reply for happy1 http://www.accounting.com/rankings/best-bachelors-in-accounting-programs/ source of #20 accounting ranking program
I think you’re smart enough to determine which posters are providing actual information . Good luck no matter which school you choose.
@stones3 It’s amazing to me how many people feel the need to chime in to these threads to cr@p on SUNYs and NJ state schools. There’s one particular “senior member” who will remain nameless who jumps in on every SUNY Binghamton thread to trash the place and he’s neither an alum nor a relative of an alum. I don’t understand it but I’ve learned to ignore it.
I had one daughter go to Binghamton and one to TCNJ.
The Bing daughter picked it because it was a larger school, was in NY (where she wanted to end up working) and not too close to home but not too far away, and gave her alot of credits for IB diploma, to the point where should could graduate 1.5 years early (with a couple of summer courses).
TCNJ daughter wanted something smaller (but not too small), and not too far away from home.
Both are excellent values and you can’t go wrong.
SUNY Bing is 16th best out of state value for public colleges (was 5th when my daughter went) and TCNJ is 21st.
http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-public-colleges/
I would say for TCNJ most kids are from NJ and if there is a break they all go home.
Both have a bus route that will take you to nearby stores.
Both have a very long winter break.
Both are reasonably priced.
I would make a spreadsheet and include info like:
Net Cost
Number of Undergraduates
Faculty Student Ratio
%of students that live on campus
How big is the department for your major? If you are majoring in something that only has a couple of professors, that does not bode well.
Weather
Housing- do they offer all 4 years? freshman only? (TCNJ just added the new Campus Town apartments)
Urban/rural/suburban
Is this a commuter school? (do students go home on weekends)
Surrounding area - what is the nearby town/amenities like?
Transportation - how would you get home
AP Credits - can you get credit for AP tests you have taken
Male/Female ratio
Greek life - what % of students are in greek life
Parking
Diversity
Safety
Sports
Jobs - what happens to seniors after they graduate
Internships - depending on your major, is it easy to get internships?
…and whatever makes sense for you
You might not care about, say, greek life. but if 50% of the kids are in greek life and you don’t want to be, that is something to know. Or you may want a big time sports scene or you might not want one. Grade them from 1-5 as they make sense to you.
Then look at each of them and see which makes sense for you
A tool to help is https://colleges.niche.com/compare/default.aspx?&tab=tab-rankings
@bopper Thank you so much, this was helpful! Would you say both of your daughters are happy where they are?
@stones3 Thank you for the list and the link. I don’t concur with the extremely limited metrics used to create that list which include a school reporting 2 out of the four following stats: acceptance rate, enrollment rate, retention rate, graduation rate. http://www.accounting.com/ranking-methodology/
While those are components of a strong accounting program, the metrics for the study you noted do not include things beyond those very general enrollment/graduation type of stats. I think it is hugely important to consider where graduates of the accounting program are employed, satisfaction with career services, satisfaction with teaching, % of graduates taking/passing CPA exam etc.
But anyway, the OP seems to have pretty much settled on TCNJ being the better choice and at this point we should probably just wish him/her well.
Most definitely…actually I was the one who put each of these on their college lists, based on the criteria they told me. The older one graduated from Bing and went to Columbia for a Master’s in Secondary Education. The younger is a freshman and is challenged but not too challenged.
@bopper Maybe I’ll be seeing her at TCNJ!
Another factor is that I just recieved a scholarship from Binghamton that would make the prices basically equal
Look for graduation surveys too:e.g., http://career.pages.tcnj.edu/files/2014/10/School-of-Business.pdf
TCNJ is consistently ranked number 1 in New Jersey for overall pass rates on the CPA (https://admissions.tcnj.edu/about-tcnj/consumer-information/)
Also keep in mind when comparing that TCNJ has you apply to a major when you apply to the school…so they pick who are going to be Accounting majors. With Bing, is it the same or can anyone who desires be an accounting major?
@bopper I recently changed my major to finance but I think they operate the same way although I’m really not sure!
Just so everyone knows I ended up going with Binghamton because 1. they gave me more scholarship money, 2. I visited again and realized how much I loved it and how much better it is for me than TCNJ, 3. I realized I was convincing myself to like TCNJ more because I was scared about going further away from home and I decided to push myself out of my comfort zone! Thank you everyone for your help!
Wishing you a good experience at Binghamton, @collegekid123457.
Congratulations on your decision and all best wishes @collegekid123457!
Have a great time at Bing! It’s not that far away and you can take a bus from Bing to NYC so it is easy to get home if you need to.
congrats and best of luck.
now for Happy1-- I haven’t been to this thread in a while so I just saw your comment about “not agreeing with the metrics used” in that 4ranking of TCNJ accounting as #20 in the entire country. Well since that time they were also ranked as the #35 best undergraduate business school in the entire country by Bloomberg ! Throw in #3 over best school in the north via USNWR and 75 th most competitive school in the nation via Barrons . Surely one of these metrics works for you. Hahah. Point is , TCNJ is very highly respected and regarded, its just a fact. and this is in respect to ALL schools , public and private. Pretty pretty pretty impressive stuff. Can’t wait to see what happens once the new $100 million STEM facility is completed next year.
^^^^I should be entitled to disagree with the metrics of certain surveys – and I am not the only one who find fault in a number of the rankings. Personally, I have never liked the Bloomberg survey (the rankings have a lot of volatility and Wharton #16, really?) – it seems that Bloomberg itself agrees and has publicly stated that after 2016 it will no longer rank undergraduate b-schools. http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-phillydeals/Does-Villanova-really-have-a-much-better-business-school-than-Wharton-.html The USNWR #3 ranking is for northern region universities which seem to be defined as universities that have few graduate students – therefore it TCNJ is ranked among a relatively small group of schools (as opposed to a school ranked as a national university). However, for the record,while I disagree with some of the rankings I do feel that TCNJ is a very fine college.
But more importantly, the OP has selected a college. And we all wish him/her the best.
I am from ny so I have no dog in this fight believe me. Fordham is a good school, and has a very good law school, bt it is NOT a great school by any stretch. If you can cough up 55k per year and have good grades, not great grades, you can get in. TCNJ is harder to get in on average than Fordham.
Now, lets get on to Nova. Again, they are a very good school, and they have a very good business program, but it is not so so difficult to get into. Look at the the admission rate, and again, if you can come up with 60k give or take, and have good grades, you have a very good shot at getting in.
Bucknell, yes, that is a hard school to get into. Very expensive, but an excellent school. In my mind, it is alot more presitgious than Fordham and Nova.
Here are schools that I consider great etc. The IVY’S for the most part, Duke, colgate, tufts, Northwestern, Stanford, University of Chicago, MIT, Just to name a few. Fordham and Nova are not in that class.
Is TCNJ in the league of Duke, Tufts etc? Absolutely not. But they are right there with Fordham and Nova. Tcnj just does not have the name recognition that those schools do.