The State University of New York College - Geneseo

Date: Nov 02 2011
Major: Political Science (This Major's Salary over time)
I was a very social person in high school, and also pretty happy with the way my life was going. I assumed that I would have an easy time with college, but I couldn't be more wrong.

Geneseo is in the middle of nowhere. You might think you'd be fine with that, but unless you've lived in a rural setting your whole life, you should really reconsider. The nearest city is Rochester, a shitty city that's about half an hour away that provides nothing other than places to eat. As for the town, it's small and isolated. I came from a small suburban area so I thought I was fine. But the isolation, as well as the lack of activity sets in fast.

As for the actual campus, it is completely dead. And when I say dead, I mean dead. The school is essentially broke due to budget cuts (they even recently cut their computer science and speech pathology programs), so if you're into campus activities, don't expect anything more than the occasional showing of a movie that's already out on dvd. And if you like to party, you probably could not pick a worse school. University police has been insanely strict since a kid died from alcohol poisoning a few years back, and as a result frats and other organizations have been forced to throw closed parties. This means that most freshmen freshmen, and many older kids (it's that hard to find a party) usually spend their weekends wandering up and down the streets that have frat houses hoping that if they look pathetic enough they might be let in. However, this will only be how they spend their weekends for the first few months of college, as the combination of the upcoming winter as well as sheer disappointment will eventually cause them to give up, and they will just stay in the dorms and watch movies every weekend.

Speaking of the weather, it's BAD. And when I say bad, I mean that it's so bad you won't want to leave the dorm even for class. You better get used to staying in dorms because unlike other colder schools like SUNY Buffalo where they have a whole underground system, you have to walk up snow-covered hills in the freezing cold to get anywhere here.

Also, I know this is really dependent on what kind of person you are, but I find the student body to be personality-less and annoying. The only time you will ever see any school spirit is at hockey games, and that's only because people tend to go crazy for hockey. There are way too many people here that wanted to go somewhere more expensive and make it clear to everyone that they don't want to be here. Also, the diversity is nonexistent, which I didn't think would bother me, but when evveryone is from either upstate New York or Long Island, I really wish for a change.

I'm not saying it isn't possible to be happy here, and there are plenty of kids that do just fine. But please don't come here expecting a lively scene with lots of stuff to do and a diverse student body beecause you will only be as disappointed as I was.