Syracuse University Top Questions

The student body for Syracuse is excellent.

SU is not an ethnically diverse campus. It's almost entirely white people. There quite a few jews (25{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c}?) but other than that look elsewhere for an ethnically diverse campus. All of which is not to say that SU isn't trying to be diverse. It's not like diversity is shunned or looked down on. It's just that it there isn't much there. The overwhelming majority of students come from New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, or Pennsylvania. Be prepared to be looked at a bit strangely if you don't come from there. (I'm from California, it's actually quite a bit of fun). A lot of Syracuse students are from wealth backgrounds. There are certainly a number that are not, but I find that a large number can depend on daddy's checkbook. Politically, SU student's are inactive. The vast majority just don't care about politics or current events - sports are more important.

I am gay and so I experience hate wherever I go. At Cuse, although there is a prominent gay population as well as organizations to help those in the LGBT community, there is still hate and discrimination. It is always guys, usually in fraternities that hold such hostility yet in order to grow, whatever environment you are in, you must hold your head up and look past their ignorance. As for any place you go, there is a wall between races. The black students at Cuse seem to congregate more on the South Campus- where apartments and sports facilities are located. They have many parties and if someone was to say we are going to a south party, you would immediately understand that it would probably be predominantly black and hispanic students attending. Who ever you are, if you come to Cuse, there will be a group of people that you click with and will have a good time with! There is such a large student body that there will be friends that you will go out with and party and get drunk with! Which, by the way, the parties at Cuse are AMAZINGGG!!!! Politically, Cuse is very diverse. I know that I am for the most part liberal, as are the majority of my friends- hey, i did say it is predominantly jewish! (okay that was a stereotype, but a true one at that!) There are those that are very religious and conservative but you just dont know who is who when you are having fun dancing and having a good time with eachother on the weekends-which, btw starts on thursdays ( and sometimes wednesdays: "wasted wednesdays").

I'm Jewish, and there's a good Jewish population--so for Passover when I went to Hillel for lunch, there was always someone I knew there. All the races in my dorm got along really well. Yes, it is true that sometimes people of certian races tend to stick together, but everyone mingles and it's really nice.

There are stereotypes that everyone is from Long Island and Jersey, which is true, but for the most part the people are very cool. Wealthy, but cool.

There is diversity on campus but there could stand to be more. It is very accepting as we are one of the only universities in the country to have an LGBT studies minor. Students are also fighting to start a Transnational Asian Studies Program. The administration pushes for diversity and connecting the university to the city of Syracuse which makes SU a pretty interesting place to be. Most SU students come from NYS (mostly Long Island, New York City, Albany, Central New York), but we also have a lot of students from New Jersey and different states and countries around the world.

It's very self driven. There are all kinds of students and while many of the majors naturally back into their own small corners, there's a lot of extracurricular activities that will get you and others interested.

Overall Syracuse students look rich and stuck up. Luckily you can find plenty of people who don't fit that mold, who don't where the "sorority" fashions and can't use daddy's credit card to buy anything. But of course, the stereotype is based off some truth. The student body is not very politically active.

Students at Syracuse are generally very aware of political events and are predominantly left. Overall I would say the campus is not religious, but there are many opportunities for students like me that want to make religion a part of their life. Generally I would say that students from the same academic department hang out together most. In the case of Illustration, we have movie nights together and all go out to lunch after class. Students definitely never talk about how much money they will be earning one day - atleast in the school of Visual and Performing Arts.

The school is very "cliquey". Having a large number of students from many different places forces most students to associate themselves with people who are most like them, whether that be racially, sexually, academically and so on. The problem is that once those alliances are made, students remain in those niches and fail to go beyond the familiar which is why for many students who were the "majority" back home, they have a rude awakening to the tensions that exists between majorities and minorities.