your points should all be well taken... There's been a bunch of press about Robert King of late, that's for sure.</p>
<p>I think for me the "idea" of a SUNY program is comforting for $$$ reasons, but knowing my offspring they will not be high on her list, at all - unless she falls in love with the arts again...then Purchase could be mighty fine training wise and I believe it's fairly diverse in its arts related student body.</p>