<p>I'm a student here in Texas and want to major in philosophy, and I've noticed that Stony Brook has a nice faculty, and pretty nice academic rankings.</p>
<p>The only reason I'm really considering Stony Brook is due to financial purposes. I can afford only ~8,000 a year. I really want to attend a private LAC so that I can be with a lot of like minded students, amongst other social reasons; obviously however, academics and money are first.</p>
<p>I had two questions anyways. </p>
<p>First, what kind of people would I meet? Do most people focus on having a good time, or academics; and are most people socially progressive?
Secondly, is Stony Brook financially sound for me, as an OOS student?</p>
<ul>
<li>4.5W GPA</li>
<li>32 ACT</li>
<li>Vice-President of Gay-Straight Alliance</li>
<li>Vice-President of Philosophy Club</li>
<li>Varsity Cross Country</li>
<li>Eagle Scout</li>
<li>Community service (nothing extraordinary in terms of hours)</li>
<li>Top 11% (FML. -_-)</li>
<li>4 on AP CompSci AB (Taking 3 AP's this year, 7 next year)</li>
<li>National Honor Society</li>
<li>I also participated in the pilot programs for the Boy Scout of America's leadership summer camps on the state and national level.</li>
</ul>
<p>BELIEVE ME! You are a shoo-in for Stony Brook!! Let me answer some of your questions though:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>THere are a lot of international students at Stony Brook. A lot of them are very science oriented because SBU is usually known as a great science-related school. </p></li>
<li><p>I think that many students are like most students who balance academics and partying evenly.</p></li>
<li><p>Not sure about the social progressive thing.</p></li>
<li><p>For OOS, Stony Brook (including room and board) is like $20,000, but with your grades… you might be able to get merit scholarship.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Hey. From NYS, so I have a few suggestions.
With your stats, you have a great shot at SUNY Geneseo and Binghamton. If you are really towards SUNYs, I would suggest those for you. They will feel much more like LACs than Stony Brook (which from what I’ve heard is a bit of a suitcase school). As the above poster stated, you will need to get a scholarship/FA to lower it to 8k a year.</p>
<p>Also, if you’re looking for a LAC but cannot afford the average price tag, let me suggest you look at LACs where your stats are significantly above the average. You will find tons of great colleges with those stats that will want to give you aid because of your high academic acheivement, and you may be able to get a deal around 8k a year.</p>
<p>If your main reason for wanting a LAC is finding like-minded social progressives, Stony Brook would definitely be a good fit for you We have a lot of lefty activist types, an awesome queer community (and we adore our straight allies too, if that’s where you fit in), pretty good merit aid for OOSers (many of my friends from OOS have scholarships that cover the difference between in-state and OOS tuition), and a top-notch philosophy department. Most people try for a balance of work and fun; the classes can be tough (in a good, intellectually challenging way) but most of us (even the long-suffering scientists and engineers) make the time to relax too. For most SB students the problem sets come first, but hanging out or going to an interesting event will get prioritized over sleep :P</p>
<p>I almost went to Reed College because I was looking for a bastion of progressive, quirky, brilliant people and thought I needed a LAC to find them. I ended up at Stony Brook because of logistical and financial factors, and have happily settled into a thriving social scene full of exactly the kind of people I hoped to find at a top LAC.</p>
<p>Another bonus is that our student body is a lot more diverse than most LACs–a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds, lots of racial, ethnic, and religious diversity, and a large international student population make for a rich exchange of ideas and opinions. Not being a monoculture means we do have our share of conservatives, but we’re in New York so the political baseline is pretty solidly left of center. Plus I’d much rather be a social progressive somewhere that actually encompasses a wide range of people and respects a variety of experiences than someplace where the school culture is totally dominated by white, middle/upper class, traditional-aged full time students.</p>
<p>Feel free to ask me if you have any other specific questions about Stony Brook!</p>
<p>If you’re a rising senior, don’t limit yourself just to what you want right now. I think Stony Brook would be a good match safety to your list, but expand on your desires. By the end of your senior year you may realize that type of environment is not necessarily ideal. You’re lucky to have great stats, just don’t limit yourself based on what you think you may want(if that makes sense).
Philosophy is a major most schools offer and the fact of the matter is that most top 50 schools are bound to have goood to extremely strong programs in. Instead look at the course offerings per schools. I know USC is the complete opposite of your interest, but if you were to look at their course offerings you’d see classes that are very much untraditional(compared to other schools).</p>
<p>1.SB is very heavily geared towards pre med/bio/health professions.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>SB is about 25% Asian of the far eastern/Chinese persuasion. Not sure how they are at socializing outside their own group. Some would say that they are incapable of socializing at all.</p></li>
<li><p>SB is about 20% Asian of the Indian/Pakistani persuasion. Some may want to behead you if you’re a sodomite. Similar concerns about socializing. They will not approve your lifestyle.</p></li>
<li><p>SB is very much a commuter campus with about half the campus leaving on weekends because home is so nearby. There actually is no social scene in the town of SB, and students are advised to take a train or bus to a neighboring town (Pt. Jefferson), which is really more of a touristy/family outing type town than anything I think a student would be interested in. Similarly, very little school spirit/morale. Poor turnout for sporting events due to the weekend commuters, the competitive aspect of the majors (bio, pre med), and the lack of appreciation for American sports among the student community.</p></li>
<li><p>I don’t know which dorms you saw, or where (on line?), but they SUCK! They are old, run down, and freshman are routinely tripled up.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The only real choice for a SUNY LAC is Geneseo, but there is no financial aid there for freshmen as the money is spent on professors, dorms, new buildings, and aid for matriculated students.</p>
<p>I realize that this post may offend some people, but it’s better you know the truth. I just call 'em the way I see 'em.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>SB is very well known for natural sciences and health professions, but there are a lot of other top-notch departments in the arts, social sciences and humanities. In some ways a non-bio/pre-med major can even be better off, since the less well known programs can often offer more personal attention and have less competition for the great opportunities they have to offer.</p></li>
<li><p>and 3. Nice job pulling statistics out of your butt and promoting racist stereotypes of Asian people! There is a large Asian population at SB (though those numbers don’t match up with any of the credible sources I’ve seen), but nothing about being Asian renders them incapable of socializing. “They will not approve of your lifestyle”–right, because it’s not like some people are both South Asian and queer… oh wait. Sure, some of SB’s Asian students come from very traditional or otherwise LGBT-hostile backgrounds, but plenty of them are queer allies too. The LGBTA and the South Asian student group cosponsored multiple events this semester; how does that translate into hostility between the two populations?</p></li>
<li><p>Studies of students’ ID card usage show that on average, >80% of residents are on campus for the weekend. For the mathematically challenged, that means there’s no way in hell half the campus leaves every weekend, and even 80% of SB resident students is more people than the entire student body of many LACs. Over 90% of this year’s first year students lived on campus; how is that a commuter school? The surrounding town isn’t amazing, but Port Jeff definitely has some good bars and restaurants, and there’s always plenty of interesting stuff going on on campus. School spirit doesn’t really revolve around sports so it’s harder to recognize for people who are exclusively focused on the whole traditional rah-rah-football thing, but it definitely exists.</p></li>
<li><p>They’re typical dorms–not luxury hotels, but not slums either. They’re on par with dorms at pretty much every other school I’ve ever visited, and are generally nice places to live unless you have totally unreasonable expectations. Tripling sucks, but a lot of schools are doing it these days and it’s pretty much inevitable when you guarantee housing to freshmen and continuing students, your enrollment increases, and most people want to live on campus and stay on campus.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Calling things as you see 'em is a better strategy when you’ve actually looked at the place you’re describing in the past 15 years.</p>
<p>Qflux, I don’t know much about Stony Brook so I’m not going to try to give you a comparison. I would, however, ask if you’ve taken the time to understand how financial aid works at private colleges – LACs and universities alike. </p>
<p>If your family qualifies for NEED based aid then you are likely to receive financial help to attend from most private schools . If you don’t qualify for need based aid, but actually do need (or want) financial aid, then you could look at private colleges that offer MERIT based aid. You have an excellent profile and would be a contendor for merit aid at many colleges.</p>
<p>Again, this isn’t a reason not to consider Stony Brook. However, if you really want to attend a private LAC you should probe deeper into what financial aid is available.</p>
I saw the dorms at SB very recently, Easter week in fact. I also saw the dorms at Geneseo and Binghamton. There is no comparison. SB is a very crowded campus and somewhat run down.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>80% of the students may be on campus for some PART of the weekend, but there is no denying that 50% of the students live in Nassau, Suffolk or Queens. Close enough to pop home and go out with old friends or see family.</p></li>
<li><p>Maybe the reason the gays and South Asian cosponsored events is because they felt the need to try to expose the S.A. to the gay lifestyle to avoid problems. Cosponsoring events does not counteract 18 years of conservative, religious upbringing.</p></li>
<li><p>Perhaps you would have a better grasp of reality if you had seen some other campuses and LIVED considerably more than 15 yrs. : )</p></li>
</ol>
We have a lot of lefty activist types, an awesome queer community (and we adore our straight allies too, if that’s where you fit in), pretty good merit aid for OOSers (many of my friends from OOS have scholarships that cover the difference between in-state and OOS tuition), and a top-notch philosophy department. Most people try for a balance of work and fun; the classes can be tough (in a good, intellectually challenging way) but most of us (even the long-suffering scientists and engineers) make the time to relax too. For most SB students the problem sets come first, but hanging out or going to an interesting event will get prioritized over sleep :P</p>