SUNY Binghamton University

Seemingly Diverse

The campus isn't all WASP, there is a large asian community (especially around the Hinman Community), many indian/middle eastern students, etc. However, you will come across a very large percent of Jewish people on campus. Many students are also from Long Island. Beside those two large groups of people (those from long island and the jewish population) everything else is seemingly spread. It may seem spread out ethnically but you may find that many people only hang out with people from their own groups. It's natural of course and you will be able to make a diverse group of friends, but it is very common on campus to see a group of black people just hanging out together or a group of hispanic people only hanging out with each other, etc.. When it comes to foreign students, we have a good amount of students from the Netherlands, UK, Mexico, China and Korea...especially Korea. There are a lot of Korean students on campus, they may even make up the majority of the asian population. The student body here is very diverse when it comes to sexual orientation. There are many students who are either homosexual or bisexual and there is high involvement in LGBT clubs/events. There is very little bias on campus when it comes to religious perspective, sexual orientation, or political views. We love to argue/debate so you should be prepared to hear arguments concerning this, but I feel like throughout campus there are a lot of open minds.

Mechanical Engineering/Comp Sci

The freshmen program for engineering is pretty hard to deal with because they make you take courses you are uninterested in and make all the engineering disciplines conform to the same classes. This may be the only let down however. The facilities here are impressive and they seem to have a lot of research happening in the university. I'm a freshman and I'm being paid to do summer research on campus which shows the opportunities are broad. The Junior and senior projects in engineering look amazing and they really focus on what you will be majoring in. Students get involved with industry often, and from the start of your first semester your pushed into large projects which requires you to talk to the public in expositions and produce a large final result.

The computer science here is impressive. The professors really know what they are talking about, but the programs are really hard to get into even if you're a major (almost impossible if you're a minor). In all of these courses you should expect to do a lot of group work (especially for engineering) which may turn out to be hard to manage at times but can be beneficial. I hated the group I was placed in for my first semester of engineering although we got a lot of work done and did well in an exposition and during our presentations, although I absolutely loved the other groups I worked with for my other courses/ the other semester. All in all, they have great programs and will no doubt offer you a great experience.

Not Much Variety

There aren't many original or unusual dining options here. Downtown and further in the city there seems to be decent restaurants that are small businesses; however, all you will really find are large chain restaurants and a lot of buffets.