The following reviews are the views of students or alumni at this school and are unrelated to the school data and other editorial content on usnews.com. These reviews neither reflect nor impact a school's position within the Best Colleges rankings.
The best thing about Binghamton is the way the residence halls are all tightly knit. The closest community is a 2 minute walk at most which creates a very social atmosphere with the students. Student activity is really high and everyone interacts with eachother. One thing I'd change is adding a football team and stadium to our school. We need to expand not only our faculty, but our on-campus residence halls. Right now many students enjoy the tight knit set of communities, so adding more would be creating more of a social and enjoyable atmosphere. People are excited to come to Binghamton because they know the students are social and fun. I spend most of my time on campus. The town of Binghamton is sketchy because of the townies. The administration seems to be great for the most part, except sometimes they like to change things without discussing it with the Student Association. The biggest controvesy right now on campus is students being against cops equipped with tasers on campus. There is a lot of school pride, mostly with our basketball team, but would be a lot better with a football team. Nothing really unusual about Binghamton...We have a lot of deer. An experience I'll always remember is having my building win Dorm Wars & Hysteria, which are a week or weekend of games and competition between the buildings in the Hinman community. Everyone always has a lot of fun and it helps get people together at one time and participating in games with one another. Student complaints are the weather and the football team we don't have.
Richie Junior
The best thing about Binghamton is the athletic teams. They are fun. One thing I would change is the Mountainview Shortcut. I would put some stairs there. I think Binghamton is just the right size, there is something for everyone. When I tell people I go to Binghamton they usually respond by saying "Wheres that?" or "Ohhh...cool". Its fun being a part of Binghamton because its a growing school that is just starting to make an impact. We are making national achivements. I spend most of my time either in the gym, in the dorms, or the dining hall. Binghamton is a college town, Binghamton wouldn't be anything without the students. I dont hear much about administration. The biggest recent controversy on campus was the student march against the war and a bunch got arrested. That, and also the whole downtown assault, but we dont know where thats goign yet. There is definitely a lot of school pride, especially among athletics.
Christina Freshman
Binghamton's best feature is the PEOPLE. Students are so friendly here! The faculty is very relatable and understanding. When I tell people I go to Binghamton, I get a head nod and a comment something like, "Wow, good school!" It's definitely a college town, which there are pros and cons about. Back home, I live rather close to the city, and I miss city life a lot. The thing is that, the whole town pretty much caters to you. There are off-campus student discounts, and all cabs know every building in every community in the university. I like the size of the student body, mainly because I think I tend to do better in small classes where discussions can take place. There's LOTS of VERY VISIBLE school pride--at all basketballs games, university events, and things like Dorm Wars. I think the most frequent complaints generally are the fact that there is no train station in Binghamton, the windy-rainy-snowy weather, the fact that there's no education major for undergrads, or the dining hall food.
Janna Freshman
BU is a public school, and it is bigger than you think. The education is really good, but it can't escape the public, state-funded feel. It is not a pretty campus. Binghamton, as a city, has been economically depressed for many years, so the location is perhpas not ideal in a lot of ways. On the other hand, the area has a lot of variety: city life, a large university campus, and close proximity to quiet, rural areas.
Stewart Alum
Ok, the weather sucks in Binghamton most of the time. It loves to rain, be cloudy, or snow. I cant stand the cold, but yet I love Binghamton U. to no end because of the people. The students that go to Bing are the NICEST people I have ever come across. There are sooo many types of people and backgrounds, I kept making friends until I graduated. There is always somewhere for you to fit in with. Size-wise, Bing is perfect. The on-campus housing is divided into communities, meaning the dorms are in clusters (communities), which allows you to feel part of a close-knit community instead of a speck in a school of 14,000 students. There isnt much of a college town unfortunately, but there are a few cute places downtown, and the bars downtown are never empty.
Chloe Alum
The best thing about Binghamton is the people you meet. They're going to be the people you remember when you're old and gray. One thing I'd change is how easily we fall into our own ethnic groups. Because it's rare, it's a joy to see people of different ethnicities hanging out. I think our school is too large where I'd really like to get to know my professors on a more personal level. But I like that there's always potential to meet someone new everyday. I get different reactions on how people react when I tell them to come here. But I honestly have had such great experiences and opportunities here, so I do my best to recruit students and their parents! I spend most of my time, everywhere! I love hanging out in my room and people stopping by, especially my floormates, I visit my friends in their dorms and apartments, I study in the library where I'll always find a friend, I eat at the dorm dining halls, and I go off-campus every once in a while. I don't really think of Binghamton/Vestal as a college town. They've made it easy to take the bus and everything, but if you don't have a car, sometimes you're just turned off from going out. I think there's a huge lack of communication with Binghamton's administration. I have no idea what goes on there, and honestly, sometimes I'm not interested, so I don't make the effort to go find out. But I realize they must work hard to make a large university like this be able to function. I'm not sure how I feel about how they using funding though. For example, in my opinion (and others) using LCD screens in the dining halls wasn't the greatest use of finances. More money should be given to students who deserve it (academic achievement, financial need, etc.), to professors and faculty that work really hard, to provide an environment that's more personable to students and faculty. The biggest recent controversy was the arresting of people protesting the war on Tuesday. I think school pride is increasing. It's not as exciting as a football school, which would be awesome to be a part of, but I think it's slowly getting there. I'm personally a huge fan of sports, so I like that we're establishing ourselves in athletics. I just hope we're not sacrificing funding for essentials for athletic reputation. Maybe this isn't unusual, and maybe this is just my personal experience, but I love that Binghamton is a good balance of work and play. It's not so crazy where we're all studying all the time, but we're not a total party school either. We take academics seriously. But we also take enjoying ourselves seriously too. One experience I'll always remember is going to the observatory to go star gazing. The most frequent student complaints are classes that are a joke, teachers who don't care about us personally, dorm facilities that are sub-par (although yes, they are renovating ***inson), and there are a few more I just can't think of. In general though, the events and stuff on campus, they seem... not supported. For example, there seems to be a lot of interesting stuff going on on campus, but I have this notion that not a lot of people are going to show up, so I don't go. It's so much easier to be excited about something when other people are excited too. For example, last semester Amnesty International showed a do***entary on the Lost Boys of Sudan. They got around 60 people to show up! That's awesome... but there are what, 14,000 people on this campus? Shouldn't we all care about such social injustice issues? But I'm assuming this is not just a Binghamton problem.
Pam Junior
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