The State University of New York - Albany

Date: Jan 15 2009
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
SUNY Albany could be better, but it is an underrated school. It's strengths are greater than most give it credit for and its weaknesses are really not as bad as most people's complaints would suggest. I did not intend to go to SUNYA; it was my last choice when I transferred from an overpriced private school (Ithaca College). I was pleasantly surprised at how much better it was than Ithaca in all ways, and, in general, I had less to complain about than many of my friends at other colleges. I would like to share with everyone what I feel are some significant benefits and drawbacks to the school and I hope I will help.

THE CAMPUS

The campus is often maligned for its unusual concrete and steel design (the architect, Edward Durrell Stone, was an interesting character… the campus is actually based on a Persian palace) but its design has many strengths as well as weaknesses.

The biggest criticism is that it is monochromatic and that its design results in it becoming a "wind tunnel" in the winter. The "wind tunnel" statement is an exaggeration. It is very cold, and the campus does indeed lend itself to gusts of wind, but the campus also has a network of underground tunnels that connect all of the academic buildings. For me, the convenience and the warmth of the underground tunnels always made up for the "wind tunnel" effect above ground.

I never found the campus to be extremely ugly, but I did grow tired of its grayness. In nicer weather, when its gardens bloom and the fountain flows, it can be an aesthetically pleasing, unconventional piece of architecture. In nicer weather, you can also go to the nearby nature reserve, which has a lake and many trails. And in the winter time, sometimes the campus has a pretty black-and-white look to it.

Nonetheless, the uniformity of its look can get to you sometimes. It is the nature of college students to grow tired of seeing the same small amount of buildings every day, and SUNYA exacerbates that by having almost all of its buildings look the same.

Another thing that always bugged me about the campus was how, because of the rectangular fountain in the center, you must always walk in a rectangle to get anywhere.

Dorms are dorms… They're no worse than dorms anywhere else. The towers are a bit old and some rooms could use new paint jobs, but the views of downtown Albany and of the nearby mountains are nice.

THE CITY OF ALBANY

I grew up in Albany, and, while I left to move to New York City, it is really a great town. In fact, it looks and feels a lot like New York City sometimes- particularly Brooklyn or the Lower East Side. It has a lot of nice old buildings that house restaurants, odd arts & crafts stores, and the like. Albany is also home to nearly every ethnic food that a person can think of, and the foods are of high quality. And if you can't find the food you want in Albany, you can drive (or find a friend with a car to take you) to one of the other nearby towns.

When I first moved to New York City, I expected to be blown away by the quantity, quality, and variety of food available in both restaurants and grocery stores… but, honestly, the only thing New York City has over the Albany area is quantity. The quality and variety of food available in this part of upstate NY is absurdly good.

Food aside, Albany can also be a dangerous place to live. Sadly, it is the "student ghetto" that sees the most violent crimes and robberies, and many students live there without realizing how many other choices they have. The downtown and center square areas are slightly farther from campus and from the most popular college bars, but they are much better places to live and can even be cheaper than the student ghetto. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that living in the student ghetto is to be avoided at all costs. It is dangerous and houses are often owned by slumlords. For $50 or $100 more a month, you can live in an old Victorian house in a more suburban part of the city or a Brownstone in a safer and nicer part of the urban center. And Albany is cheap to begin with.

It is not, however, a place for racists. If you are at all uncomfortable with diversity, Albany is not the city for you.

All in all, if you're at all an imaginative or interesting person, Albany should not bore you. It's not New York, it's not Boston, and it's not Philadelphia, but it's no Binghamton, either. And, besides, if you're looking for the big city experience, you really shouldn't even be considering any of the SUNY campuses.

THE ACADEMICS

As Albany is a huge university, it is tough to speak for the academics in general. Despite all of the buildings and offices looking the same, every department is really a separate school unto itself.

The departments in which I took the most classes were English and Theater. In each of those departments, I only recall one class being in a large lecture center. All professors were as accessible as I could ask for. I suppose professors are generally more accessible at smaller, undergrad-only colleges, but I really can't complain about the accessibility of professors at SUNYA. The people who complain the most are the laziest. I don't think I met any intelligent, hard-working people who had trouble getting their professors' attention. (Seriously. If your friend who goes to SUNYA complains that his professor "fucked him over" before a test or anything like that, take it with a grain of salt.)

What else can I say about the academics? The English department is very un-structured. It was very structured up until recently, but when I attended the school, the department consisted of a vague sequence of classes that didn't really build on one another. It also has a high emphasis on literary theory and it is possible to graduate without having read a single classic. Plot your own course through the major and you should do fine.

The theater department is notable for its open-ness to non-majors. It makes a decent major and it makes for decent electives.

Social Sciences classes were good as well. Classes in that department begin huge and are small by the end. Funny enough, classes in the English department begin medium-sized and do not really shrink.

I can't really comment on the hard sciences or any other departments, but I know that it is in the hard sciences that some of the most notorious "big university" problems - ie professors who don't speak English and gigantic classes that do not shrink - seem to occur the most.

SOCIAL SCENE

SUNY Albany has all social scenes. It sometimes seems to be dominated by the "bros and barbies" but it really does have all walks of life.

It is not really a particularly cliquey school. It is a school where people tend to hang out in groups, but the groups are large and amorphous. The fact that a good amount of students are commuters and/or live in various parts of the city is good for the social scene. It prevents it from feeling too insular.

The worst thing I can say about the SUNY Albany social scene is that it tends to breed a lot of unfounded narcissism and tends to attract the type of people who enjoy feeling like the smartest, most creative people on campus. It tends to attract people with the type of egos that make them enjoy being

big fish in a little pond.

But one of the best things about SUNYA's social scene is small enough that you can count on running into acquaintances enough for them to turn into friends, but big and anonymous enough that you don't have to be afraid of seeing the same annoying people all the time. It's a good size, people-wise.

And I think that's about it… hope I helped.