<p>Format similar to:</p>
<p>Like:
Academics
Location</p>
<p>Dislike:
Food</p>
<p>I just ask that you are much more detailed in your comments than the example and that this thread does not turn into a flame/bashing thread.</p>
<p>And if you wonder why I start this thread, I'm trying to think if I want to go to Stony over my other options.</p>
<p>Like:
Convenience of Train on campus</p>
<p>Dislike:
Convenience of Train on campus</p>
<p>The reason being that EVERYBODY leaves for the weekends because the train is right there on campus. Which is great if you like to, but for those weekends where there’s some reason you have to stay, there’s nobody there, including professors and meal people.</p>
<p>meal people? You mean the ones that serve the foods? Theres plenty of things still open on weekends just at reduced times because they expect most people to sleep in anyhow.</p>
<p>Like:
Reputation
Academics
Location
Housing</p>
<p>Dislikes:
Social atmosphere</p>
<p>My friend’s son just started his freshman year at Stony Brook. He realizes now that the rumors he heard about most students leaving the campus on the weekends are true. The dorms clear out. </p>
<p>He loves the classes, but dorm life comes to a halt on weekends. Many, many students go home on the weekends.</p>
<p>This is certainly true. However, as time passes, he will meet more residential students that are from afar (there is certainly no shortage).</p>
<p>Even though it’s early in the year, he’s resorted to following the majority by going home on the weekends (within a 45 min. drive from their home). His mom says that it’s like Grand Central Station there with the cars lining up to pick up their kids for the weekend.</p>
<p>Although I certainly never saw a line of cars like that in my time at Stony Brook, people do go home. That is fact.</p>
<p>Honestly, he should stay and get to know those who do not go home on weekends.</p>
<p>Hi, i am an international applicant and i only have two problems with stony brook… food and weekends, although i have relatives in nyc, i dnt want to have to go bak every weekend and i can stand having to eat bad food everyday of the week!</p>
<p>The food really isn’t that bad. I survived for four years, and I eat fairly healthy.</p>
<p>I applied there but I could tell you that the cons would probably be, crowded classrooms and only 45% of their students graduate in 4 years.</p>
<p>@Columbia09 can you tell me why the graduation % is so low after 4 years? Is it really difficult to get the required classes? Also wondering about the typical size of some of the classes, say for pre med students.</p>
<p>The rate is so low because the university is so poorly run and the student body is not prepared for the disorder that is the university.</p>
<p>Can you give most specifics? Interested in any details you could provide.</p>
<p>It is just a place of misery. Have you checked out the thread with the many critiques of the university, including mine? </p>
<p>The university suffers from a student population that doesn’t give a ***** about the university because the student population is from Long Island and the leave whenever they can. Why? I don’t know. This does not allow for a campus to grow and, well, become a campus. In other words, complacency flourishes here much more easily than other places. Two, the university suffers from an incompetent staff who do not care about the students. They are there for a job and are not interested in the student experience. These are people from Long Island, what do you expect? Three, the university is terribly underfunded so classes are cut and resources are not available. If you are a transfer student or change your major, life can become harder because the change is not easy. </p>
<p>The campus is also in the worst possible place for a university to be in addition to it being aesthetically very ugly and unappealing. This just adds to an uninspiring experience.</p>
<p>Nonname -</p>
<p>Your generalizations are astonishing. The staff doesn’t care because they’re from LI? Well, where else SHOULD the staff be from? Wisconsin? New Delhi? The budget cuts are all over public schools.</p>
<p>As for the comments by you and others as to SB being a “suitcase school” - you are right. It’s been that way since my H went there in the 70’s; he left every weekend to work to earn his tuition money. All of my D’s friends who’ve started at SB in the past 3 years have transferred out.</p>
<p>My D refused to apply because she did not want to face the unrelenting pressure from my H for her to come home every weekend. Instead, she’s at an upstate SUNY with a nice percentage of LI’ers, who do not go home for the weekends. I also agree with you that SB is a hideously ugly campus.</p>
<p>If you’re not happy at SB, transfer. Nobody is holding you hostage.</p>
<p>That’s not actually what I said. </p>
<p>I graduated.</p>
<p>@nonname, Thanks for the info. Yes I have been reading quite a bit here the last few months. What really concerned me was the budget cutbacks the SUNY system has been hit with, and the lack of funding available to a school like Stonybrook. I was really concerned with some of the stories I have heard about some classes having 500, 600, 700+ kids, not to mention tripling students in the dorms. What about the social life? Is it easy to make friends on campus. I’ve heard all the stories about the commuters leaving, and the NYC kids leaving on the weekends, but what about during the week? Are the kids there open, and friendly, or do they keep to themselves. Any other info from anyone else would be appreciated. Thanks!</p>
<p>What is so bad about the food ?</p>
<p>I never experienced such big classes. And, yes, the budget cuts are a real problem. Tripling is a horrible experience unless the three roommates become friends. There is no social life, at least no enjoyable social life at this place. In all honesty, I would just not even consider this place. You could learn about this place forever and debate the pros and cons forever. The fact is it is not a well run and fun school. Ignore all of the marketing by the school itself. It is consistently ranked as one of the most miserable campuses in the country precisely because it is. Just believe me and stop considering this place. Go anywhere else. Think about what Joan52 says. All of her daughter’s friends who went there transferred out. All of them.</p>