SUNY Doesn't Suck.

Indian Quad Tower, sans-freshmen.
Our lovely and notorious fountain.

· According to the Princeton Review, students at UAlbany are the #3 "Least Happy" at college. (behind only New Jersey Institute of Technology and SUNY Stony Brook). They claim the "dorms are like dungeons" (#5), "is it food?" (#3), and the "campus is tiny, unsightly, or both" (#2).

For some reason, the VelvetBagel.com staff believes that the same fraction of students surveyed by the Princeton Review's survey are the ones who can be found at the Post or Branch drinking themselves into a stupor and aren't really all that concerned with the professors who "make themselves scarce" (#1) or the "rare class discussions" (#19). Instead, they're upset about their dorm not being as big as their room back home (on Long Island, come on, you were thinking it), or the food not being as good as Mom's cooking (face it, it's not). So why not just transfer, or go home whenever you can? Well, many do. But for some reason, people stick around even if they hate it here. Could it be because we're a "party school" (#1, we know.)? Maybe because we have "lots of beer/hard liquor" (#9 and #7 respectively)? And let's not forget, of course, the "reefer madness" (#7)?

At VelvetBagel.com, we're well aware of the shortfalls of this great institution. It's a large bureaucracy. It's a little windy. The dining halls aren't open when theatre majors need them to be. However, most people we run into are fairly content here. So, we'd like to hear your reasons why SUNY Doesn't Suck. Feel free to contribute - e-mail rj9258(at)albany.edu or IM albany shaker. We'd also like to hear from you if you agree with the Princeton Review survey or the attitude of many of our fellow students.

And those loyal to SUNY answered the call:

The Bear
(The Bear requested that his identity not be revealed.)
 The Bear's top 10 reasons why SUNY Albany is an okay school:
1. I've succesfully managed to smoke pot almost every day this semester, and I've never been caught.
2. The English department is pretty sweet, Branka Arsic is a really good professor.
3. There is this lake in the middle of the woods, it's a good spot to smoke weed without getting caught.
4. The weed flows like water, and tastes better than the water.
5. I have my own personal vegan chef!
6. I can download mass amounts of music, while never having to worry about getting in trouble.
7. Last Vestige is a really good record store, at least it is now, it wasn't a few years ago.
8. Shades of Green. enough said.
9. It's cold, but not too cold.
10. Although the ratio to nice decent people is outweighed by the assholes that go here, the decent people are REALLY decent.
Dad

As an involved parent of a like-wise involved UAlbany sophomore, I feel it's vital to my son/daughter's education to provide feedback to this website.

I'll tell you why UAlbany doesn't suck: After 9.5 hours on the road, it's assuring to know that the school is within five minutes of the New York
Thruway. Mother would call that "easy on, easy off".

Having said that, I usually decide stop at a rest stop to go pee BEFORE I get to my son/daughter's suite, because you never know what condition the bathroom is in.

Oh, all right. My SON is a UAlbany student, okay?

Schuman

1. It's cheap.
2. It has such a reputation for sucking, you have low expectations, so with those expectations in mind, it turns out to be really good.
3. The Science Library is freaking awesome.
4. Stop crying about how it doesn't look like an Ivy league school. It looks like a city from the future. That's AWESOME.
5. Unlike Binghamton, not everyone is from Long Island.
6. Unlike Geneseo, not everyone is white, female, or from a suburb.
7. Unlike Binghamton or Geneseo, it's not in the middle of nowhere.
8. It's small enough that it's easy to bump into people.
9. It's big enough that if you really want to avoid someone, it's easy.
10. If you think UAlbany sucks, you'll be in good company, and you'll make lots of great friends, and then maybe you'll forget it sucks.
The Webmaster

The University at Albany provided us with these nice little chances to consider our own fallibility as humans. We see how others have erred in judgement and in spelling, and it makes us take stock of our own faults. That said, this new sign on Dutch Quad really makes me wonder to whom my (mom's) state school dollars are going. Not only are the names of two of the residential halls misspelled (which I could understand, they're crazy Dutch names), they could not even spell "cafeteria". Come on, man.

They'll probably cover the offending words up with tape in a few weeks, and reprint them correctly. Or they won't, and it will survive as a testament to our Institution.

I love it here.

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