Siena overnight campus visit

[MMood87]

<p>I just visited Siena and these are my ideas of what Siena is like:</p>

<p>1) The general Siena community is involved with sports, partying, and not too serious about academics. Everything is laid back, and the schools pretends to be religious but it really isn't that involved. There are relatively no drugs on campus (like pot), however ALCOHOL is RAMPANT on the campus.
2) Siena has no greek system but systems do tend to form.
3) Most people aren't interested in academics but really into partying and getting drunk and laid.
4) To become a Presidential Scholar isn't very prestigious seeing as it attracts people with 1150 SATS and at least an 85 GPA.
5) Academically speaking, Siena College isn't very well known and doesn't carry the name recognition like of other same-level schools.
6) School emphasizes sports over academics (look at the number of people coming here due to sports sholarships and the measly 5k for the presidentials)
7) Social life is rather limiting here as fun time involves 1) Getting drunk 2) Visiting strip clubs 3) Playing Ping-Pong.
8) People are rude in general, and do not offer directions to get to places. I had to ask 10 different people who rudely ignored me and my friend, and we eventually asked the security guard (who was ****ed off also)</p>

<p>Overall, this school turned me off because of the general lack of enthusiasm for academics (not much hope for post-undergrad work, or getitng into good grad schools), doesn't offer much aid in grants, scholarships, whatever, and the admissions and people in general are shallow/rude.</p>

<p>In all, I recommend you guys check out other schools such as Saint. lawrence Uni, Syracuse, SUNY BINghamton, SUNY Geneseo, Union, University of Rochester for schools of this calibre. </p>

<p>The only reason i may recommend this school is if you're interested in the combined program for medicine (7 years combiend b.s./m.d. program). Other than that, I DO NOT RECOMMEND GOING HERE.</p>

[KhAn_T1m]

<p>nice post, i agree after visiting both union and siena. union isnt that much better either.</p>

[palmtree4]

<p>i got into their med program, btw its 8 years, not 7 years, and im uberexcited, but now u are scaring me. i got a day tour after my med interview, and it didnt seem that the kids were that rude, but then again u stayed there overnight and met more people. concerning the drinking problem, dudeeeeee u should visit university of florida, CRAZY partying/drinking there (i'm from florida, and not intending to be a gator), so whatever drinkin problem siena has, its prob nothing to compared to florida schools, so im not bothered by that. one thing that kinda bothered me was that there were too many caucasians. i only saw like tops 10 indians, a couple of eastern asian people, and no africanamericans...dude they are just dying for diversity</p>

[MMood87]

<p>i am asian american (pakistani).</p>

<p>just wondering what your stats for the combined program were (sats, gpa, rank, e.c.s etc)</p>

<p>i missed the deadline for this program by like 4 days and i'm ****ed, but oh well.</p>

<p>if i were you palm, i'd stick with the program seeing as there are more minorities in b.s./m.d. program and they will become your friends (you will hang out with the people who are similar to you academically usually). </p>

<p>albany is a decent city, not that great but decent but there is crossgates for shopping (its a nice relatively medium-sized mall with everything you can think of getting, it's probably about 1/4 - 1/3 of a mile long).</p>

<p>p.s. what isy our ethnicity?</p>

<p>good luck in the program, your next 3 years are gonna be much easier compared to most pre-meds!!!!!</p>

[MMood87]

<p>and i wanted to say that i underestimated university of rochester. to get in isn't that hard, but its a pretty good school (well known academically, heck it has its own strong medical school there)</p>

[palmtree4]

<p>im indian, no shock there. i am waiting on univof miami 7yr med program decision. if i dont get into miami, im going to siena or rpi (i'm having that interivew on march 14th, hopefully i get into that too). look at my past posts for my stats cuz im too lazy to list them all (there should be just one post on it).</p>

[KhAn_T1m]

<p>MMood87, UR is a selective school...are you just looking at their acceptance percentage? That doesnt reflect the over-all admission selectivity, it is a little high because of the fact that its in a bad location (in the cold of Rochester) and people use it as a safety if they dont get into their Ivies, so they need to accept a slight amount more of students to get a good pool.</p>

[KhAn_T1m]

<p>palmtree4, i know someone that went to RPIs 7 year program BS/MD, and he went for 2 years, and went to University of Rochester due to the fact that RPI sucks. He hated the life there, and he said it was pointless working so hard for the 3.5 at the program (he needed to maintain a 3.5 to stay in the program) since he can go to another reputable college and get the 3.5 and go to any med school better than albany med.</p>

<hr>

<p>palmtree can you tell me your stats? i was deferred from siena BSMD</p>

[KhAn_T1m]

<p>oops sorry, you said you already posted your stats, excuse that.</p>

<p>Yeah, so I am going to University of Rochester to pursue a PREMED track, and i'm sure if i get a 3.5 + there i will have a good shot at med school.</p>

<p>I'm of Turkmen/Iranian ethnicity. So diversity should have helped me, but i guess my application was too lacking. I need to work hard in college and not make the same mistake as doing bad in hs :P</p>

[jamimom]

<p>My niece went to Sienna. She is a shy, quiet, laid back young lady, and the school suited her well. Though there may be rampant partying, she did not find it a problem, and having visited other schools, she did not find it unusual. I am surprised that you found the students there rude, as every visit I made there was exactly the opposite. </p>

<p>Because Sienna is not well known outside of the Catholic world except through its medical program situation, the kids there do tend to be homogenous to the point that many of them come from the same groups of highschools. But that is an issue at the SUNYs as well, a reason why my son did not want to go the Binghamton. Actually, Sienna gets more out of staters than Geneseo or Binghamton. </p>

<p>The school is Division 1 , but the athletic money available is about the same as the merit money they give. For a NY private school, the tuition was very reasonable, a bargain compared to Union, St Lawrence, etc. Though a catholic school, I don't think anyone of any other religion would have any issues, as it is not a big deal at all here. It is typical of many of the small catholic colleges in this country, giving a solid liberal arts education with more of the business courses offered. It is the sort of school that more info should be available, as it is an excellent deal for certain students, and if it attracted more out of state diverse kids, it would certainly change the atmosphere at the school. My niece got a lot out of her years there, and does not regret her choice.</p>

[MMood87]

<p>uh actually u need a 3.6+ not a 3.5.</p>

<p>percentage goes roughly like this for admission 1) 45 percent GPA 2) 40 percent MCAT 3) 15 percent e.c.s</p>

<p>1) GPA must be at least 3.6 if you want to be guaranteed 2) MCAT is out of 45 points, a good score (that will get you acceptance) is a 28-31. However, do not make the mistake that a super high mcat score and a low GPA will get you into medical school. Med. school has a filtering system that rejects students automatically if they have a low gpa from the beginning. 3) E.c.s should involve volunteer work (1000+ hours over 4 years is good, become an emergency technician (takes some certificatino first), be a t.a., reesearch work and publish a paper in a medical jounral for instance)).</p>

<p>u do not major in pre-med because 1) its a small group of classes that you take to satisfy the med. school pre-reqs (full year of english, general biology, general chemistry, calculus, noncalc physics, and organic chemistry) 2) major in something u like and will do well in (don't major in physics if u like it but will get a 3.0 in because u won't get into med. school))</p>

<p>i'm going to major in anthro. and minor in computer science</p>

<p>studying for the mcats should involve at least 150 hours (usually 200 hours) to be guaraneted a 30 at least (unless you're stupid or not studying right)</p>

<p>and be warned that every university/college in the country is supercompetitive for pre-meds. thus, the pre-reqs (english, bio, chem, etc..), are very hard and are called "weeder" courses (because the professors like to make gettings As in the class very difficult and for a few students).</p>

[KhAn_T1m]

<p>im majoring in BME, as a backup plan if stuff goes wrong! but i hope it wont, i'm going to be sitting there in the library 24/7 as a premed student does, and if i dont get into USA schools, i'll have to go to Europe.</p>

[KhAn_T1m]

<p>MMood87, what colleges you looking at?</p>

[palmtree4]

<p>khanti1m- "...and go to any med school better than albany med" i dont know if u are aware of this, but it doesnt really matter which med school u go to. do u even know which med school your doctor went to??? i sure dont. thats weird that the person u knew dropped out of 7yr at rpi, such a huge waste of a seat...anyways, sorry u got deferred at siena! i seriously thought i wouldnt get in cuz im outofstate, even though they say they dont favor instate. i wish you all the luck in your pursuit in medicine!</p>

[KhAn_T1m]

<p>thanks man, i'm out of state also, like i said : i understand my mistake, did very poorly in hs (by my standards/med school standars at least :) ) and i just have to work my tail off at Rochester. Keep me posted, i'm interested in seeing how your college selection process goes ;)</p>

[fenca786]

<p>im goin to siena/amc fall 06....how is the gpa? is it hard to maintain?</p>

[ViveLaSuisse]

I know this was written AGES ago, but to this day, your description of Siena is spot on. Terrible place, and I genuinely mean that. Avoid at all costs.