And @“aunt bea” I will look into UB, we didn’t look into that one - Thanks! There seem to be a lot of schools in and around Buffalo and I hear it’s a neat city (if you don’t mind the winters, :).)
DD’14 is studying linguistics, and that was a tricky major to hunt for in her college search. Binghamton was her financial safety, but she wasn’t super happy with the linguistics program there because (at least as of last year) there wasn’t a true linguistics department. It was a multidisciplinary major with a chair from psychology. We didn’t look into Geneseo.
My personal experience is that the majority of the students at Binghamton seem to be from NYS, especially either NYC or commuters from areas around Binghamton (two VERY different cultures). I looked up Binghamton on Cappex, and they say that 75% of the students are from NYS, 12% from foreign countries, 6% from New Jersey, and the other 13% from all the other states combined. Geneseo: 96% from NYS (!), 2.4% from foreign countries, and very few from any other state. I don’t know how reliable Cappex is though, since I think it’s self-reported. Maybe someone else can comment on that.
Another school that DD was very interested in was University of Kentucky. They got on our radar because of their generous NMF offerings, but it turned out that they did have an independent linguistics department and the chair of that department met with DD and was very encouraging. He even pulled a textbook off his own shelf and gave it to her to take home. We were sad to let that one go!
DD ended up at Cornell, and while it is a pretty big university, the individual colleges are much smaller and so perhaps it might give her a “not-so-big” feel.
I don’t know if any of this is helpful, but my best wishes to you!
Thanks, mdcmim, very helpful! She’s not mentioned psychology - she’s thinking of combining it with Cultural Anthro, Philosophy, History, or even a foreign language as a major. Or maybe Linguistics as a major.
mdcmom, Cappex seems way off but maybe the totals are close. The CDS for Binghamton for the US residents undergrads lists 89% as NYers. Most OOS are probably from NJ. There are 1453 nonresident aliens. The nonresidents and the NYers, especially those from Long Island, seem to have the biggest impact on what the student body is like. The Internationals students tend to hang together and speak their native languages, while in every place but class where they tend not to say anything.
Nice that your daughter was able to go to Cornell. Great school!
“I was mainly curious why the selectivity rate was so low for these schools. Usually, when that’s the case, there are lots of OOS students applying as well…”
SUNY doesn’t attract many OOS even though it is almost as cheap to attend as an out of state student as it would be for students to attend their own state universities. One reason is that there is no flagship and nothing like Cal Berk or UCLA or UVA or Michigan’s Ann Arbor, WISC or Chapel Hill, Georgia Tech or William and Mary or anything close to any of those in terms of what the university offers the students. I will stress I am referring to the university and quality of life and desirability of the towns the schools are located in and the aethestics of the school. It’s not me stopping tons of OOS students from applying to SUNY. I’m explaining why they don’t.
“Most OOS are probably from NJ”
Not so sure about that. PA is the closest neighboring state. I know of students from PA, OH and even New England IIRC. And NJ. But it’s generally true, at most schools ,that the most represented out-of-state.sources are the immediate adjacent ones. Most people go to colleges they can drive to.
USNWR had this to say about Geneseo:
Walking on Main Street in Geneseo is like stepping into a vintage postcard. The 19th-century architecture of the storefronts, in an area designated a National Historic Landmark Village, seems to meld into … the campus of SUNY-Geneseo.
SUNY schools only care about REGENTS SCORE. I got rejected because my regents weren’t that great.
monydad, the nearest state to Binghamton is Pa but it is a rural undeveloped part of that state-mining country. Penn State is a much more likely choice for students living in that part of Pa. People outside NY and not close to the NY metropolitan area are unlikely to have ever heard of Binghamton.
Not so NASA2014. Why would you think SUNY admission care about your regents? Students who attend private schools or those outside NY don’t even take Regent Exams. If you are a NY public school student, poor regents score can depress your grade in a class. Too many poor regents exams can depress your GPA. A low GPA can result in rejections from competitive schools.
Was it because it took me seven tries to pass the biology regents?
I’m live in NYC. For NY residents, Geneseo and Binghamton and really good and REALLY sought after schools. As an OOS student, you’ll probably have to have competitive stats to get into either.
Purchase is mainly known for its performing arts programs, which I’ve heard are phenomenal. For academics, it will probably be easier to get into than Geneseo or Binghamton. Plus it’s really close to the city.
Don’t know anything about Plattsburgh.
OOS scores don’t have to be higher than they would need to be for NY residents. I think the administration is so delighted that anyone outside NY has heard of the system they jump up and down whenever they get an OOS application. Yes educating NYers is part of the SUNY mission.
The promise when SUNY was founded was to educate those that would not be able to get an education if not for the SUNY system. The founders promised that they would not compete with private schools. The claim was SUNY would be expressly for students who could not afford to go to college. It’s true though that truth does not flow freely out of the mouths of SUNY administration but that was the original promise. If you wondered why the 4 centers are so ugly, that promise may answer that question for you. What better way is there to show a school won’t compete with private schools then to make the campuses as utilitarian as possible. Bare bones ugly.
Now SUNY appears delighted to accept OOS and foreign alien applications. I’m not sure if each campus gets to hold on to more money for each alien accepted or what but some accepted students could hardly speak english and did not compare to those NYers who were rejected, It would be fascinating to follow the money and see why a school like Binghamton is willing to forgo english for the sake of an alien application. It isn’t the difference in tuition because the difference between OOS and Alien isn’t much but Aliens seem to be preferred over OOS and OOS over NYers. If you know why, weigh in here.
“If you wondered why the 4 centers are so ugly…”
Of the four centers, I’ve only been to Binghamton. Personally I don’t find it particularly ugly at all. It would not make it on “America’s most beautiful campuses”, but It looks fine to me, actually. The oldest part of the central campus is perhaps not a stunner, but it’s not horrible either. The newer buildings are all nicer. There’s a ton of recent construction all around it, that all looks reasonably good to me. And it abuts a nature preserve, which I find quite pleasing.
To each their own.
Yes true. But I’m not alone in my assessment:
http://www.campussqueeze.com/post/the-20-ugliest-colleges-in-the-usa.aspx
http://www.complex.com/style/2013/09/ugly-college-campuses/suny-binghamton
http://wnbf.com/new-york-campuses-dominate-the-ugly-list/
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/artattack/2011/08/back_to_school_10_of_the_count.php?page=6
http://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings?rankings=least-beautiful-campus
Some SUNY Centers are so ugly they are inexplicable.
OK , well I still disagree. though if I’m not mistaken at least one of those links was quoting one of the others. But whatever.
But what’s really funny (to me), is, when you posted about how they were supposed to be so much uglier than all private colleges, I was thinking at the time about a number of specific private colleges that I’ve seen that it clearly looked better to me than. And several of those same specific private colleges are actually also on those lists. There are a few others that aren’t on their lists though. But should be.