<p>mdcissp-Binghamton is not a small town. More suburban, small city. The campus is in the suburb of Vestal. You can PM me if you have questions about the area. I have lived here my whole life.</p>
<p>My son will be attending Bama in the fall, and I work with a nice attorney who is a Bama graduate, along with her husband. I asked if her children might consider Bama, since they are big alumni supporters, even attending a few football games a year, though they now live in New Orleans. She responded no, there are no Jews there. I did not point out, though, that she did find her Jewish husband there.</p>
<p>When touring the Catholic Church and its facilities at a campus visit, the pastor informed us that the Hillel group met at the church’s facilities and held Seder dinners there, but that a Hillel building was currently under construction.</p>
<p>Fast forward to looking at welcome week activities, and I am happy to state that Bama is breaking ground on a new Hillel Center, and has special welcome week events for Jewish students and faculty members. </p>
<p>As Bama is luring students from all over the country with their great scholarships, it is not surprising that the Jewish population is growing as well.</p>
<p>Worth checking out!</p>
<p>Hollie is right, of course,about Bing. You might also look at SUNY Albany,Pitt, Temple and Rutgers for good size B schools in good size towns, if the size of the schools is not a major problem.</p>
<p>Why GW and not American, which I think might have more Business courses? And my impression was that GW was out of your $ range.</p>
<p>GW is out of our price range. We considered com. college for 2 years and then transfer to GW with living at home. I asked about transferring to the business school at GW. It is possible. Tour guide said 60 credits have to be taken at GW for the GW degree. The problem with American is that business options are too limited and my son thought the focus of American is for kids interested in Government and politics. </p>
<p>I mentioned Bama numerous times to my son but he thinks the Jewish community will be too small. Temple-my son does not like Phily. I also mentioned Pitt. We have been to Pitt to tour CMU for our other son. Did not like Pitt that muich, but seems to want to see Robert Morris University near Pittsburgh. I guess I should look into the other schools (Rutgers, SUNY, Albany). Thank you for your suggestions.</p>
<p>I told my son just apply, see where you get accepted, and then we can go back for accepted student days to get more info. I emphasized that he may feel differently next spring. My son keeps talking about UT Dallas. So, go ahead and apply and we will re-evaluate in the spring when we know your options.</p>
<p>Best of luck. Kids often wind up with lists of schools that seem to based on whims and guesses, but often turns out right in the end.</p>
<p>momjr - for Boston University - pretty much all with wgpa above 4.2 were accepted. Between a 3.7 and 4.2 wgpa - most accepted - particularly if they had at least an 1100 SAT. Below 3.5 - pretty much a denial. Again, GPAs seemed more important that test scores - there was a 3.9 _ 23 ACT accepted and a 3.7 + 20 ACT accepted - of course - they may have had a hook.</p>
<p>Not planning on considering College Park - I don’t want to bash it repeatedly - S1 has friends there who are happy - but to me - the lack of housing and the area around the campus are a big turnoff - plus the large class sizes - plus the issue of PG County police - just too many negatives imho.</p>
<p>mdcissp - have you checked out this website?</p>
<p>[Actuarial</a> Science Schools - Colleges and Universities Directory - Actuary Schools and Actuarial Colleges and Universities for Actuarial Education in Actuarial Directory](<a href=“http://www.actuary.com/actuarial-science-schools/]Actuarial”>http://www.actuary.com/actuarial-science-schools/)</p>
<p>Might give you some more ideas. I’d also suggest colleges that are really focused on business - like Bryant Univ. in Rhode Island, and Bentley Iniv. and Babson College - both in Mass.</p>
<p>Rockvillemom- I just logged into Naviance as my D and I didn’t see any 2010 numbers. I logged out and then went in as a guest. Still no 2010 numbers. Is there something I need to do? Was your S’s gpa updated? My d’s should have changed after this last semester and it was the same. I was so excited to see 2010 numbers 
My kids are away at camp…I clearly need a life, if seeing 2010 numbers was going to be the highlight of my evening!</p>
<p>mdmom - this was really weird - I logged in on my computer at work for a quick minute this afternoon and was able to see 2010 results. I logged on again from home - and could not see them. I have no explanation for this - maybe someone with more computer savvy than me can explain it? GPA had not yet been updated to reflect spring 2010 semester. I’m going to log in again at work in the morning to make sure I was not hallucinating.</p>
<p>Rockvillemom,
Thanks again for the naviance data. I understand how you feel about College Park. I have concerns about the surrounding area also. </p>
<p>mdmomfromli: I know how you feel. I have an empty nest this week also. I guess it’s good practice for when my younger daughter leaves for college in a year.</p>
<p>Mdcissp:
I admire your committment to finding some good options for your son. I see that he now thinks Towson is too big, but from everything you’ve said, it looks like the best fit for him. I know a lot of kids who have gone there and I get the impression that there is a lot of support and that small classes are available for most courses. I know you are concerned about parking issues, but the kids I know have just learned when they need to arrive to get parking.</p>
<p>Hillel - serves Pitt, Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne</p>
<p>[Welcome</a> to the Hillel JUC of Pittsburgh](<a href=“http://www.hilleljuc.org/]Welcome”>http://www.hilleljuc.org/)</p>
<p>From Naviance - in 2009 45 applied, 31 accepted and 3 matriculated.</p>
<p>Pretty much every applicant with at least a 3.8 wgpa was accepted. Between 3.0 and 3.8 wgpa - most were admitted - the denials were kind of random - hard to see a pattern.</p>
<p>The lowest admits were a 3.5 wgpa 900 SAT and a 3.2 wgpa 920 SAT - might have hooks. There was a denial at 3.6 wgpa and 1100 SAT and one at 3.7 wgpa 1150 SAT. But again, most in the 3.6 - 3.7 wgpa range were accepted. Pitt is rolling - it might have to do with the timing of the app - earlier is always better when it is rolling.</p>
<p>mdcissp,
For good inexpensive schools in or near cities, look at SUNY/Purchase; SUNY/Buffalo; CUNY/Queens; and CUNY/Brooklyn. I suspect all have good Jewish populatitons.
UNC/Charlotte, UNC Greensboro and Queens College in Charlotte may not fit the bill, but could be worth a look, along with U. Mary Washington.</p>
<p>I recall Pitt being very early in the rolling process–unfortunatley, that has increased its use as a safety</p>
<p>mdcissp, are you sure you would not get sufficient aid at a small private school to get to your cost parameter?</p>
<p>Forgive me if I am repeating myself, but I recall Rutgers having an AS program. New Brunswick is a lively city with theater and lots of restaurants, right on the Norheast Corridor Amtrak line</p>
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<p>mdcissp, if your son thinks that Binghamton is too small (which, as posters point out, it is not), he can’t possibly think of going to Robert Morris in - this is the real name of the place - Moon Township (nothing against Moon or anyone who lives there, but it is a small town/suburb). Please convince him to visit Pitt with fresh eyes while he is in the area. It is in the city, and adjacent to the beautiful city neighborhood where the Jewish population is most concentrated. I don’t know when you last visited CMU, but the parking lot that was between Hillman Library and Carnegie Library has been totally redone into a plaza that has outdoor performances, kiosks, gardens with benches, a big lawn - it really looks great.
Thanks for posting the link to Pittsburgh JUC/Hillel, rockvillemom! There is a link on the left describing the program connecting students to local families.</p>
<p>U of Mary Wash is not in a city, but Amrtak is right there and I think that one can access Richmond or Washington DC this way. Still, those cities are not around the corner, and I guess regular train rides could get expensive.</p>
<p>CUNYs are inexpensive, but housing in NYC could make up for that!</p>
<p>Rockville Mom: I am glad to hear that we are not the only ones who do not see UMCP as a match. My sons both say it is too big. </p>
<p>Fellow CCers; Thanks so much for the Actuary List and mention of Bryant, etc. I am going to check it out. One of my son’s high school teachers said he thought Actuary Science was my son’s dream job. Therefore, my son is signed up for Statistics this coming senior year.
This course will give us a clue if Actuary Science is a strong enough possibility of major that we need a school that offers it. (i.e. Actuary Science uses a lot of Statistics).</p>
<p>I think our son is very happy at home. He loves to drive, visit his friends, work out at the gym, etc. I am not 100% sure he will thrive in a town without any family or familiar friends.</p>
<p>I think Towson or Salisbury will academically be fine. But, my son seems hesitant and mentions other schools such as College of Charleston (he heard about it from a friend) and UT Dallas.</p>
<p>In addition to the academic programs, I think the most important thing to my son is being in an area with some inexpensive ethnic type of restaurants because he envisions getting sick of dorm food. Or, have a suite style dorm where he can cook. Living around fast food joints is probably the biggest turn off that he sees at these colleges.</p>
<p>Has he checked out dorm food? I was stunned at the change in college food since my days–the small college I was at Monday for Preview has Mongolian Grill every night; burritos and quesadillas every day; and sushi twice a week.</p>
<p>Also, many college dorms have kitchens in the dorm, even though most kids cook nothing more complicated than Ramen noodles.</p>
<p>Friends thought Bing had good ethnic restaurant nearby.</p>
<p>NEmom, I am told CCNY Queens now has some dorms</p>
<p>I would caution everyone from doing a direct comparison with someone else’s Naviance. A B is a very different animal depending on the high school! What would be more relevant is to know where those GPAs fall within the context of the school, with a class rank percentile approximation. The GPAs accepted to BU, for example, are much lower from our school, where a 3.5 UW puts a student in the top 10%!</p>
<p>yabeyabe2-within walking distance of the Binghamton campus is a great mexican restaurant, chinese and japanese restaurants. Also a restaurant with our regional speciality-speidies! ON the Binghamton University bus loop (which by the way is great!) are lots of ethic restaurants. Our area has tons of cheap fantastic Italian restaurants!</p>