Stony Brook University

Date: Feb 01 2010
Major: Math (This Major's Salary over time)
I attended SUNY SB for my undergraduate degree in mathematics. SB was a very difficult university for various reasons. At the time I was there, the students were expected to work on their own. In mathematics, professors would lecture, students took notes and it was up to the student to make sure he/she understood the material. Because the faculty was not readily available to answer questions, students had to spend a great deal of time reading other material on their own. This fact trained me to be able to do research and fend for myself.

I have taught in several other universities, many of them quite well ranked. I will add that at no other place were students trained to fend for themselves as well as in Stony Brook. After my undergraduate degree, getting a PhD was not difficult, something I attribute to the training I got at SB. As a mathematician I have been extremely independent and continue to benefit from the independence that I cultivated while doing my undergraduate degree. Now I work actually an independent investor, but also do research on mathematics for fun, and to break the monotony of the financial markets.

When I was at stony brook, I recall the campus being mostly empty on weekends, as most students left for their homes. This was no problem for me as it provided those who remained with the chance of catching up with the amazing amount of work a student in the sciences generally received. It sounds like the school has not changed much. Another thing I really enjoyed at SB was the many roads and wooded trails, perfect for a long distance runner, a sport as was really into then; the loop around campus was also really fun to run, something I used to do at nights after coming back from long study sessions in the library.

In passing, let me just say that as a gay guy, I found Stony Brook to be rather progressive. I came out as an undergraduate, and soon discovered that there were quite a few guys in my immediate surrounding who were also gay. I have had 3 lovers, all of whom graduated from Stony Brook. They were all in the sciences, two of them were in mathematics, and two went for their doctorate. It seems that all my friends from SB went on to get doctorates and are doing quite well.

Let me just finish by saying that if you can work on your own and are not afraid of spending some quiet moments, then SB might be a good choice for you.