The State University of New York Binghamton

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[ Social Life, Extra-curricular, Activities ]
This school's social life can be justified in both positive and negative aspects. Yes, the stereotypical cliques exist, but that doesn't mean people don't want to be friends with you. Amazingly, this college does have some diversity despite its party title. I do not party, and although I would appreciate going to one, to be honest I haven't found the need to.

It's difficult to make any final generalizations. I've read the other reviews and I believe it comes down to either luck or personal ambition ('college experience is what you make out of it'). Whether you end up in the higher-probability of encountering party-goers dorms such as Newing, Dickinson and CIW or the supposed 'antisocial' (correct definition: unsocial) dorms of Mountainview, the type of people you meet comes down to luck most of the time. I unfortunately have had the pleasure of meeting very, very nice people. Some the most creative, knowledgeable, jocular, interesting, etc. It was a diverse social plane.

I base this fact off of my experience this year and my experience last year. I am a shy person myself, but over time met very nice people. My first year I believe to be a total bust. I had my mind set on transferring and even though I still have those thoughts, I have my own skepticism of actually running with it. My floor... I befriended noone other than one of my roommates (in mountainview). It was a shitty social experience. Mostly everyone (on my floor) just wanted to go out and party, get drunk etc. Some of them I've never even met before or even seen.

Being an engineering major, I did encounter people I'd like to be friends with. The type of people who don't party but would not mind at all to chill for the most part (though some of my friends do party, drink etc., they don't depend on it to have a good time). Some time next semester, we plan on going skiing (which is only a 30 minute drive away), probably play some video-games, sledding (the hills are amazing here), etc. I digress.

I can't give any insight on the party scene because I haven't been to any. I do know a person that changed for the worse because of it, and I do know people that are still nice despite it.

You could argue there is nothing to do on campus because... there isn't. Keep in mind that there are really nice although unusual clubs out there i.e. Circus arts, DDR club, the FUN club, some good physical facilities (a small gym, but good equipment), active basketball sessions (always potential for some of the most incredible players I've ever seen anyway), busy tennis courts, crew, etc.

Anyway, back to social-life... I do know people that have had the misfortune of encountering the worst people and for that they are going to transfer. Even though I've had a good social experience, I'm going to say it comes down to luck whether you meet nice people or not. As with probably any college, you have to overcome your own shyness to meet new people and if you don't meet a nice person then screw them... if you do, then good for you. From a biased standpoint, I'm going to say 95% of the people I've actually tried to talk to are nice (people at the gym [some meatheads, some average], people in my engineering classes, people at 'Late-nite', people at an Extra curricular club [mind you I've never been to a party]).

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[ Education Quality ]
The thing that would get me to transfer out of bing is the education quality. Okay, it's good for the most part. I do learn a lot. I know my digital logic (IC chips, gates, flip flops, registers), C programming (pointers), calculus I II and III, etc. They were taught sufficiently. I do consider myself knowledgeable. Somehow I don't believe it's enough...

I do like it when professors encourage students to read the textbook though for some material. My history class I took as a gen. ed. encouraged me to do so, but I'm not convinced my engineering classes have as much. Maybe physics back in Freshman Spring, but the class watered down the potentially most difficult subject in mechanics -- Thermodynamics (I busted my a** learning material only to find out to my own discomfort only half of thermo. appeared on the exam :( ).

I don't know. I do believe that students have a lot of control in the way classes are taught because of the end-of-the-semester professor evaluations. Perhaps too much control.

In the end, I do believe grade-chasing is a term to classify the education quality here at Bing. People aren't as much concerned about learning the material as they are obtaining the golden 4.0. (I've personally emailed a professor to satisfy my own passion in mathematics discussing random puzzles he likes to throw at us. He threw them at his students without potentially believing anyone would actually do them)

Over time, this effect does rub off. It's like there's no such thing as passion... I'm not convinced people like to learn anymore... (Although, maybe I'm just generalizing the student body here. This is just a biased feeling I have)

I've come into contact with people from higher universities (University of Chicago, Cornell, Washington University), and they take pride in learning their material. I'm not sure if I believe Binghamton shares that kind of passion.

---Binghamton's a good all around college. If you're looking for a pretty much modest but essential college experience, Binghamton's there. You can have the most unusual but thrilling experiences if you desire (I'm going to go out on a limb and say go CIW[dorm community] if you want an unusually interesting experience). Education is good while not certainly astounding and social life is OK while being a gamble. Keep in mind you do meet people all over the social spectrum here. The drunk, the insane study people, the nerds, the 'internet', the philosophical, the average college guy, the potheads... etc. From my own personal experience, I'll say it's been alright for the most part. I don't want to jinx my luck though...