The State University of New York - Albany

Firstly - know yourself. Is Albany were you want to go? Also know what you want - is Albany that type of school you want spend the next four years at. Know what type of people you want to be with and what type of people you want to study with.

If you're a quiet, studious and hardworking person then you can come here (BUT ONLY IF YOU GET INTO THE HONORS COLLEGE).

To be frank, this school is only as good as the crowd it caters to. if you're a party animal with a bad attitude than this is a heaven on earth, if you're a normal person not swayed in either direction then this will be a random grab bag for you.

I never wanted to come here and that's why I didn't like it much. I have come to realize it wasn't that I didn't make any friends (I met tons of interesting people), it just that many of these friends were people who did not share my interests. Another thing I realized is that a lot of people on this campus are really photographs of their high school selves. People can never leave that time go and to be honest a lot of people still behave as if it never ended.

In terms of academics, I can only speak of Political Science and History - WORK HARD. The professors are all different, but they won't tolerate or at least won't accept laziness and slackness...at least most of them. In the end you may like this school and you may not. I had the comparative pleasure to have had nice roommates, good professors and I met some GREAT people. That being said though, I think I might want to go to a school where people don't wear sagging pants , popped collars or baseball caps backwards and were the intelligent and the studious are a minority.