<p>I am going to apply for a "safe" school in NY state (I'm an out of state student; WA state) and wanted to know which of the two schools have a better political science program, and the pros and cons overall for both schools. Things such as location/area, distance to NYC, weather, social scene/activities, and ranking compared to other SUNY schools. I wanted to apply to a decent safe school in addition to another safe school I am going to apply for this summer (CUNY-Hunter College) and 3 reach schools on the east coast.</p>
<p>Can anyone give me some pointers on New Paltz and Stony Brook?</p>
<p>I just got accepted to New Paltz and waiting for Stony Brook to reply. I am still inquiring which school is higher ranked and a better overall choice for a poli sci major? New Paltz has a nice campus, and the online Poli Sci department looks nice with a good curriculum and study abroad/internship opportunities which is what I wanted to do while there. Stony Brook seems to be more highly ranked but I have yet to know if their undergraduate poli sci program is as good as their grad school one. I am still waiting to hear back to make a decision.</p>
<p>Well, both New Paltz and Stony Brook are very well-respected SUNYs, so you can’t go wrong with going to either one. Stony Brook is more of a science-y school for like pre-med/engineering and stuff. I would go with New Paltz.</p>
<p>I agree with Sam and Bluefish. Both are great school but they have a completely different vibe to them. The main differences we noticed between the two: New Paltz has gorgeous views, is in a quaint town and has small class sizes. Stony Brook feels like a self-sufficient city even though it’s in the suburbs and has tons of opportunities for the students if they look for them, they are all there! classes are much bigger than at New Paltz. Our tour said their freshman science and math classes can be as big as 570 students and often are between 400-500+. To counter this they have recitations of about 30 students once a week. She actually scared my brother even more about the class sizes by saying small classes are 50-100 students (he goes to a tiny high school with a graduating class of 77 students). Ironically my brother got into both of these and is in the exact same predicament! He wants to choose between these two and can’t seem to be able to pull the trigger. (He’s in the sciences though, Environmental/Bio major-NOT Pre-Med).</p>
<p>gf1025 did your brother look at SUNY Fredonia at all for his science major? We just got back from touring both there and New Paltz and my son did not like New Paltz at all, but liked Fredonia, and they are building a brand new state of the art sciences building to be completed for next year, and they are going to incorporate honors housing for those in the honors program starting next year as well. Everyone there was extremely friendly from the administration to the students and the campus is nice with some unique architecture. It is not as close to NYC but it is close to Buffalo and students can catch a bus to there if they need/want to, and from Buffalo can catch another to anywhere. If they had a German program, my son would probably be going to Fredonia next year.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. I’m impressed with New Paltz, which I wasnt expecting. Their Poli Sci department website seems more explanative with the major, curriculum, faculty, internship/study abroad opportunities, that Stony Brook’s department page seems to fall back on a bit (which is strange since it is ranked higher). I’m still waiting on word from Stony Brook to make my final choice.</p>
<p>I did check out Suny Fredonia. I liked their Poli Sci department, but didn’t like how far it was from NYC. I also don’t want to be too far upstate and prefer the shorter trips to the city to be a nice getaway every once in a while during the weekends. I picked these two schools to apply to due to their closer commute to NYC and the transportation that takes you there.</p>
<p>@tiredindianamom, thanks for the suggestion. He didn’t look at Fredonia because he wants to stay within a 2 hour radius from home (NYC). He actually loved ESF on paper and was really impressed when he spoke to the Admissions counselor at the SUNY fair last year but was worried about the distance and never pursuit it. However, he applied to NP under their 3+2 (BS/MS) program with ESF for Biology. There is absolutely no information about the 5 year program online or in the catalog. We’ll be calling NP on Monday to see if they can give us more info. He’s still on the fence for SB and NP. He still can’t make up his mind. He felt at home at NP but he’s afraid it won’t give him all the options SB offers. Then again SB has large class sizes and he’s afraid of feeling lost in the shuffle.</p>
<p>I got accepted into SB and New paltz. i applied for poli sci for both – in hopes of pre-law advisory. Nonetheless, i don’t find the political science major trustworthy. I was thinking about majoring in business. How is the business undergrad ranked at both schools? How is the poli-sci ranked at both schools?</p>
<p>I just got accepted to Stony Brook. Now it’s time to make my final decision on which is the better school for the poli sci program. I’m going to give myself one more week to pick which of the two I want to go to. It’s very likely it’s Stony Brook since it is ranked higher (from what I have researched) in Poli Sci than New Paltz and closer to NYC, but New Paltz has a lot of good EC options like Model EU, etc. They are both SUNY Schools so I can always join in the other colleges Poli Sci activates/internships that they share too.</p>
<p>^^To answer the poster above, Political Science isn’t something that is “trustworhy” compared to business. There is an oversaturation of undergrads with Business degrees, and after my cousin got laid off from her job of over 10 years these past few months, she is warning me not to get one (she had a buisness degree herself). It’s just like any other social science field and no matter what, you will most likely go to grad school for these fields do to being more competitive, getting a higher wage/salary, and to have a more specific focus or concentration.</p>
<p>Most people I know go to Stony Brook for the hard sciences, but of course there are other majors. </p>
<p>What else do you want out of a college experience? New Paltz is more like a LAC in a quaint town. Stony Brook is a university center, one of four large centers in the SUNY system. New Paltz has more of an “artsy” feel, Stony Brook not so much. I really think for Poli Science the difference in rank of the two is irrelevant, it’s what you do with the degree and opportunities at both schools.</p>
<p>I’m in NY and it’s been a few years now but I majored in History and Political Science. My GC recommended I apply to Albany, New Paltz, and Binghamton. I was leaning toward New Paltz until I got accepted to a school closer to home that with aid suddenly became affordable.</p>