New Paltz is in a beautiful area, convenient to Amtrak and under 2 hours into NYC.

Anonymous wrote:Anyone been to Fredonia recently? It's on the list.

No but my kids piano teacher went there for piano performance and he is amazing.

Anyone have recent input about SUNY Purchase?

We visited Binghamton. Brutalist architecture. Steep hills to dorms. Dorms are a million miles from the campus entrance and getting anywhere is a 15 min drive. The school is near a rundown mall, a Blaze pizza and across the bridge from the town of Binghamton.

Back in the day, all of these campuses were really fun places, even without football. I hope they still are.

Anonymous wrote:Seems incredibly short-sighted of NY state not to have a more appealing university system. Insane.

It appeals to plenty of people. They aren't under enrolled. Why should they spend a lot of money to get kids from out of state to attend?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I tried to keep an open mind. SUNY Binghamton sounded great on paper, but we took it off the list right after we visited.

as you rightly should. if dante gave college tours, binghampton would be in the ninth circle

Ok that’s actually funny. But academics are great there.

Anonymous wrote:I tried to keep an open mind. SUNY Binghamton sounded great on paper, but we took it off the list right after we visited.

as you rightly should. if dante gave college tours, binghampton would be in the ninth circle

ESF is really unique and worth looking at, with the connection to Syracuse. Cornell has the instate options but I don’t think OOS students get the lower tuition (one of the best deals around for in state!)

There are a couple of other schools for the right student - Cortland for someone interested in sports and Delhi I’d a student wants trade expertise and a degree (hard to find schools like that). Purchase is great for theater etc, public or private.

Anonymous wrote:SUNY schools, in general, are incredible undergraduate values for NYS residents. Especially Bing, Stony Brook (STEM) and Geneseo.

They definitely appeal to those looking for more steak than sizzle.

OK, and every other public university also offers an incredible undergraduate value for in-state students.

Not sure how often students do this but there's a train in Stony Brook Village that takes you to Penn Station NYC. About a two hour journey

Anonymous wrote:Op here: Great thoughts. My dd is considering Stonybrook but is worried about commuters and location on Long Island — it’s not rural but a high cost area. We are going to visit next month for her to make a decision. ESF made her a great offer but it’s just too far, too isolated and so focused that it fell off her list.

I went to Stony Brook. Nearly all kids live on campus all four years. So high cost area not a factor. I literally went to supermarket.

I did take train to Manhattan once or twice. There is no reason to leave campus. Port Jeff is beautiful nearby. If you like to ski you can take port Jeff ferry to CT and also quick trip to vineyards of north fork. But 99 percent of kids don’t have money for that

Op here: Great thoughts. My dd is considering Stonybrook but is worried about commuters and location on Long Island — it’s not rural but a high cost area. We are going to visit next month for her to make a decision. ESF made her a great offer but it’s just too far, too isolated and so focused that it fell off her list.

Geneseo campus is beautiful and near Letchworth…but yes remote and it’s hard to draw non-NYers when the student body is all NYers. Binghamton seemed to appeal to a broader pool (at least based on our visit) but Binghamton was depressing.
ESF is unique in that you can take Syracuse University classes and use their facilities. I thought that might sway DC—but ESF itself was too small.

Football sucks. Next question