Does anyone know how many applicants they usually take off the waitlist for Fall of those accepted for Spring? How are my chances- any tips?
I don’t know the numbers - I do know that a son of a friend last year got in to Bing at the beginning of June from the waitlist. Send admissions a “letter of continued interest,” and if you have anything new that might be of interest to them (i.e. an award of some kind) then let them know.
Here’s an article from CollegeBoard:
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/get-in/making-a-decision/what-to-do-if-youre-wait-listed
Good luck!
Anyone have knowledge of how hard it is to transfer from Harpur to SOM?
@skittles2023 I was told by admissions representative that students who have already been accepted to Spring 2020, are reviewed on the priority basis. Assuming you are waiting to get into Harpur (the biggest and less competitive school), you probably have a better chance moving off the waitlist.
Does anyone have any feedback / research to share about the dorm options and five living communities? What are the better options for freshmen? thank you
We just committed last night. We visited on Saturday, after having done other visits. We allowed a day to think about it, and we deposited yesterday. Can finally close the book on the search process, which is a relief.
@AJC We took a good look at the dorms. Not sure if you have visited, but they have 5 different areas. Each dorm area has it’s own areas dedicated to freshman only as well, so you aren’t thrown into a dorm with upper class students.
Some feedback and observations:
Mountainside is newer construction, and has nice views of the campus. They have large suites, where you have a living room and two bathrooms and then three bedrooms (2 students in each bedroom for a total of 6). Seemed pretty cool, but someone warned us that this 6-person approach may work better for 2nd year+ students who know who they are moving in with.
College in the Woods had a more secluded/quiet feel to it. My DD liked that as well. They have regular doubles, as well as 4 person suites and 6 person suites.
In all honesty, I was impressed with pretty much all of the dorm options. So many styles to choose from, and they really put thought into their dorms. Most of them seemed pretty clean and well lit as well.
Their site actually breaks it out with visual pics and all, which is helpful:
https://www.binghamton.edu/residential-life/communities/hinman/roomstyles.html
@HankCT Congratulations on your decision!! We also put the deposit down a couple of weeks ago even though it is for spring 2020, but hoping to get off the waitlist…
@HankCT Yes, we have read about the five living communities available. When we visited last year, they only showed us College in the Woods. If you search for prior years comments on the dorms, there is some helpful information that comes up… My understanding is that Dickinson is the newest / recently renovated dorm.
@HankCT Have you learned anything new/helpful during the accepted students day on April 6? We planned to go next weekend, but had to cancel the trip due to some scheduling issues.
@AJC Hey there - we did have a few takeaways from the weekend. This is just our feedback, take with a grain of salt:
- My daughter got to have a look at the various clubs, and did like a number of them. I think this was a factor for her in that we had also been looking at a smaller school, which had clubs but not as many.
- There were a TON of students assisting Saturday, and they were all extremely friendly. It was almost comical, because you couldn't walk 10 feet without one saying hello or welcome or congrats. After a while it was even too much, but it was a positive nonetheless
- The president spoke, for what felt like the right amount of time. Not too long, not too brief. Same with the dean of students, and the dean of admissions. All three made good points, in the right amount of time, and had plenty of energy. They seem fully engaged. The Dean of Students speech was a riot, in a good way.
- We saw Hinman on our first visit. I don't remember it too much other than it was "fine". We saw a standard double. This time around, we toured a Mountainside 6 person suite (very nice), College in the Woods (standard double, it was fine, nothing special but it was clean and had good sunlight), and poked around Dickinson as well. Dickinson is definitely the newer "townhouse/apartment" style buildings. Dining commons there was also nice.
- We noticed a different vibe between the residence halls, which I guess is to be expected. Let me start by saying we saw a variety of student personalities everywhere we went ... which was great. But I would say the kids in the Mountainside dorms seemed a bit more "yoga/health/wellness" oriented. The kids at College in the Woods seemed very chill, library academics. Dickinson had more of a "Wealthy Long Islander" feel to it, a lot of kids who were wearing trendy clothes, and looked like they cared more about that sort of stuff, definitely more party friendly.
- The science buildings we toured (two different trips) were a bit dingy in terms of lighting and being old buildings. At the end of the day, it's college, not a vacation, so for us it's the content that matters more so than the appearance when it comes to the facilities. The greenhouse was pretty neat as well.
@HankCT & @AJC we were there on Sat & my son isn’t ready to decide. Went to Stonybrook Sun & rolled that out, 1 more college to go to next weekend, but hoping he goes with Binghamton. My husband is also grad from there. We only got to visit new Disckson & Newing. He is in scholars but unsure of doing it & they are housed in Newling. They have standard doubles, for every 3 double they share a bathroom, kind of like a modified suite but corridor style. Also recently redone. Thank you for the input on different type of people we didn’t see that.
I agree the dean of students was definitely full of energy & memorable.
Everyone does seem to be happy students there.
Hopefully my son will decide. Last school is Rutgers & Im hoping he stays with Binghamton.
@lovemycats We also went to Stony Brook over the weekend and ruled it out quickly.
@HankCT Thank you for sharing your feedback!
@lovemycats Rutgers Honors may be more exclusive. Were you in the SOM presentation on Saturday?
@AJC what is your major? My son is computer science.
@fredfromjupiter no in the school ifcarts & science. Computer science. He’s also in the honors college. I feel the school is just to big.
@lovemycats My son applied to mathematics, and he plans to double major in computer science.
@lovemycats Ironically, for us, the larger size was seen as a positive. My daughter also looked very hard at Clark (small school, excellent reputation, all great kids there, and they work very closely with the students to ensure they are on track, finding jobs, and so forth). We also looked at UMass, which is more on the very large - your kid could get lost in the weeds kind of place.
My wife and I also went to smaller schools, and while that may seem to be the less frightening or more cozy thing to do, we both regretted it in the end. We made our decisions based on fear.
In the end, going to a small school means fewer potential kids to meet, fewer things to have access to, and less chance to start anew. If for some reason things go bad - with a teacher, a boyfriend/girlfriend, a roommate, at a larger school it’s easier to avoid that going forward. Small school? That teacher/boyfriend/roommate is going to run into you, all the time.
The larger schools tend to have more in terms of facilities as well. Science buildings and labs, greenhouses, technology, library capability, tutoring support, richer club options, intramural sports, and so forth. In the end, she felt Binghamton (17K) was large enough to cover all of those bases, but also cozy enough to not be considered massive - the way UMass (28k) felt, and schools like Rutgers/Penn State (60-100k) feel. Binghamton also feels more like a school where they are very focused on making sure kids stay there and making sure kids finish in 4 years and get placed in internships and jobs. They realize that those things are what drive applications - parents want their kid to stay, be happy, stay on track, find internships and jobs.
By the way, now that we have paid the deposit, what is next? This is our first go round. We paid our deposit on Sunday, and got back a one sentence automated email confirmation that said a payment was made to the payment system.
I was actually expecting some form of email (or maybe it comes via snail mail) with a welcome from the school, and next steps. Such as the dorm/roommate/payment plan options type of info. Maybe they send this stuff all out after May 1, or maybe even later?