SUNY Corning Community College (CCC) and Binghamton University have partnered to create a new program called Binghamton Express, which will allow students to transfer from CCC directly to BU after meeting requirements.

Students who transfer to BU can join Harpur College of Arts and Sciences or the Decker School of Nursing. Since this is the first year of the program, these are the only schools at BU that students can transfer to.

Each year, Harpur College will take up to 75 students and Decker will take up to 25 students from the Binghamton Express program.¶
Starting in the fall 2017 semester, students at CCC can fill out an application and a program enrollment form. First-year students are required to have earned 30 credits and have at least a 3.1 GPA. Second-year students must have earned 60 credits and maintained at least a 3.0 GPA. Prospective Decker School of Nursing students must obtain an associate’s degree in nursing and be a licensed registered nurse with at least a 3.0 GPA to be able to transfer into the school.

Jenae Norris, the senior associate director of recruitment at BU, said that this partnership will ultimately help students achieve their academic goals through the collaboration between the two schools.

“The purpose of the program is to provide opportunity and access through the seamless vehicle of SUNY as two institutions work collaboratively together in order to provide a viable pathway for students to live up to their full potential and successfully reach their ultimate goals,” Norris wrote in an email.

Similar to the Binghamton Advantage Program (BAP), a joint program that was started in 2011 in which students can transfer to BU from Broome Community College (BCC), prospective students in the Binghamton Express program will be able to access some BU amenities while they are attending CCC. This includes access to the University’s library system as well as access to athletic and student events.

However, unlike BAP, Binghamton Express students will not be living on the BU campus while taking classes at CCC. Additionally, all CCC students can apply to the Binghamton Express program whereas BAP is by invitation only.

Norris added that the new program will be beneficial to both schools in that it will help CCC students continue their education and it will also help BU’s enrollment management planning because of the advanced knowledge of the transfer students. Norris said that this program will benefit the Southern Tier in general.

“This new initiative allows us to further strengthen the pool of graduates who may be more likely to fill positions locally so that our state’s economy is also able to benefit in the future,” Norris wrote.

BU’s relationship to community colleges is not limited to programs like BAP and the Binghamton Express program. Delanie Madison, a senior majoring in business administration, transferred from BCC after earning an associate’s degree in business administration. Although Madison was not a part of BAP, she said that transferring to BU was an easy transition.

“Transferring into Binghamton University, I did not have to worry that all of my credits I received at Broome Community College were not going to be able to go towards my Bachelors degree at Binghamton University,” Madison wrote in an email. “Binghamton University’s transferring process was seamless and all of the staff were always available for help.”