Newsgroups: bit.listserv.mba-l
Date:         Fri, 9 Oct 1992 12:58:38 EDT
From:         edatc@SN539.UTICA.GE.COM
Subject:      Re: Info on NY schools

Gary,

> Hi,  I have a friend who lives in New York, and she is hinting for me
> to come up that way.  I need info from all of you New Yorkers, about
> Utica, NY; how is the area, is there a University nearby with a MBA
> program that has a good MIS program?  How large is Utica?  etc....
>
> Thanks in advance, Gary Jarrell
>
> P.S.  Just a thought, a long commute to me is 50 miles one way
> so I am not adverse to driving.
>

  How funny you should ask about Utica!  I have been in Utica for the
last 14 months or so, ever since I graduated from Cornell in May 1991.
My undergraduate major was electrical engineering, and I am working
for GE-Aerospace right here in Utica.

  I have no idea how many people live in Utica, but my best guess is
that it is in the neighborhood of ~50,000.  It's a LOT smaller than
Syracuse, NY, if that means anything to you.  I am a big city person
at heart; in other words, I would be most happy around a city like
Boston or Chicago or San Francisco.  Utica just is too much of a
small, boring town for my liking.  Obviously, each person is different,
and some people my like the quaintness of a small town.  Not me.  So
take what I say with a grain of salt -- I have a natural bias against
Utica.  The only reason why I came here is because I wanted to work
for a big name company like GE, and the work experience that I'm getting
here is probably better than I'd be getting at most other companies.
Also, they are paying all expenses for me to get my master's degree in
electrical engineering.  Guess where?  I'm getting my master's degree
from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY.  Talk about a long
commute, RPI is a 2 hour drive EACH WAY, and I have to make the trip
twice a week while taking 3 classes!  I still work at GE 3 days a week,
but I get 2 full days off from work to go take classes, fully paid of
course.  I could have gone to Syracuse University, which is only 1 hour
away, but RPI is a much better school for engineering, so I decided that
the extra driving time was worth it.  Unless you are going to get a
whole day off from work like me, the only school with a recognized MBA
program in the vicinity is Syracuse University, which is about an hour
west of Utica.  As for the quality of its MIS program, I have no idea.

  Anyway, the problem I have with Utica is that there just isn't a
whole lot to do here.  Also, as a recent college graduate, I was
disappointed to find that there aren't a lot of young college-aged
people around here.  As a matter of fact, I think that Oneida County,
where Utica is located, has one of the highest average population ages
of any county in the country!  The colleges in the immediate area are:
Utica College, Hamilton College, and the SUNY Institute of Technology.
SUNY, by the way, stands for State University of New York.  All of these
schools are very small, so Utica is not like a real college town like
Syracuse, NY, or Ann Arbor, MI, or Cambridge, MA.  About half an hour
away is Colgate University in Hamilton, NY.  An hour west is Syracuse
University, and 2 hours east is RPI and SUNY-Albany.

  It's a very economically depressed area, also.  GE used to employ over
7000 people in the 70's, and today we only employ around 1500.  The
largest employers in Utica these days are the insurance companies, most
notably Utica National.  As if to add insult to injury, county officials
voted to raise the sales tax in Oneida County.  Sales tax in Utica is
now 8%, and in Rome, NY, which is a very small city right next to Utica,
it's 8.25%.  That's the same as New York City and San Francisco, for
Christ's sake!  Taxes in general are pretty high around here.  No wonder
no new businesses want to come here.

  There are no professional sporting teams in the vicinity.  We have
the Utica Devils, which is the minor league farm team for the New
Jersey Devils, and they aren't too bad.  We also have the Utica Blue
Sox, who are a very low minor league team newly affiliated with the
Boston Red Sox.  The best sporting events to see are the Syracuse
University football, basketball, and lacrosse teams, all of which
are consistently in the nation's top-20.

  Utica has a couple of nice malls and tons of miniature golf courses
and full 18-hole golf courses.  Being in central New York, we get our
share of snow, but it's not as bad as some of the northern midwestern
states.  Speaking of Geography, New York State is interesting in that
almost all cities of importance are linked by the New York State
Thruway.  Utica is just about right smack in the center of New York
State.  To the west, Syracuse is an hour away, Rochester is about 2.5-3
hours, and Buffalo is 3.5-4 hours away.  To the east, Albany is an hour
and a half away, and New York City is probably about 4 hours away.  As
far as I'm concerned, Utica's claim to fame is that it's an hour east
of Syracuse!

  Well, that's all that I can think of.  If you have any questions let
me know.  I hope this helped.


					    - Alan Chien

*********************************************
*                                           *
*  Alan T. Chien                            *
*  GE Aerospace - MD 098                    *     HAVE
*  525 French Road                          *
*  Utica, NY 13502-5993                     *    A NICE
*  (315)793-7506                            *
*                                           *     DAY!
*  edatc@sn370.utica.ge.com  (E-mail)       *
*                                           *
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