<p>Another pleasant surprise for us was SUNY Stony Brook–another promotion from “dumb safety school” to “will apply”. We drove by years ago and saw alarmingly weird buildings <a href=“http://info.biotech-calendar.com/Portals/45279/images/stony%20brook%20building.jpg”>http://info.biotech-calendar.com/Portals/45279/images/stony%20brook%20building.jpg</a> and also didn’t like stories of it being a suitcase school. </p>
<p>But when we visited today we were impressed–the campus was walkable and easy to navigate with green spaces. A pleasant and helpful admissions staff showed a short, persuasive video with facts about its good research rankings, innovative programs and financial value with COA at 19K instate, 30K OOS. The admissions officer was lively; families attending the session were mostly from NY but some were from NJ, VA, CT.Apparently there are students from all 50 states attending.</p>
<p>The tour guides were friendly and well-trained with 2 of them conducting each tour. When asked about the suitcase school issue, they cited a study done last year showing that of the 10,000 campus residents, 75% were using their dining cards on weekends. As for the big classes in lecture halls holding 300 to 500, many of them are videotaped and can be viewed any time on the Blackboard system.</p>