Thought on Geneseo from a former Grad

Colleges and Universities A-Z SUNY at Geneseo
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<p>Hey, I am a 2009 graduate of Geneseo and I'm on this site as I decide which grad school to go to, so I thought I'd start a thread, tell a bit about my time at Geneseo, and answer questions if people have them. I have no personal interest in any of you going to Geneseo, so I'll be completely honest and frank about my time there.</p>

<p>Just to mention about me, I graduated summa cum laude, doing a double major in International Relations and Economics. I was accepted to some pretty great grad schools right after graduation, but decided to do the Peace Corps first. Right now I am a volunteer in Armenia and have been accepted to Tufts, Georgetown, and Johns Hopkins for grad school in International Relatoins/Economics.</p>

<p>I couldn't be happier with my choice with Geneseo, it is definitely one of the best liberal arts schools out there, even if you don't even consider the cost of attendance. Back in 2005 when I was deciding what school to go to, I was basically forced by my parents to go to Geneseo because of the price (instead of my top picks like Boston University or George Washington), but it ended up pretty much being the best thing that ever happened to me.</p>

<p>I'll try to narrow down my impressions into a few catagories:</p>

<p>Academics and Professors:
Geneseo is very academically challenging, though of course you can find some "easy" courses just like most colleges. I'd say most A students at Geneseo are putting in 20+ hours of studying/paper writing a week outside of class, and even more as an upperclassman. 90% of the professors I had were simply exceptional, particularly in my majors. They are really open, approachable, and I had really close relationships with a few professors which then led to awesome letters of recommendation. I had one professor who would even invite us over to her house for beer on the weekends. While most of the professors have really great research, they seem to all be mostly focused on teaching, and all my classes were taught by professors, with the exception of some GenEd science courses my freshman year, where the labs were taught by TAs.</p>

<p>Social Life
I was in a fraternity, Sigma Alpha Mu, and it was a great experience. I've heard that open parties have kinda gotten cracked down on since I left, but in general, if you want to find something to do in Geneseo for fun, you will, especially if you become part of the Greek community or sports team. Greek life is pretty visible, but not overbearing if you are not into that. One of the negatives though of Geneseo is the town, which is very small and doesn't have very much. But there are a number of decent college bars and a club (which allows unders entrance for a cover) within walking distance of campus.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars/Study Abroads/Internships
I was never bored at Geneseo, I participated in lots of clubs and competitions sponsored by the college. One, called Fed Challenge (an economics competition), even gave me the opportunity to travel and compete in NYC and DC on the college's dollar. I also participated in a DC internship program through SUNY, spending a summer there at the Department of Commerce, and I did two summers as a study abroad student in Moscow, Russia. All of these were paid for mostly from financial aid.</p>

<p>Infrastructure
One of the negatives of Geneseo compared to private schools is that the buildings are generally not as nice. But this is one of the things you give up when you pay so much less for a public school than a private. But the dorms and academic buildings are definitely not bad, and they just built a state-of-the-art science building which my friends in those majors say is great. </p>

<p>Grad School/Career opportunities
Despite what you might think, Geneseo is a real recognizable brand for grad schools and even for large employers. In many grad school interviews, they've told me how respected Geneseo Alumni are and I have gotten into the top schools in my field as a result. I have friends from Geneseo who are not employed by top companies in many different fields, and in both top masters and phd programs around the country.</p>

<p>To sum up, don't waste your money going to a private liberal arts school, where the only benefit is having a nicer dorm room. Any questions are welcome :)</p>

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<p>I graduated from Geneseo a couple of years ago with honors, but I had a miserable time at Geneseo. I am not trying to dissuade readers from attending the college, but I do not want admits to be stuck at a college where they will be miserable for four years. To be clear, Geneseo is a small town. A really small town. The student population is 5,000. There is one street with all the bars. This is it. If you are looking for things to do on a Friday, which does not include drinking, you may find yourself at the College Union. After doing this for four or five times, you will get bored. If you are looking for international food, you will need a car. Geneseo has none. The food it does have-- is not very good. There is not really any diversity at Geneseo. The population is ninety percent white. This is not a bad thing, but if you are minority and looking for an ethnically diverse school-- this is not the school for you. The library closes early, and they have only one library. There is no library which is open 24 hrs. If you are a city person, which I am, I suggest you make this decision carefully because you will be living at this place for 4 years. It is gray for about 5 months of the year-- not like New York City where the sun shines even in winter. It is academically challenging, but the name brand isn’t so great that (NYU, Cornell, Columbia) people outside of New York state know where you will have graduated from. This is just some food for thought-- if you are ever working for a corporation and people ask you where you earned your degree, you will say Geneseo and they will be like what? This doesn’t really matter to me a lot, but it doesn’t kind of suck where everyone knows where USC, UVA, NYU, and Cornell are, and they have no idea about Geneseo. Then again, a degree is a degree.</p>

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<p>Hi you guys, </p>

<p>I am an international student and I have just been accepted to Geneseo with a $5000 scholarship. The idea of going to college for peanuts seems really attractive to my parents and graduating with 0 debt is also an appealing idea. It was nice to read both of your comments and see how vastly different they are. I am very seriously considering Geneseo because of the high class academics. </p>

<p>Dmurph, I am amazed because I am taking the EXACT same majors IR and Economics. I would really like to know a bit more about Geneseo in these two deparments. One thing I am concerned about is grad school and how they view Geneseo grads. I really want to get into an excellent grad school. I have been accepted to other places where the “name” is well recognized (its NYU). But spending $200,000 and more versus spending $90,000 is really no contest. I digress, but what I really want to know how grad schools view Geneseo, if sthes academics are really has hyped up as they are, and life in general. </p>

<p>Thanks a lot :)</p>

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<p>Seananners,
Both the IR and Economics departments are amazing at Geneseo, both in different ways. The economics program is very small, which means you have the complete attention of the economics professors, and also you get to become really close with all the other economics majors. Because econ is so difficult, nightly study groups become the norm for you and your classmates, and you become really close with them while you help eachother in succeeding on the next intermediate micro test :slight_smile: Also as I mentioned before, the Fed Challenge is a a great economics competition that Geneseo participates in, and Geneseo always comes out near the top of the country. In 2007 I even met Ben Bernanke in DC as we were competing against Harvard and Northwestern for top in the country.</p>

<p>The IR program is bigger, but no less good. I was challenged, particularly in the upperlevel courses, and the major gives you enough flexibility to follow your interests. For example, I did Global Political Economy, which allowed me to count some upper-level econ courses for my IR degree. My internship at the Department of Commerce also counted in this major. The professors are great, and I went with one of them to Russia with some other students in the summer after my freshman year.</p>

<p>As I wrote before, the top grad schools see Geneseo in the same light as schools like NYU, which you mentioned. I have gotten accepted to the following since graduation: Tufts Fletcher School, Johns Hopkins SAIS, George Washington’s Elliott School, and Georgetown’s Walsh School. If you know anything about these programs, you know they are the top in the country for graduate work in international relations</p>

<p>To respond to what Krazydawgindave wrote, yes, if you feel that you need to be in a city or large town to have fun, then Geneseo will be boring for you, the nearest city is 40 minutes away. But I was always able to find things to do and never once went to a college union event. And as an upperclassmen, I didn’t go out too much anyway because of the workload. If you are looking to have international food everynight, its also not the place for you, but every couple weeks I’d drive up to Rochester with some friends and go for sushi or something. It is true that the school is mostly white, but there are lots of international students and Asians are especially visible around the school.</p>

<p>Hope this helps, and Seananners I hope you decide on Geneseo. If any more questions come up feel free to ask</p>

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<p>That depends what your definition of an “excellent” grad school for IR is.
Economics is pretty standard at Geneseo (but I highly suggest the fed challenge like the first poster did - if you’re remotely interested in econ, it’s a fantastic club and team, possibly the best at geneseo).
IR and Poli Sci at geneseo have absolutely no name or clout and you need to distinguish yourself otherwise. There’s like 6 professors for 400+ majors from when I last remember - an atrocious ratio.</p>

<p>Even if you have a 4.0, you can pretty much forget about SIPA and Woodrow Wilson. You can however, go to most tier one IR programs not exactly at the very top.
OP got into some exceedingly good grad schools, but I wouldn’t take their experience as average.
Having said that, I don’t think going to NYU would be significantly better than Geneseo in terms of grad school.</p>

<p>I’d like to note here that while OP put in his last post that econ here is very difficult, it’s really nothing special.
I honestly found intermediate macro to be a joke and don’t think I’m going to be significantly more challenged in intermediate micro.
The program is also cut off very quickly. Many of my friends at private schools will take advanced econometrics, labor economics, political economy, international trade, economics of the internet, etc.
Econometrics is about as advanced as you get.</p>

<p>However, you’ll find that in almost every department here. Geneseo is cash strapped and you’ll feel that very very quickly.</p>

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<p>I think it’s the same for every IR program in the country though for undergrad, bioblade, you need to distinguish yourself because of the sheer volume of students graduating in IR these days :slight_smile: And Geneseo give you the ability to distinguish yourself. Geneseo IR/Polisci has 8 fulltime professors plus adjuncts, for 400 combined Polisci and IR majors. Once you take into account that the IR program is interdisciplinary and only about half their courses are taught by polisci faculty, the ratio isn’t too bad. but you are right, it is a different feel from the econ program since you may not know many of your fellow majors, but once you specialize (global political economy, Latin america, europe, etc), you will be taking lots of classes with the same people.
yeah my experience isn’t average, but i worked hard and made my opportunities, like you will need to at any undergrad. even if you go to an ivy league, i dont think you will get into tier 1 grad schools with a C average and no extracurriculars.</p>

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<p>Thank you for all of your replies, but the water seems muddier than before. All of this information is very conflicting, but in a sense its good because I have multiple perspectives on the situation. Some other posters on CC told me that the specific university from which I obtain my undergrad degree will matter less than my performance at that university. </p>

<p>@Bioblade: Are you a current/former Geneseo student? Why is it improbable for Geneseo students to get into schools such as SIPA? I have high aspirations for post-grad, perhaps making up for some of my slacking off and disappointment in high-school. I want to make sure that simply a perception, or lack of prestige of my university does not harm my future opportunities even if end up doing very well at Geneseo. </p>

<p>By the way dmurph, congratulations on getting accepted into schools such as Georgetown and Johns Hopkins, I hope really hope I can aim for schools in the very top tier after I graduate.</p>

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<p>What do your guys hear from psychology majors at Geneseo? Are they happy with their profs/courses/future opportunities? Do class siszes get reasonable after intro level? Enough courses? (My son is interested).</p>

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<p>Another question: Can you comment on Geneseo’s distribution requirements? They seem pretty rigorous to me,at brief glance. How easy is it to fulfill the language rquiement (if there is one), for someone for whom language is not a passion? Ditto about the lab science and math requirements?</p>

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<p>monydad, unfortunately I don’t have much knowledge of the psychology program, but I have not heard anything bad about it. I do know that it is mostly females in that major, if that makes it any more enticing for your son :slight_smile: The list of classes is here <a href=“http://courses.geneseo.edu/spring/Psychology.txt[/url]”>http://courses.geneseo.edu/spring/Psychology.txt&lt;/a&gt; You can see that at the upper level, the class sizes vary from 15-40 students.</p>

<p>Yeah at first glance the core requirements can be much, but lots of students use AP credit for them. The language requirement is three college semesters, which is roughly equivalent to through junior year in high school in that language. Most students don’t have a problem with it, and I actually started over in Russian. Science, Labs, and Math also aren’t bad, there are lots of courses designed for non-majors in these areas, so they are pretty painless.</p>

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<p>@seananners
I’m a current student, but I know quite a bit about admissions for grad schools due to my aunt working on the admissions committee for some of them (I mentioned WW and SIPA because she worked in both of those). It’s improbable because a 4.0 at Geneseo simply means you were better than almost everybody here… while you might be in the middle of your class at somewhere like Stanford and with the same amount of work you might only have a 3.4 there. Basically, peak potential at Geneseo just isn’t high enough (I have a 4.0 and it only takes a mild amount of effort, in the 15-20 hours a week range. I spend more time on clubs and social activities than I do on my studies).
Now, for things like Law, well, then school (after a certain point) or major doesn’t really matter. It’s in your best interest to major in the easiest thing possible and get the highest GPA possible. Schools like Harvard publish where their incoming class is coming from (what college) and its a wide range of schools (but not the absolute worst). Your school does matter, but Geneseo is good enough for name not to matter - only your GPA and LSAT. If law is what you’re into (and you’re SURE you want to do it), pick one of the easier major (please no communications or art history - you don’t wanna be stuck with a useless degree if law doesn’t work out) and study for those LSATs. Other grad schools, well, yeah, name of the school matters, but experience and motivation matter, too. You won’t get into SIPA or WW regardless of college unless you have experience in say the state dept. or at the UN (experience which is easier to come by if you study/live in DC or NYC rather than Geneseo). I wouldn’t say its impossible to get into these schools from Geneseo, but you have to really want it and go for it. You’d be that one kid who got into Yale Law 7 years ago rather than one of the 10 who got in last year.</p>

<p>@monydad
There’s a lot of bio/premed dropouts in the psych dept., but in general its really good. A majority of the professors are top notch and really care about their students. It’s very easy to get research exp. in the psych dept.</p>

<p>As for the core, like dmurph said, it’s not too bad to fulfill. Taking the equivalent of a language to a fourth level in high school (like I did) places you out of the requirement without any AP tests. If you took any language in high school to say the third year, you’d most likely just be taking one semester of language 201 here. The rest of the core isn’t too bad. Humanities I and II are probably of the more work intensive, a lot of reading/writing, but you can place out of that if you study abroad and stuff. The natural science and labs aren’t that bad, like dmurph said, there’s usually an intro to science class for majors and non-majors, with non-majors being much less intense. You can take stuff like astronomy to fulfill it also. Social sciences are pretty easy to fulfill, you need a
US history class (which counts as both US hist and social science) and take something like anthro that counts as both multicultural and social science and you have 3 requirements out of the way right there. Fine arts is just taking two art history/art studio/theatre classes - they’re generally easy and nice ways to boost your GPA. I think the last requirement is numerical reasoning, which is a math/comp sci class. It shouldn’t take much of your son’s time. Majors here don’t require too many credits as it is (like 30-40) and he’d probably finish the core through the amount of electives he would take.</p>

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<p>@Bioblade </p>

<p>Thanks for your input regarding prospects into future IR fields. How do you feel about those thinking of business school? Im not yet sure what I want to pursue in post-grad; whether it be poli sci. IR, Law, or Business. Are there students from Geneseo being accepted into the highest business schools such as Harvard, Stanford, and Stern?</p>

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<p>Business school doesn’t work like that. The majority of those at HBS, SBS and Stern have a few years work experience - hardly anyone goes in right after college. A majority of people going there have went to some BB bank before. Unfortunately, I don’t think any BB banks recruit on campus at Geneseo, so you’re at a disadvantage there. Unless you have connections or really are motivated and get lucky, you’ll have to look at a slightly less prestigious school (at least for HBS and SBS, not Stern). Top 10 or top 20 shouldn’t be too bad for business school if you work hard at Geneseo and get nice work experience after. Top 5 isn’t impossible, but harder. Remember if you want to work in finance, it’s an arrogant, prestige-oriented industry, where the Ivies are in extreme representation (the alumni networks reallly help there).
So no, not many (if any) Geneseo grads go to HBS right after graduation. Then again, not many people from Harvard undergrad go, either.</p>

<p>Law’s probably the easiest to break into. They don’t really look at your school name too much.</p>

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<p>dmurph
You mentioned you studied abroad in Russia for two summers. Which programs did you do and what were they like.</p>

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<p>Geneseo History, yes I studied abroad twice in Russia. The first time I did it directly through SUNY Geneseo. You can see the academics of that program here [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.sunysystemabroad.com/programs.php]SUNY”&gt;http://www.sunysystemabroad.com/programs.php]SUNY</a> Administration Approval Account Login<a href=“scroll%20down%20to%20Russia”>/url</a>.
It was amazing, and really opened my eyes to the wider world, different culture, etc and was lots of fun. I enjoyed it so much that i decided to do it a second summer. For this one I enrolled myself in an intensive language program in Russia over the internet, and filled out the necessary forms at Geneseo so that the credits would count and so that I could get financial aid. Geneseo was really helpful with this. Again, I had an amazing time and my two summers in Moscow count among the best times in my life.<br>
Geneseo has lots of study abroad programs, and it will also help you if you want to study abroad individually or through a different program.</p>

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<p>Okay late post, but Dmurph props to you man. I just got my acceptance packet from Geneseo and you seem to be on it :)</p>

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<p>dmurph - its a long shot, but when you were in the program in Moscow, did you know a student that went to Truman State in Missouri?</p>

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<p>fallenchemist - No, but I went back in 2006 with the SUNY program, maybe this person went another year.</p>

<p>Seananers - congrats! I hope you decide to enroll</p>

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<p>Yeah, it was 2009. He loved it also though.</p>

<p>BTW, I have recommended Genesco to a number of people, based simply on reputation, reading about it, and cost to NY residents. It is very similar in many ways to Truman State in Missouri. There are few schools that represent this quality of education at such a reasonable price and are not huge.</p>

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<p>honestly krazydawgindave, it seems like you weren’t a very outgoing person and was pessimistic from the beginning because as a minority and a nyc native, i am loving geneseo and what it has to offer</p>