What are my chances of getting into Binghamton University?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Binghamton University - SUNY
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@Rich44

I agree as well. My son is a jr in high school and thinks he wants accounting. One never knows. However, it is absolutely insane in my opinion to spend 50 to 65 k on a private school such as NYU, Bentley, Syracuse etc when you can attend an excellent SUNY, whether it be Bing, Buffalo, Albany, Stony Brook etc. Save that money and put the additional dollars towards an MBA or MS degree.

The only thing that should be improved is the admission process. First, let me start by saying that I have not given this weeks or months of thought, but here are a few thoughts.

First, yes, Bing does receive a ton of applications. For the EA crowd, it is obvious that Bing does not have the resources to review all of the EA applications thoroughly. It is obvious that they “pick off” the 34-36 ACT students first, with a 95 gpa or a 1500 plus sat score. That is fine, but it is a shame that the 31-33 ACT students have to be deferred when those students in most cases are clearly capable of handling the work at BING not to mention some of the IVYS.

So, here are a few thoughts. I understand that budgets are tight, but can’t BING direct some resources to the admissions department and hire 5-10 more folks to review applications? I know this will not be the panacea, but it will ease the work load a bit. I understand that hiring top notch professors comes first as well as upgrading dorms etc, but I am sure they can find some money in the budget to hire a few more folks in the admissions department.

Second, I am not sure when the deadline is for BING to give an answer on EA applications, but if it is January 15th for argument sake, can’t they simply push that to February 15TH? Would that not ease the pressure a bit on the admission staff?

Third, and I know this is a radical idea, but if BING cannot process the applications in a timely fashion and really review the applications in depth, why not just do away with the EA process? After all, EA is not binding so it is not as if Bing knows how many students will really attend. They can only guess and go off of historical data. Why put off a 33 act student when you are most likely going to accept that student 6 or 8 weeks later? Why have a EA program if the admissions staff will just put a good portion of those apps into the other pile?

Finally, maybe BING should look into having ED instead of EA. This way, it will force the admissions folks to really look at the apps since it is a binding decision and will help BING out as well. They will have a number of students locked in if you will. Of all of the SUNY schools, Geneseo is the only one that I am aware of that has ED and RD.

Again, I did not put weeks or months into thinking about this, but if they hire more staff, put out the time frame a bit and maybe add in ED candidates, maybe that would help a bit.

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@euve69. Agree to defer these kids with 31-33 ACT scores seems crazy. You might take an excellent candidate than 3 months later come back and say your in, by than many will have comitted to somewhere else in their hearts and mind. They should do both EA nd ED. Enough kids have Binghamton as their top choice would do ED and the ones that Binghamton is their safety …as they apply to 6 Ivy Leaque schools will not. Right now some of those kids with a 32 or 33 proably have Binghamton as there number one choice and than they will lose them. All of it is just brutal to the students and just makes the yeild look worse. None of this is sour grapes on my part as both my kids (2 years apart) got Into Binghamton University on EA. One SOM and One Harpur. Its just the process is so dam inefficient it drives me crazy.

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@Rich44

You do bring out a very good point. We all like to be wanted. I am sure some, if not alot, of students with 32 ACT scores who get deferred are turned off and feel like a second thought if they get deferred and then get in. Nothing you can do about it, but I know I would feel that way, but it is what it is.

Just curious, your child who got into the SOM, can you share the stats. My son will be applying next year. I know each year is different, but I was curious what your childs ACT OR SAT scores were etc.

Thanks!

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How would you tell the difference between a 33 ACT kid using Binghamton as a safety, and a 33 ACT kid desperate to get in because it’s all they can / want to pay?

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34 ACT 4.3 w GPA

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Rebecca - sorry for the confusion, You proably know this so… not being condescending. Just laying it out logically. Early Decision is binding (you have to go regardless of aid, etc ) where early action is not. So if they apply ED it is not a saftey school. When it’s EA (what BU currently is) you are right there is no way to tell at all. So the ED could be seen as a progressive policy as it can help the ones where that’s all they can/ want to pay.

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It would be very upsetting to know that some kids were deferred simply because Bing had no time or resources to review their applications especially since Bing knows roughly how many apps they will get and yet they actively encourage more EA apps every year.

If this is true, they need a better system.

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Oops, my bad, it was a long day.

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STEM - interesting observation. Does a candidate have a right to expect a school to be able to process all EA decisions within the EA period so as to admit, reject or defer based on the merits of each applicant? I don’t pretend to be smart enough to know that answer. I just know that Binghamton applications aren’t decreasing like in many private schools. And I know that a lot of EA applicants are getting in within the next 4-6 weeks. In the final analysis, if a student really wants to attend, does it matter if they get their acceptance letter in January or March? If so, it is the school’s loss.

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I don’t know if anyone on here can say with 100% certainity that all the EA applications are or are not being reviewed thoroughly. That theyvare not maybe a best guess, that has been repeated on College Confidential to the point where it has been accepted as fact. Which may not turn out to be true. I have no idea.

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Rich44 - you are correct. 100% correct. I don’t know for sure. Just an educated guess. But you are correct and I hope I did not create the false illusion that my commentary is fact.

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@itsajoke - No i believe it’s been speculated on another post as well

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"Many deferrals of quality students at Binghamton. They’ll be crawling back to you when all the high stats kids they accepted go elsewhere. "

@STEM - let me ask you this then, how do you expect Binghamton to approach the EA applicants? Don’t pick the high stats kids? That’s like rejecting the pretty girl in the room before you even ask her out on a date? N’est pas?

Binghamton doesn’t have Early Decision only Early Action so they know that the decision is non-binding and students have a choice but Binghamton DOESN’T know which EA high stat applicant truly wants to go there (because they don’t want to pay $70,000/year tuition for example) or which EA high stat applicant is using it as a safety but they still want the best students they can get so of course they will try to accept all the high stat kids first.

With tuition rising 4% year with no bubble bursting I bet more and more high stats kids will stay with an in-state college with each subsequent year going forward…so I’m not so sure as you that the high stat kids will be going elsewhere like in years past. After calculating the number of acceptances from the EA applicants then Binghamton can further adjust their yield with the regular decision and EA deferred applicants.

Good Luck!

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The number of admissions applicants have increased over the last 5 yrs due to the common applications. During the dot com burst and housing crisis, The SUNY system overall received significantly more applicants and the SAT scores at the 4 University centers and the top 4 year colleges (Geneseo, New Paltz, Oneonta) jumped up those years and did not seem to come down. So yes it is also finance driven.

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When you say that cost of Bing is very attractive at 23K, don’t forget that it’s attractive mostly to the students who are also eligible for the financial aid, that is, if they receive full Pell and TAP award, the cost goes down to 13K, maybe they will also get merit aid from Bing and it will be really cheap. Now, if we are talking about students from a solid middle class to an upper middle class family, Bing might not be such a huge bargain. My son is waiting for Bing admission (Harpur), in a meanwhile, he has gotten accepted into a few private schools which have thrown generous merit aid at him which brings the cost down. I know they might not be on par with Bing, but considering that he wants to go into med school, I am inclined to pick the most cost-effective option provided they have a great pre-med preparation program. Here are a few examples of the schools he has gotten into: Allegheny with 24K merit aid per year, no minimum GPA required to keep it, the college is very unique in this respect because they want students to take classes that would let them explore and push their limits without fear of losing the $$. Hofstra 24K merit aid, Pace 24.5K, LIU honors 25K, U of Hartford Honors 24K. So if he decides to stay home and go to Hofstra or Pace, net cost will be 18K per year. I love Bing, don’t get me wrong, my two nephews graduated from Watson and are doing very well, and in terms of providing my son with a full college experience, this is most cost-effective option, but if he is not applying to SOM or Watson, is it such a big deal if he does his pre-med at another school?

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I agree, after receiving financial letter for Binghamton it looks like one of the most expensive options for my daughter (in state )

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It is certainly cheaper to stay at home. So yes staying at home and going to Stony Brook is cheaper than going to Binghamton. The other schools mentioned are genetally much lower in the overall rankings.