I don’t know any international students personally, but I do know certain residence halls have housing specifically for them.

In the Union there are 72 flags hanging over the second floor, which represent all of the countries that have either sent students to Geneseo or that Geneseo students have studied in through study abroad programs. I can’t recall all of the countries from memory—it’s a lot to remember—but I know for a fact that there’s specifically French-speaking international housing on campus, and I don’t see why Ireland wouldn’t be among the countries represented in the Union’s flags.

Sorry if I couldn’t be that informative :X

The people in Geneseo are usually friendly, and there are a lot of little shops and restaurants/foodie-places on Main Street. On weekends the local movie theater offers “midnight movies” with reduced ticket prices for students. There’s a bowling alley down the road from the local Wegmans, although I don’t know how many people go there regularly since it’s kind of removed from campus.

As far as nightlife goes, I can’t offer much personal advice considering I’ve never been to a college party, but I assure you Geneseo’s old reputation as a party school still stands to some extent. While it isn’t as wild as some other SUNYs (*cough*Albany*cough*), a large amount of the student body go out on weekends, mostly to off-campus locations like Court Street for frat- or sorority-hosted parties. Some upperclassmen who live off-campus host parties in their apartments around town; it’s also not uncommon for students to casually drink in their dorms. Also on campus is the I.B., a sort of dance club/bar thing located near Main Street, which is popular with some students and loathed by others (I’ve never been there, so I can’t give an opinion one way or the other). There are a few bars around town as well.

For sober fun there are usually varying events hosted around campus or in the College Union each weekend. They’re usually hit-or-miss, but some of them are pretty cool—I met my boyfriend at one of those ;) haha

I applied specifically for suite-style housing, so I lived in Nassau Hall my freshman year and I’ll be living in Erie Hall my sophomore year. Since I’m home for the summer, I don’t have any photos of my dorm to show you, but the Geneseo website offers picture slideshows of most of the residence halls.

If you’re a freshman, you’ll probably be living in South Village, unless you end up in Jones or Livingston which are in the center of campus. Freshmen who apply for suite-style usually get put in Nassau or Suffolk Hall, and freshmen who apply for corridor-style usually end up in Onondaga, Niagara, Jones, or possibly Livingston. Wayne Hall (corridor-style, the honors dorm) and Seneca Hall (suite-style, Writer’s House) are open to freshmen, too, but you have to apply specifically for those residence halls if you want to live there.

If you’re a transfer, there’s a chance you’ll get put in South Village too, but you’ll most likely be living with other transfers/non-freshmen (and you could pretty much end up anywhere on campus). In South Village, Nassau, Suffolk and the fourth floor of Niagara are open to transfer students. As far as North Village goes, I’m pretty sure transfers can end up anywhere there’s an empty space, except maybe the residence halls that require a specific application (unless you apply for those).

Generally, residence halls in North Village are considered better than those in South Village, because some of them have been renovated in the past few years (and also because you don’t have to cross a bypass to get to class every day). But even though people complain about South Village a lot, it’s really not that bad. It’s doable. But I understand why people don’t want to live there for more than one year.

Best of luck! Hope I helped!

Geneseo is a public, state-funded school, so tuition is a lot cheaper than it is at most private schools. But as a result, most schools in the SUNY system—Geneseo included—don’t give out many scholarships unless you have really good grades.

As for other types of financial aid, I don’t know that much aside from work study—if you apply and qualify for work study, Geneseo will guarantee you a job on campus. (That’s how I got my job working for the College Union.)

I’m sorry I can’t be of much more help, but maybe this will help answer your questions. Good luck!

I’d like to study abroad eventually, although I don’t know where I’d want to go, because it depends on what’s offered by the school (but hopefully I’ll end up someplace English-speaking, because my conversational French is a bit rusty…). I know a lot of people choose to study abroad at least at some point during their college career—my former roommate’s doing it next year, I think, and my boyfriend is going to Amsterdam this summer for a 3-week program—but I don’t know the exact data for it. I think it’s something like 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 students decide to study abroad at some point, but don’t quote me on that.

Nope! I’m not in a sorority, and it hasn’t affected my ability to make friends at all. A lot of people pledge, from what I’ve gathered, but I don’t necessarily think that affects how friendships on campus are made in the long run. I’m not in a sorority, and I don’t really have any intention of joining one (except maybe APO, which is a co-ed community service fraternity), but that’s just because it’s not my style. I have 2 sisters—that’s more than enough for me! lol

Caffeine. Lots and lots of caffeine.

On a relevant note, I actually overestimated how cold it would be, so I ended up bringing a lot of coats/scarves/etc. that went underused. Bring a decent amount of warm-weather clothing—but don’t forget it can get hot too. (Make sure you bring shorts for the first, like, month of school.)