The State University of New York Binghamton

Date: Jul 01 2006
Major: Psychology (This Major's Salary over time)
Binghamton was a bit of a surprise to me. I visited the school in the summer and the weather was nice. I heard the city had a few hundred thousand people and it was relatively active. The school consistently got excellent reviews.

So I went there, thinking that it was 3 hours north of home, which meant my family would not expect to see me every weekend, like they would have if I went to school in the city. Additionally, I could expect the nightlife to be relatively good… And I'd get a good education.

What I got was a mixture of good and bad:

GOOD: Student Union organized good concerts. Residential life was decent. Radio station was relitavely cool. Food was not too bad. Smaller classes were enjoyable. Most professors were approachable and the TA's were all pretty good. Libraries were decent too.

BAD: Most classes were huge and you were treated as a number. The winter drags on and on, and since the school is in the Susquehanna River Valley, you basically have constant rain, and if not rain, then at least clouds. The city may have a few hundred thousand residents, but these are low-income, depressed residents who are resentful of the students. The city basically sucks, there were lots of abandoned and boarded up buildings when I was there. Religious and minority groups tended to stick together- diversity was promoted in theory but not in practice.