A long commute at a good school vs a short commute at a meh school

i Got accepted into Stony Brook University as a Bio major, but I’d have to do a 40 min commute no traffic factored in. On the flip side, there’s Saint johns university, Which is a 20 minute drive away, but isn’t as reputable as SBU. My parents have wanted to move even closer to SJU as well (it would be like 5 min away) which would take me farther from stony brook. I haven’t been able to visit any of the Unis to see if they fit my standards due to corona virus, so im looking at rankings, how others describe it, and commute time. I can’t dorm.

There’s also CUNY CCNY, which is the only college I’ve had the chance to visit. I could’ve lived v close to with my sibling, but my parents would only let me go there if I got accepted Macaulay (I got rejected today ! My first rejection ?) so I’m stuck between these two colleges at this point.

Is cost significantly different, and how much does that matter?

40 minutes with no traffic problems, very quickly can turn into 90 minutes or more with traffic problems. How many alternate routes are available? Is this only possible if you drive, or can you take a bus or train?

All else being equal, choose the short commute. This will be lots and lots of travel time for four years.

Here’s a calculator that might help: https://finaid.org/calculators/awardletteradvanced.phtml

You don’t seem to like SJU very much. What would be wrong about a CCNY that is close to home for the first two years, then transferring to Stony Brook for the last two? What you save in commuting costs and time might be worth it.

So for SJU I’d be paying a little bit less than stony ~9,000 while stony is ~10 K.
There is a train/bus but it’s about double the commute at 1 hr 20 minutes.

I actually really liked CCNY and would’ve committed to the honors prgm but my parents are strictly against it bc they don’t want me going to a non Macaulay CUNY.(some old stigma or something…)

A lot of my relatives went to SJU for Bio/pharmacy and hated it a ton bc of crappy professors and rough lab Conditions. I’ve also heard of people not being able to transfer any credits over to any other colleges. However there are some benefits over SBU, like smaller classes, the accelerated D.O. Program, I don’t know if it’s worth it if I’m not really learning the material that well.

Can you dorm at Stony?

Is your goal to study medicine? Have you been admitted to the D.O. program? If so, then SJU is a nobrainer.

Pre-med/pre-pharma classes are tough no matter where you take them. Most of the work is going to be up to you.

Can you study on the train/bus? (No judgement…some people can, and some cannot focus in that situation). If you can use the commute productively, then maybe the extra-long commute would be worth it if you strongly prefer Stony Brook. Still, that’s a lot of travel time (times two) every day if you go to classes every day.

The longer commute is worth it for Stony Brook, imo. It’s a much better school.