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SUNY University at Buffalo
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Inside Scoop

Quick Stats

School Slang
  • The Big White Box: The large concrete Center for the Arts on North Campus.
  • Blue Bird: The bus service that shuttles students between campuses, the nickname lives, even though the buses are no longer blue.
  • Buff State: An entirely separate school in Buffalo, located on the West Side; a few students every year actually apply to the wrong school, maybe because Buff State’s address and academic information appeared under UB’s entry in the 2000 Fiske Guide to Colleges.
  • CFA: The Center for the Arts.
  • Cheektavegas: Cheektowaga, Buffalo’s predominantly Polish suburb—home of the airport, the Galleria Mall, Buffalo’s best Polish restaurants, several tacky ‘60s-era strip plazas, and a proposed casino.
  • Chippewa: A club and bar district downtown.
  • CIT: The Office of Computing and Information Technology.
  • Cybrary: A computer lab in a campus library.
  • Drunk Bus: The early-hours intercampus shuttle that runs students from North Campus dorms and apartments to the Heights bars.
  • Elmwood Village: A beautiful West Side neighborhood full of Victorian homes, independent shops, and great restaurants; particularly popular with professors and grad students
  • EOP: The Equal Opportunity Program for economically disadvantaged students.
  • Governerds: Residents of Governors, often first-year athletes or honors students.
  • The Heights: The run-down but loved neighborhood adjacent to South Campus where thousands of UB students live.
  • The Lake: Not Lake Erie, but manmade Lake LaSalle on North Campus.
  • Legoland: Another name for the unusual-looking Ellicott Complex.
  • NSC: A big building on North Campus that houses most of the science departments and several huge lecture halls.
  • The Ralph: Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the Bills, about 25 minutes from campus in Orchard Park.
  • Smellicott: The Ellicott Complex (particularly Wilkeson and Spaulding Quads, the all-freshman section).
  • The Spine: A mile-long cluster of huge buildings on North Campus where most of the academic departments are housed.
  • SU: The Student Union; the gateway to the Spine from the main bus loop.
  • The UGL: Undergraduate Library, which is louder than many cafeterias.
  • Wide Right: All Buffalonians flinch at this phrase, which refers to Scott Norwood’s missed field goal as time expired on the Bills’ 20–19 loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XXV.
Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming To School
  • 8 a.m. classes are nearly impossible to get up for.
  • Don’t buy “college clothes” because most people dress down.
  • How to parallel park
  • It’s not easy to make friends in big classes.
  • It’s tough to get by without a car.
  • To purchase every winter accessory
  • You don’t need to decide what you want to study right away.
Tips to Succeed
  • Don’t get depressed by the sterility of the campus.
  • Don’t hook up too much in your first couple of months as a freshman.
  • Figure out how to navigate the bridges and indoor tunnels.
  • Figure out where the less popular computer labs are.
  • Find a place you can park illegally without getting caught.
  • Get off campus and immerse yourself in Buffalo’s culture as much as you can.
  • If you get stuck in a big lecture hall, introduce yourself to the professor in the second week and sit in the front of the class.
  • If you’re from the Buffalo area, live on campus your freshman year instead of living at home.
  • Join a sport, club, or student government.
  • Learn which professors are good and which ones aren’t.
  • Study in Lockwood Library instead of the UGL or at your dorms.
  • Take as many small classes as possible.
  • Try to get into the Honors Program; you can get early registration.
  • Visit professors during their office hours; even popular professors love to talk to students.
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Buffalo Student ReviewsWhat's This?

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Inside Scoop at SUNY University at Buffalo

jonstein412

School Psychology '12

3.8
B+

Buff Aint So Bad

the city of buffalo got a lot to offer if you do some exploring. the school itself is pretty chill. its what you make out of your experience

Apr 07, 2012

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Inside Scoop at SUNY University at Buffalo

brandanr

Pharmacology and Toxicology '15

3.5
B

Study Resources and Food!

some places on campus are phenomenal

and

teachers are always willing to put up more study sources on UBlearns

Mar 16, 2012

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Inside Scoop at SUNY University at Buffalo

nmarie130

Biomedical Sciences and Molecular Medicine '15

5.0
A+

Diversity Is Abundant

UB is very diverse with every race and religion attending. this provides the university with accepting students that get along so well. there is also a variety of clubs and activities for everyone.

Jan 21, 2012

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Page 1 of 4
User rating for SUNY University at Buffalo - Inside Scoop is 4.6 out of 5 based on 11 user reviews.

Facts

Traditions
  • Cultural Nights: Each international student association on campus (e.g., the Indian Student Association) holds a major ethnic festival or cultural night at least once a year on campus. Often, these events are held at the 2,000-seat Mainstage Theater at the CFA and feature ethnic dancing, music, and food.
  • Fall Fest and Spring Fest: Each fall and spring, the Student Association brings big-time bands to UB for a free concert that’s often attended by over 10,000 students. Past shows include Outkast and Dave Matthews Band. If it’s nice out, they’ll have the concert at Baird Point—nothing beats a free concert with those giant pillars and the sun setting over the lake as a backdrop. Lots of students have big parties over Fall Fest and Spring Fest weekends.
  • Oozfest: In the spring, everybody who’s anybody on campus plays in Oozfest, an infamous mud volleyball tournament. There are special courts off in the corner of campus that are reserved for Oozfest each year, and sometimes students go early just to roll around in the mud pit.
  • Opening Day: Though the football team hasn’t had a winning season since the mid-’90s, UB fans always start each season with high hopes. Usually over 25,000 fans come out for the first home game. UB Stadium on North Campus is a beautiful facility, and the energy is electric—at least, until they lose.
Urban Legends
  • Former President Greiner complained about the bronze buffalo in front of Alumni Arena because its rear end faced his office.
  • North Campus was originally supposed to be built on the waterfront.
  • The campus is sinking slowly because it was built on a marsh.
  • The campus was designed without central gathering spaces in response to UB’s violent Vietnam War protests.
  • The Ellicott Complex was modeled after a Chinese prison.

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Christina Reisenauer
Hometown
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How do we get our information? Find out here or report an error here. The statistics on our site are from the National Center for Education Statistics IPEDS database.
We update this information twice annually, most recently in May 2012, but it may not be the most recent information available for a particular school.
For additional information we encourage you to visit school websites or contact the schools directly.