SUNY Buffalo State Top Questions

Classes in the sciences tend to be lecture-sized and are often designed to weed out the people who can't hack it. Classes in foreign languages, English, art, etc tend to be smaller and more personalized. The difficulty of your academic experience will depend primarily on your major; architecture and engineering students have a lot more work (and more competition) than communications majors. All professors are mandated to have office hours each week to which students are encouraged to come. TA-led recitations are often attached to lectures in order to give students a more personal experience. Tons of different departments and interesting courses like Sex and Communication, Film and the Senses, and Visual Imagination.

academic life is pretty demanding. some teachers don't know how to teach effectively, and in many cases you're a number. and in the classes where you're also a person, you're still treated as a number. very hard to find teachers that truly care. thats b/c UB's is all about research instead of education in some disciplines and majors. you can study hard at the libraries, but we pay so much in fees, yet there are never enough computers .... they took the diefendorf computing station, but didn't allocate more to HSL, and yet the demand was still high....administrators failed at basic supply/demand, and that hurts the students. parking is ridiculous - how do you have just as many or fewer spots for students than faculty/staff ???--- simple common sense would tell you that there are more students than faculty/staff, yet the spaces are the same ? how does that logistically work ? only in the fact that there are more opportunities to scam,steal, and extort more money from students (at the same time raising tuition/fees, and while textbooks ~$80) guests also share student spaces, and the shared lots only benefit faculty/staff b/c they can park closer to lecture halls/offices, while there are always empty spots in faculty/staff lots on both N and S campuses.

The sizes of classes vary largely. Most of my classes are rather large, which can be intimidating. However, if you make the effort to utilize office hours and contacting your professor, most of them are willing and appreciative of the contact with students. The education at UB is geared often towards the future, the bigger picture, and a student's opportunities after college.

The academics are decent. It is very hard to get a teacher or teachers assistant that speaks good english, especially in the freshman math and general classes. But it does depend on the major. But from experience, you will get that in all colleges.

University at Buffalo is a great academically oriented school... for some reason many of the students have a great drive to succeed and work hard. However im not too sure the reason for this because a majority of the professors are not very willing to help and even sometimes rude. There are plently of other people around that are willing to help though especially the Teaching Assistants who I have found to be a tremendous help and sincerely care about the students. Since UB is a huge research school some of the professors are more interested in their research than the the teaching part which can result in the "unwillingness" to help. Often they are some of the most intelligent people in their field of study but their teaching effectiveness may take more time for them to improve upon. As an exercise science major i do not really know any of my professors and i dont believe many of them know my name. This can come from either the large class size or the fact that i am not someone that often needs to get assistance from a teacher inorder to do well in a class. I think the school has great academic requiremtns that will give you a tremendous amount of knowledge for whatever field you may persue. And I believe it is a more difficult school than it is often given credit for and therefore it better prepares students than many other insitutions.

Psychology has one of the biggest numbers of students, and I really didn't feel connected to the teachers. Some didn't even take attendance or try to get to know the students. My favorite classes were those in the English department - the teachers seemed to care about you. I interacted mostly with those teachers; their office hours were great. In all fields, though, I had classes where participation was not required AT ALL, all the way to one class where it was about 40{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of my grade. Those were the best! Classes are generally about 35 people if you get past intro courses. The libraries are always filled, so people study a lot there. However, I find that UB does not "train" students to get a job. Undergrad seems mostly geared toward preparing for more education.

Professors are friendly here, but make sure you do your homework just like any other college and research your teacher before you sign up for the class, you dont want to get stuck with a terriblen teacher.

I think UB is a great school, in the sense that graduating from here is looked highly upon, but I feel like the professor's here are not dedicated to making it an excellent school. The professor's who are dedicated have ridiculous accents and it is almost impossible to do well in their class if you can not understand them. On the other hand there are professor's who are only interested in research and only teach because they receive grants for their projects; these professor's aren't helpful either. There are also professor's who think they are too brilliant to be teaching students who can not understand the material at their level. I've had a few really great professors who are truly intelligent and genuinely want you to learn.

The great thing about UB is you can tailor your education to determine the most productive setting. Class sizes vary, so if you like to zone out, you can pick the 300-400 person classes where you are not likely to get called out. However, if you value a personal relationship with the professor, you can take the smaller classes. As you get further into your major, this becomes less possible, however options still always exist. My favorite classes involve ones where I have a positive experience with the material or a group project. The least favorite ones are where I get stuck with slackers in group projects and don't want my own grade to suffer because of them. Depending on the time of year will affect the amount of study time. The over-acheivers (yes I am one of them) are competitive to a degree in getting good grades. The Business school is tough and taught by some of the best professors in the world, however again I question how some of them were allowed to teach. I worked my butt off for 7 semesters in order to take an easy last semester, and have thoroughly enjoyed Yoga and Self Defense. The academic requirements I feel are fair, and they make you a well-rounded student. Depending on the teacher and their experience, they will either teach straight out of the book, or give you their real life examples. I prefer the latter better.

There is not one type of student at buffalo. Many study a lot, some study when they have time and others are crammers. However I have friends in every catergory and all of them like the way they study and work. My department is very close because its smaller, business I heard was huge and no one really knows anyone. I'm really excited about the oppertunities i get with my major and i feel they will increase my chances of getting a job in the near future.