<p>It’s more difficult to get accepted to Binghamton than Stony Brook, and Binghamton’s ranking is higher than SB. It’s not even a comparison between BU and SB. Binghamton is also known as the Public ivy. For the best SUNY, it’s obviously Binghamton. For LAC it’s Geneseo.</p>
<p>“Best” is silly as is Public Ivy (no offense to anyone.</p>
<p>Stony Brook is great for the sciences, however, Buffalo has the better engineering program (noted by rankings and age of program). Also great health sciences. Overall, won’t matter which you choose for STEM programs. Binghamton, not STEM, but highly regarded for other programs.</p>
<p>As far as OP, no SUNY will by itself get you into any law school. Law school admissions are based on LSAT scores and GPA. See Law school forum for more information on that.</p>
<p>@akidnamerob — Actually, Stony Brook is ranked more highly than Binghamtom — 34 vs 44 of national public universities (<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/top-public/page+2”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/top-public/page+2</a>) and 82 vs 97 out of all national universities (<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/page+8”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/page+8</a> — that’s the page for SB; Binghamton is on the next page). Now, I’m not arguing that these rankings are the definitive measure of the quality of the undergraduate education, as rankings are determined in large part by the research that goes on in the school as well as the quality of the graduate program. However, it’s simply not true that Binghamton is better ranked than Stony Brook. In fact the opposite is true, and Stony Brook is the highest ranked of all the SUNY schools (under general rankings; others may outrank it in specific sub-fields).</p>
<p>Funny to see all this arguing about Binghamton vs Buffalo vs Stony Brook. They are all pretty poor but exactly how bad you rank them depends upon the comparison right? Obviously most private schools will be better-certainly any that are in the top 200. The following states have better universities: California, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, Texas, Washington, Connecticut, Georgia, South Carolina, Maryland, Indiana, New Jersey, Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa, Delaware. Stony Brook is the highest rated of the SUNYs but that is after at least one or more schools from these states. And above Binghamton you’d have to add Alabama and Colorado! </p>
<p>“Obviously most private schools will be better-certainly any that are in the top 200” — um, nope. All three of these universities will outrank many private universities in the top 200 as is obvious given their significantly sub-200 ranking in the list of all U.S. universities (public & private). Overall, I agree that the arguments about the rankings of these universities are fairly ridiculous, but I completely disagree that this is because these three SUNY schools are “pretty poor”. Rather, they’re all pretty good. Also, the argument itself is about the somewhat arbitrary and conter-productive ranking system. However, within the confines of these different rankings and classifications, all 3 schools do fairly well. Buffalo & Stony Brook qualify as RU/VH universities, and Binghamton as a RU/H (<a href=“List of research universities in the United States - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_research_universities_in_the_United_States</a>) and they’re all “Tier 1” universities (<a href=“Web Page Under Construction”>Web Page Under Construction).</p>
<p>Binghamton administration (and especially admissions and PR) has apparently worked hard to keep the term “Public Ivy” floating around for something like 15 years. Let’s put it to rest. There is no Public Ivy. And even if there were, SUNY Binghamton (aka Binghamton University) would not be one of them. The only reason Binghamton remains on any lists that make it appear to be a reasonable college option for strong students is because it gets a huge number of NY applicants who can select it along with other colleges with a simple keyboard click. Since it is smaller than the other 3 “Centers”, the ratio of applicants to acceptances makes it look more competitive than the others. The yield is very low so it is unlikely that a majority of students are selecting Binghamton over the other Centers. </p>
<p>The school is not anything like it was before the previous university president. That president stayed for about 20 years. The president resigned/retired in disgrace when she learned a small part of her corruption was to be revealed to the public in the "“Kaye Report”. GOOGLE IT! One of the most telling aspects of the entire scandal is that they corrupted the investigation of the corruption. </p>
<p>When the scandal was splattered all over the news, the corrupt SUNY administration, in damage control mode, broke the law yet again by carefully selected an investigation team they thought they could (and did) control. They violated the law by not submitting the job to the bidding process-something they were not naive about but chose to violate. Given the public nature of the investigation and the widespread nature of the corruption, it was impossible to obscure all the corruption even by hiring a favorable friendly investigation team, but, while still scathing, the report was apparently far less so than would have been the case had the investigation team not been so carefully selected by the corrupt administration. To the administration, It was apparently worth the price of the fines, to avoid an actual investigation conducted by people motivated to reveal the truth. It appears that SUNY administration was so motivated to hide the full extent of the corruption that they decided to risk million dollar fines in order to select who would be writing the report. And that is apparently what happened. After the corruption was revealed in the Kaye report some of the involved administrators were promoted! Not fired. Promoted! Then the corruption of the process was revealed. </p>
<p>The basketball scandal, the dishonesty over hazing, and the corruption of the investigation process (of investigating the corruption) suggest it is a school that needs to clean itself up. If that is what gets to the public, imagine what happens behind the scenes. Instead of investing in the phrase “public Ivy” perhaps the administration should implement sweeping changes. Get rid of some administrators, especially those who colluded in the corruption. </p>
<p>When Harpur college was a small college it had strong humanities program. I thought it was a good choice for strong students who did not want to attend {or could not pay for} a private college. That was over 30 years ago. Its reputation was earned. But that is not true any more. With a 20-1 student-faculty ratio, an administration that is corrupt (a small part of which is public with the Kaye Report), a 20 year history of pouring money into athletics instead of academics, and a physical location in an economically devastated crime ridden town, in my opinion it is a poor choice for strong students. The stronger students have taken note. The student body is no longer filled with the type of students who chose it over an Ivy League school. Like almost any school, it still has some strong students but there seems to be a disconnect between the published SAT/ACT scores and the actual individuals attending the school. The disconnect is so large I’ve heard discussions about how it is possible for the published scores to accurately represent the current students. One possibility I’ve heard discussed is that the school is not including SAT and ACT scores for all the students that have been accepted and submitted deposits indicating that they intend to enroll. In other words, there is speculation that the Common Data Set does not include the objective scores from all the students who submitted them. Instead, perhaps they are including a subset of scores that are higher than that of the entire class. The Kaye report did not include an investigation of the entire administration so I don’t know if that is accurate. Based on the other corruption made public, it would not surprise me. </p>
I think you all missed ESF, go stumpies! Ranked 30th public and 76th nat’l! Very specific fields and definitely not for everyone. But just like almost every other SUNY thats the point is it not?