I’m a current junior at Binghamton and would love to help some people interested in the college find out more about it! Info not from website, journal or the school itself but from a current student. Hopefully my responses, in additions to others on this forum and on other sites, will help you in your search.
A little about me: Like I said I’m a third-year student at Binghamton and I’m enrolled in Harpur. I will be living off-campus soon, I’m involved in one of the professional fraternities on campus and also involved in a SA chartered group on campus. I initially during my college search did not want to come to Bing but after I chose it due to its price, I fell in love with the school and am very happy where I ended up.
Feel free to ask about classes, campus, downtown, greek life, offices, parking, weather, anything!
Most parties are downtown, at a frat or a house, but you’ll definitely find pre-games and stuff at Newing. There aren’t many full-blown parties in the dorms just because, y’know, they’re dorms and people live and study there and the rooms are the size of a dorm. You could walk to lecture hall from Hillside. It’s kind of a steep hill but not too bad. There’s also a bus that runs from Hillside to the union regularly.
Greek life recruitment occurs during the fall and spring semesters. Anyone can rush and attend events, but you need to be at the very minimum a second-semester freshman, which is when I pledged, or a transfer student and have a 2.5 GPA in order to officially accept any bid. Being a transfer, you would be eligible to accept any bid if you are offered one.
Like rebeccar mentioned, there are usually plenty of pregames in the dorms, primarily freshmen, but once it get to 10:30-11:30 people go to house parties or open fraternity parties. If you get involved in student groups, which I recommend a transfer should, many groups have their own exclusive parties or parties with another group (mixers). After these parties, people head to the bars around 12:30-1, they close at 3am on the weekends.
From hillside to the academic buildings isn’t too bad of a walk going down. Going up sucks a bit more because its uphill. I couldn’t imagine walking to/from hillside in bad weather though. Theres a Reslife bus which goes from the Union to different parts of campus, Mountainview, Susquehanna and then Hillside so you’d be fine.
The on-campus dorms are all diversified, anyone from freshmen-senior may live there. While there are “transfer floors” in some communities which you may request, i.e. in CIW, there’s no upperclassmen specific dorms. Resident freshmen are required to live on campus their first year. The on campus apartments, Hillside and Susquehanna, if you chose to live there, will only be sophomores-seniors, freshmen cannot live there. So you may elect to live there. However it is an apartment, you need to cook for yourself and are not required to purchase a meal plan. It is not like a typical dorm.
Usually after sophomore year students live off campus, in either apartments or houses. I’m doing such, my lease for my apartment starts in August.
@doubleo Thanks!! Also is it possible for freshman to have classes with sophomores? Like for example, a freshman that starts taking Middle East and North African Studies.
How is the Binghamton Advantage program? Is it worth it? Is there a big gap in the academics aspect of it ? Do we get to stay in the same dorms as normal Binghamton students? Is it better for me to just go to Stony Brook and then transfer to Binghamton ?
@Njoseph2015 Gmail changed last year for conformity so that all accounts use the same login screen. Just put in your regular bmail address (njosep2@binghamton.edu or whatever it is) and password on the gmail page.
@itsxin there are a few threads on this already if you want to search to get more answers. I think there’s pros and cons. I know a few people doing Binghamton Advantage and they report being fine with it; you live in the dorms at Binghamton and are fully a part of campus life. The downside, obviously, is taking classes at BCC rather than on campus here. I think it’s totally a judgment call. On the one hand, if you are positive you want to end up at Bing, this would be a good way to integrate into the campus and make friends rather than start a life at SB and then come here later (if you can even transfer for sure). On the other hand, it’s completely and totally reasonable to want to be taking classes at a 4 year college for all 4 years.
How are the fitness facilities at Binghamton? Fit-space is the main one right, and only one for weight lifting/cardio? Is it extremely busy? Nice equipment? Not sure if you go there at all, but worth asking.
Also in regards to Fraternities, I am an incoming transfer and am strongly considering rushing in the Fall… May I ask what sort of fees have come with your Fraternity? Total per year, etc? Are all the Fraternities generally around the same costs? Lastly, here at RIT and some other schools they have Fraternity “Mansions” but when I walked BU I don’t recall there being any… What kind of special housing do some of the Fraternities get?
bigred19, you might get better information by providing more specific information about what you are looking for and what your main concerns are. What is a good GPA? Are you asking if the school has grade inflation or grade deflation? Are you concerned about meeting a specific requirement to enter a different program or transfer? The more specific you are with your question the better the answers are likely to be.
@lostaccount Yes, I’m sorry, I should’ve been more specific. I have a “guaranteed transfer option” to Cornell my sophomore year. In order to do so, I must have at least a 3.3 GPA (every class can’t be lower than a B) at preferably Bing’s SOM. I would like to know more about Bing’s grade inflation/deflation as well. Thanks!
Sorry this is so specific, but yesterday I went to the admitted students open house event and I LOVED IT!
My tour guide (forgot her name), was absolutely amazing and I’m now convinced that Binghamton is the school for me.
I was on the tour with my older sister, mom and dad, and they thought she did her job well, too :).
I was wondering if maybe you could PM me her email address (if you by chance know her), or an email that I can contact to make sure that Bing knows that she did a great job?
She had jet-black hair, and she was a 3rd year psychology major (I believe she mentioned her favorite professor is Ms. Ann Merriwether. I also want to study Psychology). She was also kind of eccentric and somewhat quirky (parent’s words), and she lives off campus (she used to be a member of Dickinson?). My campus tour (the hour and 20 minute one) was around 1:00 pm or so.
The chance that you know her is slim, but I figured that since you guys are both juniors, you might know each other.