Stony Brook University

Date: Aug 28 2005
Major: Philosophy (This Major's Salary over time)
The upside is that the academics here are decent. My department has some excellent profs: Allison and Casey are the real deal. Too bad their classes are usually large (Existentialism was 200+) and stocked with jackarses who didn't read the book and wish to broadcast their ignorance loudly. In a way this is a plus, because making a few informed comments/arguments will quickly set you apart from the crowd. The program is almost exclusively devoted to the Franco-German rather than Anglo-american crowd: If you are a Bertrand Russell fan and want to study symbolic logic you are out of luck. Get ready for a big dose of critical theory.

The English department is a sick joke. They are so shat upon by the admin that the prof's "offices" are cubicles in an abandoned Library. If you are planning to be a high school english teacher and Charlotte's Web is your favorite book then it is perfect for you… The prof's are of the absolute lowest quality imaginable. An intro class I took was from a guy with an M.A. in MUSIC ferchristsake.

The main problem with the academics, from my prespective is that all the money and smart kids are devoted to the hard sciences, bio and comp. sci. I didn't take any of these classes. My understanding is that they are brutal in terms of busywork. The intro Chem and Comp. Sci. classes for example fail close to %50 of the students in order to filter out the many drunken slackers and maintain an aura of respectability. But the biggest problem is that many of the prof's (and students) are Asians with a very poor grasp of english and little interest in teaching. Some of my science major homies literally could not understand the lectures. Not that the concepts were too advanced or the presentation unclear, but that the sounds coming out of the prof's mouth were not recognizable as words. However, if you are motivated and kiss the right arses you can easily get involved in research or be a TA. The smartest kids in all the humanities classes seem to be bio majors who are in the class to fulfill some bogus requirement.

The academics are what you come here for, cause every other aspect of the Stony Brook experience sucks massive donkey nuts. It is a commuter school, everyone with any social life leaves as soon as they get done with classes. The frat's don't have houses. The dorms are disgusting, overcrowed and overpriced. The Cafeteria's are disgusting, overcrowed and overpriced. The campus was "designed" by an insane and sadistic robot. It doesn't bother me too much that the buildings are depressingly ugly, what bothers is me is that getting from my dorm to my classes requires a 20 minute walk and crossing a busy road. Don't get me started on the administration…

If you are poor, socially aggressive, want to be a doctor or research scientist, have off-campus housing and plan to spend no time at the school beyond your classes then Stony Brook could give you a decent education at a decent price. If you are a female and have a thing for socially inept Chinese computer programmers you might have a great time as well.