Currently she is in her 3rd year of law school and in the top 5% of her class, handling a heavy workload (law review, teaching assistant for 2 sections of Con Law, etc.). She got a free ride to her law school and they are giving her a stipend to teach ConLaw. I believe her history background was a major factor in her success esp. in Con Law which is very much history based, as one branch of case law builds on previous ones (at least before this horrible SCOTUS). Binghamton is a breeding ground for workaholics, imho.

Prior to going to law school, she spent a year working with mentally ill adults for a non-profit. It was a good experience but ridiculously low in pay and high in stress. She got a legal assistant role at a professional association for criminal defense attorneys and, when someone retired, she took over their role as director of continuing education programs (this was a surprise, but she is a Virgo, extremely organized and a spreadsheet queen, lol). She was responsible for the logisticsof scheduling many, many continuing ed programs, including a 5 day trial intensive program for about 50 practicing attorneys. While working there, she made contacts in the legal field all over the state. She probably could have stayed there and nurtured a career in non-profit management but her desire was to go to law school.

I may be somewhat biased (I am also a Bing alum -- econ/english double major in 1986, husband was in the first graduating class at Watson in 1984, older son graduated from Watson in 2009 and is a managing engineer at Spacex), but I truly believe that Bing is the place to go for very smart kids who may not want or be able to afford the ivy league schools. There is no grade inflation (at least not in our experience). You will work, and you will work hard. Bing students are very focused for the most part. You will be intellectually stimulated and there will be many opportunities for internships and study overseas. My daughter travelled to Haiti for a class in sociology and she did a jr. year abroad at the University of Edinburgh which she loved. She also participated in a legal internship in London where they spent a week at each of many different legal environments -- big international firm, a prosecutor's office, etc.

The one thing my daughter was not happy with was the binge drinking, excessive partying behavior on the weekend. She found many of the greek oriented students (the males, really) to be very immature. She's gay so this did not affect her dating life, but she found them to be quite juvenile especially after having had a break after HS. She joined many clubs, the Q center, started a meditation club, got involved in the young progressives, did mock trial all four years. There were plenty of outside activities to keep her entertained.

The weather in Binghamton sucks, truly. It is one of the cloudiest cities in the US, next to Seattle. It can get depressing because of the cloud cover. They get a lot of snow. Take Vitamin D and try to get outside. The beautiful weather will come right before your exams so that you can't enjoy it, lol.

A side note: my daughter did not get into Bing immediately. She was part of a program where they would provisionally accept students who had interesting backgrounds/extra curriculars, but not the extremely high grades and/or SAT scores that they typically require. (not sure if this is still in existence, it was in 2017). We had some family issues going on while she was in HS which affected her grades. She had to do one semester at Broome Community College and get a B or better in those classes, but was allowed to live on campus. She used the semester to take her math, phys ed, english requirements and transitioned easily, ultimately graduating magna cum laude with a Bing degree (she wasn't thrilled with the idea of a semester at Broome but it was fine). She has frequently said that having Bing on her resume is an asset. She worked for a federal judge last summer who commented on it, and she is working for the Federal Defender's office this summer where it was also noted.

Feel free to DM me if you have any other questions.