<p>Hi,
I applied to Suny Binghamton as a reach school. I was accepted into the Harpur college. I believe my essay is what helped me get in.</p>
<p>I really like the school, but the average GPA and SAT scores of accepted students are much higher than mine. I'm worried about not being able to get opportunities and attention from professors since I'll be at the low end of the student population. </p>
<p>Do you think it's better go to a very good school and be at the bottom of the class, or go to a less competitive school and be at a higher level?</p>
<p>My SAT score: 1770
critical reading: 620
math: 560
writing: 580
GPA: 3.2 unweighted, 3.7 weighted</p>
<p>If anyone has gone to Suny Binghamton, do you think it would be too challenging?</p>
<p>Hey sushifor2,</p>
<p>I would say go to Binghamton because even though you might be at the bottom end of the class you get a more superior education then if you go to a less academic stellar school. It’s about from where you graduate not where in the class. My teacher always told me if your the last to graduate from medical school your still called a doctor. As far as from my experience I’m an incoming freshman so I can’t help you there but you have to suit yourself. You know yourself better. Did you slack off in High School and could of done much better? Are you going to make a change and work your butt off in college? Are you going to get caught up in the party scene or distraction that are going to affect you in college? Those are just some of the things to consider when evaluating if you want to go there or not. Those are my 2 cents. Hope I helped.</p>
<p>You know yourself best but I tend to agree with the previous post. If your major requires a lot of math classes maybe you should consider taking a summer class to prepare yourself. I hear Binghamton provides lots of opportunities for tutors and study groups. Take advantage of them. Also take advantage of academic advising to help you pick a major that is well suited to your strengths. Best of luck to you and congratulations.</p>
<p>I agree with the other two posts also. I slacked off in high school and had the same stats as you but a lower GPA. I wanted to apply to binghamton, it was my dream school but my family told me it would be a waste to apply because they didn’t think I had a chance of getting in so I ended up at Oneonta. Don’t get me wrong, Oneonta is still a good school but the students at Oneonta are more into partying than doing their work which is why I knew I had to transfer out. So I spent this year really focusing on my grades and not slacking off. I applied to binghamton, was accepted last week and will be transferring there next year. Only you know if you slacked off in high school so be honest with yourself. If you feel that you can work much harder in college like I said I just did then make it an effort to do that. I also look at it as they wouldn’t have accepted you if they didn’t feel you were qualified. They don’t want to admit students who they think won’t be able to handle the work and then drop out. I didn’t think I’d be capable of the work at Oneonta but I focused and did really well. Good luck with your decision!</p>
<p>I think you are selling yourself short. Tons of kids get into, and ultimately attend, their “reach” schools and excel. Don’t think about it in terms of “I’m going to be at the bottom”. Think of it in terms of “I have a fresh start to work hard and prove that I earned my right to be a Binghamton student.” You’re going to do great!</p>
<p>Here is something to consider. Some schools submit only some of the SAT and ACT scores to the ranking services. For some schools, holding back some scores is justified (to themselves) because they claim the lower (but not higher) scores are “outliers”. I don’t know this schools formal policy. My impression is that the bulk of students at Binghamton have scores more similar to yours than you would think based on published findings.</p>
<p>Hi. My name is Rob and I’m a Binghamton University Student Ambassador.</p>
<p>Stateissue: The published numbers for Binghamton University are for the middle 50% of our students. Our Undergraduate Admissions department finds the median scores of our students, then uses that to find the median in the upper 50% and the median in the lower 50% to get a range that demonstrates our scores, excluding the lowest 25% and the highest 25%. We do not compute a single average, so it is impossible for such a practice as you described to take place. An equal percentage of students from both the “high” and “low” side of the spectrum are removed in order to give applicants the best possible look at what would represent an “average” score range in each sub-score for our successful applicants.</p>
<p>If you include all scores that you have and then omit the top 25% and bottom 25% you get one range. In contrast, if you first omit scores that you don’t like or think are outliers then you take the remaining scores and again omit the top and bottom 25% you end up with a different range of scores. Some schools apparently do that because they omit the scores of students who come to their school via special programs (Quest,etc) and some omit scores from International students or student for whom English is a 2nd language. They do this first. then they treat the remaining scores as if they included all the scores and the middle 50% are figured by using most but not all of the original scores. Those of the International or specialty programs disappear. Just something to consider. There are no checks on such things and we hear of programs that have blatantly lie. Of course, universities with decent ethics don’t but then how do we tell except to look at the history of a school and how they conduct themselves. Those schools that are revealed to have other problems are probably less inclined to be transparent in their admissions process.</p>