hurley
Freshman Member
Posts: 73
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Post by hurley on Jul 31, 2006 6:00:16 GMT -5
2nd Dev. I have severasl family members that have attended both Geneseo and Bonas. While Geneseo is a good school with an outstanding academic profile you need to realize that they do "play" with their numbers. It is very difficult to get into out of high school, but a good question to ask is how difficult is it to transfer into. If you are a mediocre student and can't get into Geneseo, go to a community college for a semester and then transfer in. You don't "count" against their precious average then. They have quite a pipeline from GCC the local community college. Numbers and lists are information, but they can be bent anyway you want. I have a nephew that attended Geneseo for two years and transferred to Bonas. He said there was no comparison, Bonas with their personal attention was better. As to the level of student he didn't see much difference. (He was on the dean's list both places.)
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Post by jdtodi on Jul 31, 2006 8:41:58 GMT -5
I have to throw my two cents in. My daughter will be a freshman at Bonas in the fall. While there is a huge difference between the stated cost of attending a SUNY school vs. Bonas, in reality the actual out of pocket cost may not be significant. At least it wasn't enough to keep my daughter from going where she really wanted to go. I know that will differ based on family financial profiles, but our experience showed me that until you've actually received the financial statements from a variety of institutions, it is hard to know what the real cost differences will be. We were very pleasantly surprised.
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2nddev
Sophomore Member
Posts: 109
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Post by 2nddev on Jul 31, 2006 10:51:57 GMT -5
If you guys will please re-read my initial post, you will see that I tried to convince my daughter to go to SBU. I assure you that I would not have done that if I didn't believe she would get an excellent education there, be able to get a good job, etc. As far as cost goes, I agree - for us the academic incentives offered by SBU made the choice between the two schools negligible from a cost perspective. Finally, most colleges (Geneseo included) are much easier to transfer into as compared to being accepted as a freshman. However, I really think that you can't ignore the huge difference in GPAs and SATs. In my opinion, potential employers and grad/professional schools definitely take the reputation of the colleges into consideration and the make-up of the freshman classes are a barometer that they use.
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Post by sburizz on Jul 31, 2006 17:45:56 GMT -5
2nddev, I understand what you are trying to say, sorry for misinterpretting your post. You are right that SBU needs to improve the GPA and SAT scores before we can become a university that will compete with the Boston Colleges or Notre Dames. SBU needs to become a nationally recognized university to compete and if we are losing students to Geneseo, Canisius or Niagara we need to change that.
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Post by wgt on Jul 31, 2006 20:58:26 GMT -5
I also was pained by the “safety school” chant at the Fordham game. It was the first time Fordham had enough students to form a chant at a Bona game. Previous years the atmosphere was more like a Bona home game. That game was one of Bonas best of the season . Glad to hear the take on hurley’s nephew’s experience at Geneseo & Bona. Wishing jdtodi’s daughter a Good Journey at Bona.
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Post by mikenice on Jul 31, 2006 21:03:27 GMT -5
The 1290 SAT scores of the incoming freshman, while seemingly impressive, is also a product of the new SAT scoring scale. I'm not sure how that would compare to the old scoring system. I know that not all incoming freshman have taken the test on the new scoring system, but I'd imagine this has skewed numbers some. I'm sure it's still a strong average, but don't confuse a 1290 from your SAT days to what it is now.
Anyone know how many points the new SAT is?
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Post by wgt on Jul 31, 2006 22:44:33 GMT -5
The new SAT has a top score of 2400 due to the addition of the essay which added 45 more mins to the previous 3 hour test with a max 1600 score. This spring 107 students nationwide scored a perfect 2400. Compare to 897 students who scored a perfect 1600 a few years ago. SAT scores have trended upward over the last decade or more. The intense prepping for the SAT is partly the reason for higher scores.
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Post by jdtodi on Aug 1, 2006 6:32:35 GMT -5
The SAT was "renormed" about 10 years ago. At the risk of oversimplifying, you can add about 100-150 points to your score if you took the test before 1994 (I think that was the year).
However, the new test, the 2400 test which began this year, has resulted in LOWER scores out of 1600. (Most schools are ignoring the essay for now since they have no track record with which to compare students.) This has been a big problem for some admissions offices. Some had to really scramble to adjust acceptances and scholarship awards. The SAT says the decrease was about 5 points, but some admissions offices insist it must be more. Recent articles in "Inside Higher Education" offer a good look at the problem.
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Post by bigdobber on Aug 1, 2006 7:41:21 GMT -5
It's interesting to see this topic bring out the discussion regarding academic competitive. When I went to Bonas back in the 70's, the academics were on par with Villanova, Providence, Fairfield and a host of other Catholic Universities in the Northeast. It's obvious that many of those schools today have significantly higher academic standards that start with admissions. I will agree with many who praise the education at Bonas and feel that it is on par or better than schools with more stringent standards, however the facts speak for themselves and kids who are looking at colleges do hold the SAT average scores and selectivity of a University as important. I believe that to change this will take decades but the recent construction of new facilities, etc is a start. My kids did not consider Bonas at all and I was not going to tell them they were overlooking the overall experience. They both went to Patriot League schools and are heading to top Law Schools. The numbers need to rise before you will pull weight with Guidance Departments. I think money has always been the big problem here and recent mismanagement and bad press does not help.
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2nddev
Sophomore Member
Posts: 109
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Post by 2nddev on Aug 1, 2006 7:50:58 GMT -5
Regardless of changes to the SAT scoring scale, the fact remains that SBU's incoming freshman class cannot compare academically with a school like Geneseo. According to Collegeboard.com the middle 50% of the Bonas incoming class has SATs of 480-570. Compare that to Geneseo at 600-670. I don't know anything about the "ACT" test, but on that one SBU incoming freshman scored 19 to 24 while Geneseo kids scored 26 to 29. I really hope that the facility improvements will help to make St. Bonaventure more competitive.
Had a great time at the Fordham game, chants or no chants. It was a war. I was very proud of The Bonnies.
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Post by OceanStateBonnie on Aug 1, 2006 10:06:15 GMT -5
Providence College announced last week that it will no longer consider the SAT in its admissions process.
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2nddev
Sophomore Member
Posts: 109
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Post by 2nddev on Aug 1, 2006 10:38:27 GMT -5
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Post by rimRocka44 on Aug 1, 2006 11:03:06 GMT -5
According to Collegeboard.com the middle 50% of the Bonas incoming class has SATs of 480-570. Compare that to Geneseo at 600-670. Unless things have changed dramatically as it relates to the scoring of the SAT's, I think you need to check your sources or the numbers you gave. You used to get 400 just for putting your name on the thing. So 480-570 or even Geneseo's superior 600-670 being some sort of midrange seems ridiculous. Used to be that the NCAA required at least a 700 SAT score to be eligible to play, take with that what you will.
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2nddev
Sophomore Member
Posts: 109
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Post by 2nddev on Aug 1, 2006 11:17:41 GMT -5
Go to collegeboard.com and search St. Bonaventure, then SATs. This is the official site for SATs. It's where the kids sign up to take the test.
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Post by sireltonruddock on Aug 1, 2006 11:37:56 GMT -5
2nddev,
When did you graduate from SBU? I've got some 2nd Dev ties of my own.
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