Editor’s Note: The following Staff Editorial is from Pipe Dream’s Summer 2013 Orientation Issue.
You made it! The decision, that is. Picking a college is probably the biggest and most important choice you’ve had to make so far, and we applaud you for choosing wisely.
Binghamton University may have been your first choice, but if it wasn’t, you’re not alone. Here, you’ll find company among kids who were smart enough to get into an Ivy-caliber school, but not wealthy enough to pay for it. But having a student body composed of smart, broke kids is one of the things that makes us stand out; students here weren’t all handed their opportunities, they had to earn them. Your classmates will be hard-working, bright and resilient — without the silver spoon.
One of the best things, you’ll find, about Binghamton is our style of dorm living. After spending a few weeks in your residential community, you’ll be surprised by how at-home you feel. Passing the same faces on your walk to class every day, eating with the same people in the dining hall and coming out to the cheesy Welcome Back Weekend events will give you a good feel for the swarm of students with whom you’ll be spending the next four years. And we think you’re going to like what you see.
We’d love to spend these pages outlining our own college stories. And believe us, we have a story or two to tell. But we can’t promise you’d find our weird nights and fond memories as entertaining as we do, and you’ll be too busy creating your own, anyway. Once you partake in your first frat party, good-weather day in College-in-the-Woods or 20-person cab ride screaming Katy Perry on your way Downtown, you’ll see what we mean.
Binghamton University isn’t perfect, and neither is the city itself. You’ll find your own battles to fight — and if you don’t, feel free to use the weather, Sodexo food or our lack of a football team. Those are classics. But it’s the not-so-classic that will sneak up on you and change your world in a way you never thought possible. It may be the random guy you meet at a frat party and end up falling in love with or the first time you get Sodexo Sue to crack a smile. You’ll know when it happens, and you’ll laugh at yourself because what they say is true: college is the best four years of your life, and you won’t come out the same person you came in.
Freshman year is a world of mostly pleasant surprises, before the years of too much caffeine and too little sleep have taken their toll. For now, keep the spring in your step and an open mind as you grow and learn with a group of talented and passionate peers. They’re about to become your best friends. So get ready for the most exciting, horrifying, challenging and fun ride of your life. We’re proud to have made it here, and you should be, too.