dcalb1, that is quite the description of Binghamton. Yours not mine. My point is actually the oposite of what you are portraying. Binghamton’s PR has never been content with what it is and has tried to inflate it. There is nothing wrong with being a medium sized public institution that primarily serves graduates of NY public schools, many of whom would otherwise not be able to attend college. That was precisely what it was designed to do. It was designed to NOT compete with the Northeast private colleges. Instead of trying to portray it as something it is not, why not be proud of the things it does do? And why not be straight forward about the admissions numbers.
My beef with this school is its longstanding lack of transparency. Playing games with numbers and hiding facts results in an inaccurate perception, a special skill of this school. Students should have complete and accurate information. It is a public school and it needs to keep things public. Its long history of hiding information and dishonesty does not serve it or students well. A change of administration does not seem to have changed that any.
I doubt that the Advantage program is filled with many students with a 26 (roughly equal to an SAT of 1190). If it were, they’d make that information public. I don’t think many people think that Binghamton is “one of the best universities in the country”. Those who do should spend some time at the flagship universities. They are a world apart from Binghamton. Binghamton is a solid university but it is not Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Gainesville, and on.
The common app allows students to check one more school to add it to their list. That hardly qualifies as “self selection”. What is self selection is the information you find on CC, with the strongest applicants frequenting this site. I suppose that the data about the students enrolled in the Advantage program should be easy enough to get. It is a public university. They are obligated to provide information if asked for it. Hopefully those considering the school will ask the school for the data about the Advantage program before committing to it. If it is not given to them, they can alway submit a freedom of information request which should not be necessary.