I am planning on applying for the Macaulay Honors Program as a Computer Science BS major. I live in state (not in NYC). I have been trying to narrow down college choices to apply for as you can apply for two Macaulay college choices.
My Considerations:
1st Choice: City College (CCNY)
This is definitely my first choice in the program. It has the only dedicated engineering school in the CUNY system. I also visited the campus and loved the campus, environment, and all of the resources available to students. It was also nice to be in Manhattan and near the Macaulay campus where required seminars are.
2nd Choice: I’m between three schools. I am leaning toward Brooklyn College however am also considering Staten Island and Queens. However Brooklyn I felt had better campus living and activities and the other two have the disadvantage of being far into the outer boroughs. Is transportation an issue from either one (I am not very familiar with NYC transportation)? Is there any specific reason Staten Island or Queens would be better choices over Brooklyn? I haven’t had the chance in person any of these three schools but did research on them.
Other Macaulay schools include:
Lehman
John Jay
Hunter
Baruch
Those four did not seem like good matches though because of their liberal arts focus or very small campus sizes.
First of all, congratulations for considering the Macaulay Honors College, especially as a student outside of the boroughs. I wish more NYS students knew about the program!
You are correct that City College is the best bet for technical studies, though you don’t need to worry about being close to the Macaulay campus. All required seminars are offered on your home campus, with select additional honors courses available at Macaulay central (you need four honors classes in addition to your four macaulay seminars to graduate, which can also be completed at your home campus). The only reason to consider proximity to Macaulay’s upper west side location is if you are interested in consistent extracurricular activities, though as a Hunter student I’d agree that a Manhattan campus is a sound choice.
Brooklyn is absolutely beautiful, and its campus is reminiscent of Harvard. Transportation into the city from Brooklyn is not an issue–subways abound, though be mindful of the areas you traverse to get from campus to the subway. I highly recommend visiting the campus.
Although SI has tech-oriented programs, transportation into Manhattan from there is unfortunate and limited to the ferry (pretty views of the Statue of Liberty, but wildly inconvenient). If you’re looking for ease of access to the city proper, I’d recommend against Staten Island.
Queens is remote–you’re looking at an hour commute to Macaulay by subway at the best of times, with lots of transfers.
I’d recommend taking a second look at Hunter. Hunter is known for its humanities, social sciences, and nursing programs, but that in no way means that the comp-sci program is lacking. Plenty of my fellow Mac@Hunter students enjoy the program. If you have any external interests, the film and media department are blessed with extraordinary technology, and are worth considering as a minor (you’ll find that most Macaulay students take a second (or third!) major or a minor, as we tend to come in with plenty of credits already taken care of. Also noteworthy: Hunter provides free dorming for the first two years of study, with a very minimal charge for future semesters. Housing is at the Brookdale campus, which provides a stellar honors community. I believe that the other campuses with housing (City, Brooklyn, etc.) provide a discount for their honor students, but can’t confirm. Brooklyn’s housing is a seven minute walk from campus through a suburban neighborhood.