Why does an area like Long Island have such crappy Colleges/Universities? (Albany: 2014, school districts)
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Long Island has some of the best performing school districts in the nation as well as some of the highest levels of affluence but there is only one remotely good university on Long Island [Stony Brook Univ].
The next tier down is HofstraU and AdelphiU but they charge you up the butt and they're tuition is around $35k if they didn't already hit $40k and they are not selective at all. The only times it makes sense to drop that kind of money on a school is if it's a highly-ranked school or if your parents are filthy rich and you don't wanna go away to school. These schools are "ok" AT BEST.
Then you have Farmingdale State College which is also "ok". Sadly, they don't offer graduate degrees which would really be helpful since they're right over near Melville where a lot of people work.
Everything else on LI is not that reputable at all.. by any stretch of the imagination.. though some may have a couple of programs that are alright. It's annoying b/c for somebody considering graduate schools, the only choice is an online school or an overpriced mediocre school. No offense to any students&alumni of these schools but lets just be honest with ourselves.
Last edited by PrestigiousReputability; 01-17-2014 at 04:43 PM..
Hofstra was pretty good in the 1980s when I went there but now it seems like a real party school. Too many of the stories in the news these days about the school are more about bad behavior than academic excellence.
There's such a market for expensive private colleges among the "keeping up with the Joneses" set (which, let's be honest, populates a good portion of Long Island) that the colleges don't need to be particularly good to keep enrollment high. Especially when you have helicopter parents who don't want their precious babies going too far away from the nest.
Why is it mindboggling? You're looking at the here and now but failing to take into account the way LI took shape. 100 years ago LI was farmland, fishing villages, or estates of the uber wealthy. Chances are, the farmer and fisherman's children would follow in their father's trade. The well-to-do in the small villages might have sent their children to universities or colleges in 'big' cities. The elite wealthy could afford to send their children to the most prestigious schools.
Both Hofstra and Adelphi were part of other institutions before becoming chartered, independent schools. Hofstra, fwiw, was originally affiliated with NYU. When each moved to their present locations, these areas (Uniondale and Garden City) were on the edge of farmland. They were small. In the case of Adelphi, which is much older, it was adversely impacted by the depression. Post WWII, it educated men on the GI bill. Unlike much older, established universities, Adelphi appears to have needed to change course a number of times in an effort to adapt to the economic & political climate.
Farmingdale was an agricultural college for 75 years, and given the numbers of farms on LI, it made sense. I believe the word 'agriculture' was removed from the name in the late 80's.
SBU (1957 was founded as a teachers college) is the baby of the batch and thanks to Ward Melville's largesse, was able to relocate and grow into what you've deemed the "remotely good" institution it is today. US News, Forbes, Times Higher Education, and other publications, rate it very high.
Given our proximity to NYC and our pre WWII history, there's no way an Ivy caliber school would have grown here.
Rankings and reputations of universities fluctuate as well. Compare the reputation of Albany in the 1970s with the present day. There was a time when NYU was a bottom dweller.
Why is it mindboggling? You're looking at the here and now but failing to take into account the way LI took shape. 100 years ago LI was farmland, fishing villages, or estates of the uber wealthy. Chances are, the farmer and fisherman's children would follow in their father's trade. The well-to-do in the small villages might have sent their children to universities or colleges in 'big' cities. The elite wealthy could afford to send their children to the most prestigious schools.
Both Hofstra and Adelphi were part of other institutions before becoming chartered, independent schools. Hofstra, fwiw, was originally affiliated with NYU. When each moved to their present locations, these areas (Uniondale and Garden City) were on the edge of farmland. They were small. In the case of Adelphi, which is much older, it was adversely impacted by the depression. Post WWII, it educated men on the GI bill. Unlike much older, established universities, Adelphi appears to have needed to change course a number of times in an effort to adapt to the economic & political climate.
Farmingdale was an agricultural college for 75 years, and given the numbers of farms on LI, it made sense. I believe the word 'agriculture' was removed from the name in the late 80's.
SBU (1957 was founded as a teachers college) is the baby of the batch and thanks to Ward Melville's largesse, was able to relocate and grow into what you've deemed the "remotely good" institution it is today. US News, Forbes, Times Higher Education, and other publications, rate it very high.
Given our proximity to NYC and our pre WWII history, there's no way an Ivy caliber school would have grown here.
Yes I know that. They did not publish a map of the top 100.
My reply was a touch sarcastic (hence the 'only placed') and geared toward prestigious' assertion that SBU is a 'remotely good' school. I quoted your post because the placement could be obtained through the site you provided.
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