<p>Well I got accepted to Fredonia and Plattsburgh, and most likely will be accepted to UBuffalo. I'm wondering which school is better for education and the social scene in general. Thanks! The Plattsburgh campus is ugly, and I heard that Fredonia is great besides the town and that there are a lot more girls than guys so I'm worried about that.</p>
<p>Any opinons?</p>
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What’s wrong with that?</p>
<p>This post is just my opinion. With the exception of Geneseo, all the SUNY campuses are ugly. They dominate the ugliest campus lists. Here is what one had to say, " Apparently, during the 1960s and 1970s, the state of New York didn’t care much for architectural aesthetics. Similar to its brethren, SUNY Binghamton is a grim, utilitarian Modernist campus. Some have compared the facilities to that of a public high school, which is a statement that could be made for the rest of the SUNY network, as well."</p>
<p>But that wasn’t the worst. The worst was Number 4 "SUNY Purchase’s campus may be irony at its most cruel. The campus is actually one of the few on this list that is known for its ugliness, deemed both a “modern interpretation of a medieval fortress” and “a repurposed maximum security prison.” The campus has even inspired the sarcastic Tumblr “Beautiful Purchase.” The 1960s modernist buildings are as interesting as plain cardboard boxes, and the institutional lack of aesthetic beauty could be taken as a misguided joke for one of SUNY’s best art schools. The Performing Arts Center, for one, greets students like a windowless tower of doom. We’d like to think that it’s a modernist architect’s gift of a blank canvas to the immensely talented student body. "</p>
<p>I don’t believe the ugly utilitarian campuses were an accident. It’s too consistent. Apparently they had the same architect for colleges and prisons. I think the mentality was to avoid anyone accusing the state of expenditures that seemed elitist or for anyone but the masses. Not a penny to be spent on anything extra that might improve quality of life but is not essential to the utilitarian mission of educating the lower SES segment of the NY population. This is never discussed and it is not PC to say. But it is true. It’s a NY attitude. It is like the attitude towards the poor that you hear from people-sure tax dollars may be used for bare essentials but better not be spent on something that makes life better for you. Sucks sometimes. '</p>
<p>And to end things-this from another list called Campus squeeze, "8. SUNY campuses- Buffalo, Binghamton, and Albany- (pictures from top to bottom) I’m sandwiching these all together because I don’t think they deserve separate spots on the list. They may have some green space, but that doesn’t make up for the ugly buildings. Buffalo’s campus (I’ve driven through it multiple times, considering it is about ten minutes from my house) has some nice upperclassmen apartments on a lakeish-thing, but its buildings look like Lego land. It’s so bizzare. They are just squares that protrude from a main structure. Binghamton’s just awful in the middle of rural nowhere with random squares, again. Like that’s supposed to be a cool design. And Albany’s buildings are just drab and rundown pieces of concrete. SUNY needs some serious face lifts, the whole system and its buildings. "</p>
<p>sounds like you’ve lost more than your account</p>
Stark, ugly, concrete architecture was hip in the 1960s and 70s. UAlbany was designed by one of the premier modernist architects of his day, Edward Durell Stone. He designed the Kennedy Center in NY, the embassy in India and a lot of other ugly, modernist buildings. All the Rockefeller era public buildings in downtown Albany are similarly ugly.
OP, I wouldn’t put too much stock on the ugliness of the campus. Focus on which school seems like a better fit for you–they all are quite different, and which has a better program for your major. They will all have a social scene, you just need to find a group of students with similar interests.
Can you visit any of the campuses before you have to decide? See if they offer an overnight program so you can get a feel for the campus. If not, at least try to do a day visit.