<p>Geneseograd, how old is your information about Stony Brook? The commuter school perception is a very outdated one; over 90% of first year students live on campus these days.</p>
<p>As for size, hearing there are over 20,000 people (~15,000 undergrads) somewhere can sound daunting but doesn’t necessarily feel that way. I always thought I wanted a relatively small college, since my high school was minuscule and a larger university sounded overwhelming. The first few days I was at Stony Brook, I wondered if I’d ever see the same person twice while I was walking around campus… but it rapidly became clear that once you find a routine and explore some niches, the student body doesn’t feel overwhelming after all. By my sophomore year I couldn’t walk across campus without running into tons of people I knew even if I’d tried to, and I didn’t even dorm my first year. At this point, I can’t imagine being as happy without a big student body that makes it easy to constantly meet new people, try new things, and explore all kinds of different social groups. Not to mention how nice it is to have the resources of a university with tons of lab space and research opportunities, performances and events going on constantly, a hospital on campus, and a huge variety of course offerings every semester. Stony Brook is definitely a community, it’s just a big community! And our school spirit tends to be centered around things like the cardboard and duct tape boat regatta, the awesome stuff going on in our labs, and the pranks people pull on campus, not what’s going on with our sports teams, so it’s harder for people to recognize if they’re more exclusively focused on the rah-rah-football-game kind of spirit.</p>
<p>Geneseo is a great school too, and I think it’s awesome that SUNY provides an environment like that for people who need a smaller school to thrive. But it’s important to remember you don’t need a small student body to have a community atmosphere and an awesome college experience.</p>