The State University of New York Binghamton

There are WAAAAAAY to many Long Islanders at Binghamton. I don't understand how the part of NY that's farthest from Binghamton (maybe with the except of Buffalo) would trek so far, I mean, why not Stony Brook or another closer SUNY? The undergraduate student body is 25% Long Island, 25% NYC, 5% Westchester and 45% upstate. So take this into account if you want to meet people from North Dakota at college.

There seems to be a little "housing crunch" that, despite the fact this has existed since my parents went to school, fails to be resolved. 42% of the freshmen in 2002-2003 were placed in what the Administration dubs a "temporary triple", whereby the odds of your belongings getting stolen jumps a nice 100% and your privacy is virtually nonexistent. Triples are the privacy and food of prison with the freedom of college. The rooms are 160 square feet, and in a triple, that means 53 square feet per person. If you ask me, that sounds like space you get in prison. And don't let the label "temporary" get your hopes up - you're gonna be in a triple ALL YEAR LONG. Or worse, you'll live with 7 other people who you would never want to associate with if a computer hadn't matched you up, in a study lounge. If you're the type that likes to hit the sack at midnight, and you have two night owl roommates, you stay up with the one who stares at his computer til 2 am (not to mention, illuminating the cell with his 200-watt desk lamp) and wake up with the guy who has class at 8:00. I don't know where the misconception that you sleep a lot in college came from. At least in prison there's a "lights out" time.

Freshman 15: Fact or Fiction - FICTION!!!!!! Who the hell came up with this? The food sucks at college. I'm a picky eater, so you can already probably feel my pain. I like forward to going home some weekends and having real pasta and hamburgers that aren't burned, tasteless, and a millimeter thick. If you like fine food, don't worry about the Freshman 15. You should think about combatting the Freshman -15! I've lost 2 lbs already in 3 months here. In general, the "Freshman 15" is alliteration, not fact. For those who are mathematically challenged, even if the average weight gain were 15 lbs, there's still a distribution, i.e. a "standard deviation" - 68% within 1 SD, blah blah blah.

There is a coach bus that leaves from campus every weekend to the NYC Area for students to go home, which is nice. Drops right back off at campus, and it's cheaper than the regular bus. Of course, their 3 stops accommodate the endangered species of Long Islander, stopping in Manhattan, Queens, you got it! Long Island.

Oh, and the little 'HOUSING REQUEST FORM'...don't be naive like me and expect to get anything you want. You want to live in a suite in everyone's favorite dorm community of nice, friendly students, College in the Woods, that happens to be the newest and the one they (coincidentally) show on the tour? Uh, no. They'll give you a corridor triple in one of the notorious crappy dorms, Newing and Dickinson. And dream on about getting Mohawk Hall in CIW, the only air-conditioned dorm on campus, built in 2000, in contrast to 1960.

And don't brush off the housing crunch issue with that "It won't happen to me" attitude...sure, I thought I was going to be with that lucky 58%.I know I'm saying all this negative stuff, but overall Binghamton is a pretty good school. The positive stuff is kind of obvious, that's all. Sure it would be nice to meet Montanans, but who cares. Beer makes college worthwhile. Otherwise, I would commute.