The State University of New York - Albany

Date: May 30 2007
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
Many will make a big deal about SUNY Albany's transfer-out rate, but not many will mention that it also has a large transfer-in rate. Many students transfer here from smaller community colleges, but many students, like myself, transferred from "better" schools.

I myself transferred from Ithaca College, and, though sometimes I do wish I had gone to school that was superior to both Albany and Ithaca, I certainly do not regret that Albany was where I transferred to.

Before I criticize Albany, I should mention that I wanted to go to a small, "alternative" liberal arts college, but all of the ones I applied to either rejected me or did not give me enough money. Also, as at many schools, there are more opportunities for you if you attend for four years as opposed to, say, three. Attending the same school for four years gives you, of course, more time to get to know professors, students and organizations- more time to "get your foot in the door." I didn't have the opportunities that four-year students have, but I still had a decent college experience.

Some students go to colleges because they feel like that college IS their niche. At UAlbany, however, if your niche is not "let's spend hundreds of our parents' dollars on bad beer every day of the week," you will have to find your niche. But you surely will find that niche if you look. Every class I have been a part of has been full of many obnoxious and ignorant people, but also been full of all types of other people. If you look hard enough, you will find people who are interesting, and if you sit down and talk to the "uninteresting" ones, you will often find that they're not nearly as bad as you'd thought. So, to say it in one sentence, it is easy to make friends with all kinds of people at UAlbany, but you may have to make a little bit of an effort.

And this applies to the school in general: it is possible to do a whole lot of things, but it requires effort. The school is very diverse in terms of the types of personalities you will encounter in both students and professors. This means that you will be able to find people with personalities that match yours, but it also means that you will have to make an effort to surround yourself with your type of people. If you like one English professor, for instance, that does not necessarily mean that any other professors in the department will be like him. The academic departments - especially ones with a large amount of faculty, and those in the humanities - accomodate a diverse group of interests but, because of that, academic programs may seem a bit under-structured. I am speaking here mainly from my experience with the department of my major (English), but I think this is applicable to other departments as well. It is easy to get a large variety of perspectives, but it is also easy to graduate without having professors tell you how those diverse perspectives are connected.

Also on the subject of academic departments: certain departments have better student-faculty ratios than others. English is a large department but also has a large amount of faculty. The largest class size is 40. In Psychology, on the other hand, it is regular to be in a class with over 200 people, even at the 300-level. Overall, it is not hard to find small classes, even early on in your academic career. Classes that are recommended by academic advisors and fulfill gen. ed. requirements will fill up quickly, but plenty of smaller, interesting classes will be both small and open to freshmen. The differences between "gen ed" and "real" classes are often drastic, and the people who complain the most about "all classes" being too big would often discover smaller classes if they did a little more research into the course catalog. And some departments are just plain under-staffed.

But large, lecture-center classes are not even always bad. Some professors are interesting lecturers/performers. And in those classes, there are still often opportunities for undergrads to sign up for research, and, believe it or not, some professors are actually happy to see students they have never seen before approach them after class or visit them during their office hours.

I would have to agree with the common statement that

college is what you make of it.

It is an overused statement, and because of that, I think people tend to forget what it means. What it means is that, in college, a student has many opportunities, but the student must make an effort to take advantage of those opportunities. At any school, a student who talks to professors, studies hard and efficiently, and makes an effort to meet people will always have a better experience than one who doesn't. I have been a depressed slacker and a motivated, social person at different times during my college career, and, what can I say? The school really was what I made of it.

Since I haven't talked much about the physical characteristics of the campus, I will do that now. The campus, as other reviewers have stated, is a bit monochromatic (mostly concrete and gray) and the tunnels that connect the dorms to the academic podium have been closed, which makes it very inconvenient for students to walk to class during the winter. And yes, it is cold. This is New York, after all.

The campus is not a typical college campus, but it is not as bad as people say. It is easy to hate, but it is also has quite an interesting look to it. The real problem with it is that it has too many parking lots (which is sadly a problem at many campuses these days- students who like to walk can be made to feel like they're secondary to the cars that they constantly have to walk around) and it forces students to walk in straight lines to get almost anywhere. Whereas some campuses have grassy quads with an open feel to them, the quads at this university are square-shaped and surrounded by corners and straight concrete paths on all sides. Fortunately, for those who aren't big fans of modernist concrete quadrilaterals, the campus also has a lake with a nature trail. You do need to walk across some roads and parking lots to get to it, but it's still not hard to access and is a very nice place.

Dorms are not bad, even though I would not recommend them. Dormitory quads are, as I mentioned before, enclosed squares. Rooms in said quads are often small and sometimes poorly lit. People talk about these dorms as being "unlivable," but they are really not worse than most other colleges. Most of my friends from other colleges, when asked what they thought about Albany dorms, have responded, "Well, what can I say? They're college dorms." Most college dorms are not particularly luxurious places, and people who like to complain will probably never be satisfied with any college dorms anywhere.

The dining hall food is edible. If you are a vegan, you may be reduced to salads and strange tofu concoctions, but if you are a vegetarian, you should be fine. If you eat meat, you will probably be dissatisfied with the chicken, burgers, and steak, but it is still all edible. If you really don't like the dining hall food, you can always move off campus, which many people do. I would recommend it.

If you move off campus, you have many options. First, they're are the "on-campus off-campus apartments"- apartments which are just a parking lot away from campus. They are clean but sterile and not even that big. They are also as expensive as luxury apartments. If you want to live on campus but have a kitchen in your dorm so that you won't have to eat at the dining hall, I'd recommend the campus apartments, but if you really want a change from dorm life, move off campus. Most off-campus real estate is very close to the bus line. Many of your off-campus options are in a "student ghetto." In the student ghetto, many houses are ugly on the outside but not bad at all on the inside. You will also find yourself within walking distance of bars, restaurants, libraries, and supermarkets. Parts of the student ghetto are somewhat dangerous, but the "ghetto" changes into semi-suburbia pretty quickly, and as you get into cleaner, quieter, safer areas, the rent doesn't even go up that much.

And I've forgotten to mention Albany itself: it's a very good small city. It has all the advantages and disadvantages of many cities, but on a smaller scale. The state government supplies many job opportunities, although it also tends to give the city a slightly socially conservative and official feel. But it's an interesting city. If it weren't so often compared to New York city (a comparison which is really silly to make- Albany is about 5% the size of its southern neighbor), it would probably have a pretty good reputation.

Compared to other SUNY schools, Albany fares pretty well. Albany (the school and the city) is larger and more diverse than Binghamton or Geneseo. And unlike most SUNY schools, big or small, the campus is not far from its city.

SUNY Albany is definitely a school that I would recommend. It has many opportunities both academic and extracurricular, and its undergraduate programs are getting better every year. If you want a smaller college environment, you may want to look elsewhere, but you may still want to give Albany a chance because, honestly, it is better than it looks at its large, concrete surface. Look at the school's website- it has a lot of good information about academics and student life.