Hi! My friend was accepted into SUNY New Paltz and SUNY Geneseo. His major is undeclared, but he is thinking about doing something in Music or Education. Can someone tell me how the programs are at these schools, and how the social life is (how is the town, etc)? Also, my friend is part of the LGBT community, would he be a better fit at New Paltz or Geneseo (I know at Geneseo there was an incident with homophobic vandalism last year)? Thanks so much!
I can speak for New Paltz a bit - it has a reputation as being very friendly, hippie, and quirky. Nobody would bat an eyelash at LGBT. The town is cute. There are tons of little shops, bakeries, pizza places, and a lot of vintage stuff like record stores and fun antique shops with random stuff. There’s a movie theater, some supermarkets, and it’s only 2 hours from NYC.
When I visited Geneseo, I got a vibe of it being isolated. There wasn’t much of a town and you have to like, drive through a bunch of cornfields to reach it. However, I don’t think you’ll find much homophobia at any of the SUNY schools. There are bad apples everywhere but in general NY is a very liberal place. Geneseo generally has a better academic reputation than NP, but NP is really rising in the rankings and has a good reputation as well.
If your friend wants music and/or music education, why doesn’t he look at SUNY Fredonia? Its music department is top rated for education, performance, vocal, composition, etc. My S17 is there and has many friends in the music education and other music programs (he is in a theater program).
NP is a cute little town but my D hated it when we visited because she thought it was too much like our town. She went to Plattsburgh, which has a great education department and a good music department but doesn’t offer music education. My D did a direct entry education program with a music concentration and earned a masters in special ed in the 5 year program.
Geneseo attracts very bright kids but from what I hear the area is isolated and there is almost nothing to do but drink.
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