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I've heard about the amount of applicants....a lot of people who might have gone to Hostra or Post are probably applying there now. I didn't even submit an essay and I got in..and my grades weren't stellar, although my SAT and ACT were good. The mentality about it back in the late 80's when I was in High School was that it was Suffolk CC North, but I ran into many foreign exchange students who came a long way to go to Suffolk CC North.
You're right about that Center Drive deal..it's ugly to anyone coming for a visit, although have you ever seen SUNY Purchase? That's like the guy who designed Stony Brook had a bad day. Inhospitable to human life.
Have you ever been to say, the Georgia University in Athens? I took a walk around that campus once on a Sunday morning. Talk about the opposite of Stony Brook.
Anyway, the NY State school system is excellent, it's just important that a young person have some sense of direction before getting swallowed up by it.
Haven't had the 'pleasure' of visiting SUNY Purchase and your description puts it on my short list of 'don't bother visiting' LOL I started out at SUNY Albany -- which was white, but now is dirty concrete all over the place. Nice and compact for a large campus, but miserably dingy.
Haven't had the 'pleasure' of visiting SUNY Purchase and your description puts it on my short list of 'don't bother visiting' LOL I started out at SUNY Albany -- which was white, but now is dirty concrete all over the place. Nice and compact for a large campus, but miserably dingy.
Ah, Albany, another brilliant design. Let's see, let's make the center of the campus a water fountain....in a climate where it's under 40 degrees for 6 months out of the year and hence the students see a dismal empty fountain for most of the academic year.
We have a ton of land, but hey, let's build 4 11 story towers as dorms!!! Seriously, what drugs were the people who designed Albany on? Another concrete nightmare.
The SUNY Purchase campus is hideous. Has every example of the worst of 1970 architecture. Most SB buildings are no bargain either, but the effort they have made to landscape the campus makes a huge difference. Much nicer than Purchase.
Does anyone want to weigh in on the new conference center and hotel that they are planning to build next to the main entrance? This idea has been discussed for years but the new president has announced that the university is moving forward with the project.
I was living on campus in the early 80's while you were still negotiating the halls at WM, perhaps even RCM. (OK, I'm an old lady LOL) My husband's family has lived in the neighborhood immediately behind Tabler from the 60's well into the 90's and a fair number of my friends are alumni and alumna, as well as immediate neighbors.
DH had friends who were campus safety, and heard an awful lot of accounts from them. Books could be written -- drugs, drinking, stupid behavior -- things which are not exclusive to SUSB by any means.
I could tell you stories about drug use in the dorms, in my case - Kelly Quad. Pot, hash, shrooms, LSD, and coke were the most popular. Not that any dorms were immune from it, but the UN (the nickname for Stage back then) would have been least susceptible as it had the greatest concentration of serious-minded, foreign students. G&H were party central back then. 'Back then' being the operative words as things have changed in the years since I've been off campus.
I returned as an adult student in the late 90's. Things were much different than they were in the early-mid 80's. The change in drinking age has impacted the way students do/don't party on campus. Dorm security was non existent in my earlier time on campus, but was fully implemented the second time around. Walkways are much better lit, there is an increase in campus police cruising the area. Street entries are closed after a certain time at night, allowing visitors to enter through one point, not three points like we once had.
As with any self contained 'city' it is not without problems, but the school is doing it's best to keep problems to a minimum. There's only so much that they can do, the rest is up to the students and their capacity to exercise common sense.
My own experience as a teenage female on campus was unremarkable. I knew to be careful not to wind up in empty, dark places, to utilize the volunteers who would walk you to your car/dorm/class after dark, not to get drunk beyond belief, never to let one's cup leave their hand -- and if it did, to get a new one. Common sense thing which apply to women everywhere -- not just on campus.
Yes, all big institutions have great damage control, but all you have to do is walk into a local shop and pick up a copy of the Statesman to have a much better idea as to what is happening on campus. Better still, the campus police have a crime statistics and reports page. Here's 2007, the most recent year available:
On campus:
http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/Admin/HRSForms.nsf/pub/UPDD0013/$FILE/UPDD0013.pdf
Off campus:
http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/Admin/HRSForms.nsf/pub/UPDD0016/$FILE/UPDD0016.pdf
My oldest has applied to SUSB, among other schools. I have no issue with him being on campus whatsoever, if he is accepted and opts to go there.
Getting back on topic, to the OP:
Your child can do well at SUSB, provided he has a good head on his shoulder, exercises some common sense if he lives on campus, and has a good idea as to the direction he wishes to take. The school has a huge student population, many of whom are eager to be the top and will be fiercely competitive. There are also the students who are there, flounder and then drop out.
Best of luck to him and his decision.
Duly noted and respected OBH .
Really, you heard nothing about rapes in the 80s and 90s?
Im surprised.
Heres one that made it past the department of equity protection. Rape Charge Splits Stony Brook Campus - The New York Times
Most of the stuff was kept out of the papers back then but there was plenty of buzz in the neighborhoods nearby.
Im glad theyve got it under wraps.
Peace
Crooks
PS
FWIW I tend to wax nostalgic for my school too.
Sounds like I was crashing dorm parties at G fest while you were there.
I miss Fall Fest, Station Pizza and the bridge to nowhere.
I heard about rapes when I was going there in the early 90's. They had a "walkers" program where you could sign up to offer people walks back to their dorms from late night classes.
But as with any college campus, you had date rape issues going on there with the drinking and debauchery. I guy I know was arrested for urinating in the stairwell of G-quad, as he well deserved to be.
I heard about rapes when I was going there in the early 90's. They had a "walkers" program where you could sign up to offer people walks back to their dorms from late night classes.
But as with any college campus, you had date rape issues going on there with the drinking and debauchery. I guy I know was arrested for urinating in the stairwell of G-quad, as he well deserved to be.
Thank you.
Im not making this crap up.
It was a grim reality back then.
I was a Grad Student during 00-06 period. And I visited the campus often until 08 for research. Granted my experience is very different from an undergrad, but here are my two cents:
Campus has been beautified and deforested in the last decade. You have more buildings, a lot of renovations already mentioned. Campus looks much better than six years ago. Wang center is nice but it is almost always empty.
From what I saw among undergrad students, you don't really get that "I belong" feeling. I guess it is because of being a commuter school. Once in a class I was teaching, a student asked a pen from me during an exam. I didn't have any on me, so I told him to ask from his friends. He said he doesn't have any friends. It was in a class of 70. I felt bad for him. Later on, I recognized that few knew each other. So it is really easy to get lost. Both academically and socially.
Also most of the classes are taught by grad students. You may stay four years and not even once take a class from a professor. Not that it is always a bad thing, but you are really on your own. Especially if you are planning to continue your education after college, it is really a big disadvantage. It is very difficult to get recommendation or find necessary contacts with minimal interaction with professors.
Also the food is really overpriced.
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Inhospitable to human life. 
