Stony Brook University

Date: Mar 11 2010
Major: Psychology (This Major's Salary over time)
Let me preface this by saying that Stony Brook was not a choice for me. I am a Long Islander, I graduated HS a few years early, and my parents didn't want to send me off to school. Although I ended up living on campus, Stony Brook was the only option for me, and I ended up getting paid to go there, which is nice.

I started Stony Brook as a Business major, but left the program (switched to Psychology) because it was so poor. I wouldn't say that the faculty is bad- it's the students that ruined it for me, and I believe that it's the students that keep Stony Brook's reputation within Finance as weak as it is. The school will take anyone, and as usual, the bottom rung flocks to Business.

I found the Psych department to have similar issues (it attracts a female-heavy cross section of the bottom rung), but at least the program has a decent reputation. The Honors program in Psychology was a waste of time for anyone not going into academia.

At the major global bank that I work at now, Stony Brook is only considered to be a recruiting ground for technology and operations people. Through sheer force of will and hard work, I finagled my way to a coveted front office position, but the stigma of the Stony Brook name is something I will have to bear.

Now, onto the nits- the entire administration has a lazy, surly, civil service mentality. This is welfare economics at its worst, and it is absolute pervasive throughout the University's staff. You will NEVER be treated as the paying customer that you are. Going to Stony Brook was like four years of waiting in line at the DMV.

The dorms are terrible. Truly awful, even compared to other state schools such as Geneseo. The people in Campus Residences make things worse by being utterly lazy, inept, and arrogant. And I'm saying this after spending a few years as an RA.

I hate to even say this, as the level of diversity on campus is amazing, but you are truly marginalized if you are a white student. There is a preponderance of minority-oriented clubs and organizations, and they run the social and political world at Stony Brook. I have never felt so out of place- on Long Island, no less.

The social scene is what you make of it- there are plenty of parties, even on weekends, if you know the right people. Are the parties crazy blow-outs? No, probably not, but you might just come out of your undergraduate experience with an education rather than liver damage.

The Greek system doesn't work at Stony Brook, because the Administration won't let it. The existing organizations squander their influence, and the powers that be will not allow new organizations to be formed. I rallied other student leaders around my cause, and we had an ambitious community service campaign planned, but we were still stonewalled.

All in all, if I were to do it again, I would have transferred out after 2 years. There's so much potential in the school, but there needs to be a real cultural change in the Administration for it to be fulfilled, and standards need to be raised.