http://www.newbrunswick.rutgers.edu/about/national-rankings
Take a good look at this link. To say Binghamton is in the same league is foolish.
Stony Brook may be but it isn’t as comprehensive a school either.
I’m not sure that the OP is interested in which of these schools is more comprehensive, particularly as regards graduate programs.
By the simple metric of standardized scores, Rutgers places 189th nationally and Binghamton, 106th. If Binghamton is not “in the same league [as Rutgers]” (#22), then that’s because it would be in a higher league, not a lower one.
That said, though somewhat different in mission, these schools are close enough academically. A decision based on either financial or intangible factors could certainly be a good one.
(Source: “610 Smartest Colleges” / Business Insider.)
To group Rutgers and Bing in the same class would be foolish. Bing is CLEARLY better, at least academically. Rutgers has some individual disciplines that Bing doesn’t have, and since Rutgers is larger it has “more opportunity”. But a school and its opportunity is what you make of it. I think Rutgers is trashy, overrated and overpriced. It is located in one of the worst towns in the country. The campus is disorganized and unsafe. Binghamton is beautiful and safe. The size is perfect and the academic rigor is magnificent. Rutgers also gives no scholarships.
Our school sends a decent number of kids to Binghamton every year. The vast majority of kids who apply to Binghamton do not have Rutgers on their list. Both schools are good state schools, but they are very different and attract different students. My guess is that SUNY Buffalo is more like Rutgers.
Binghamton typically serves as a safety school for very very top students who have little intention of going. It is very very hard if not impossible to get into Binghamton during the EA round if you have under a 4.0. The typical student who eventually attends Bing has between a 3.8 - 4.0 ( give or take) HS GPA with very good but not " top" test scores. In comparison, students from our HS who apply to Rutgers do not have the grades or scores to get into Binghamton.
OOS cost for Binghamton is very good.
In contrast with @twogirls high school, my own high school sent 16 of my graduating class (2015) to Rutgers, the lowest total in many years. However, the past two years, we’ve only sent three students combined to Binghamton. I personally applied to Binghamton and not Rutgers, but not because I felt Binghamton was inherently superior to Rutgers (it’s not).
@jdschooled5 Binghamton’s surrounding area is crap as well…
Every HS classmate or friend who attended Bing tends to regard the campus and moreso, the area surrounding it as “a dump”. It factored into several of those classmates making a beeline to transferring out…often to schools like Columbia.
Back in the '90s when I was in HS, it was regarded as one “acceptable” last choice option for students with relatively strong, but not outstanding GPAs and by Stuy’s standards, extremely low SAT scores.
And the town isn’t much to write home about according to another friend who currently spends a week or two each month in Bing on business. Each time he does, he counts down the days to when he could leave to come back to NYC.
The area right outside of Binghamton is not a college town. It is a main strip similar to main strips in many suburbs. We stayed in a nice hotel when we visited and ate dinner in a decent restaurant right across the street. It is not fancy and it is not a college town, but I can think of many areas of NYS that fit the definition of " crap" way more than Binghamton.
There are many kids at Bing who received merit to Northeastern and BU or who were accepted to schools such as Penn State ( no merit) or UF ( no merit). These kids can’t afford ( or will not spend) the $40,000+ price tag. Top top students generally get merit to schools such as Ohio State honors ( bringing the cost down to less than Bing) or receive some aid to top publics or Ivies and choose those schools.
There are many schools that are visually more appealing than Binghamton. There are many schools with cool college towns which Bing does not have. I also think that many of the top public flagships provide research opportunities for undergraduate students. Binghamton will, but you have to search for it. A driven student will. I know one who participated in research in DC.
I sound like a broken record. Bing is not for everybody, but it offers an education that will lead to employment or grad school. All of the students I know who graduated from Bing are very successful right now. Many of them graduate and earn enough money to rent an apartment in Manhattan. That’s not bad for $22,000 a year.
The same outcomes could be said for graduates from Rutgers and for someone who is in-state for NJ…I’m not sure Bing is so much better academically that it’s worth the extra OOS.
^ agreed
Assuming both are affordable it should come down to fit. The OP should re-visit the two schools before making a final decision. The schools do have different attributes (ex. size) which the OP should take into account in making a final decision.
Maybe I’m crazy but I didn’t have a huge problem with the Binghamton area. I went to grad school in Philly and live in Manhattan now so I definitely have a frame of reference for what a vibrant town is, but for college, I kind of liked Binghamton. On the main strip you can go to the movies, get froyo, go to Friendly’s or Panera or Moes or whatever. I actually really enjoyed walking around downtown; I loved walking over the bridge and there’s plenty of ice cream places, breweries, intersting stores, artsy shops, and other stuff like that. There are some great restaurants, too. I definitely wouldn’t write home about it or rank it in the top ten towns in the US, but I’d say it’s completely livable and fine.
Did you apply to TCNJ? If not, you may want to put in an application ASAP. If you like Bing because it is smaller than Rutgers, TCNJ would be similar, if not better, and cheaper.
Based on our HS naviance, the average GPA of kids accepted to Bing and Rutgers is the same: 3.6. Bing accepted kids down to below a 3.0. The average accepted SAT at both is mid-1200s (on 1600 scale), but Bing accepted kids down to 1050. This is an OOS for Bing.
Rutgers has lower stats because it takes more kids and because it has yet to attract the high stats OOS kids that other big schools like Penn State do. But there are plenty of very high stats kids at Rutgers who couldn’t afford or chose not to pay for more expensive schools.
Either will give you a good education, but they are very different in size, offerings, and other factors. I wouldn’t pay extra for Bing because it is “better” but maybe it would give you more opportunity to get closer to profs or do research. Good luck.
So the conclusion of this discussion is that it is ridiculous to think that Bing is much better than Rutgers and that it is equally ridiculous to think Rutgers is much better than Bing.
I think the most useful advice in this thread is to save your debt capacity for law school and to choose the more affordable option (unless you could go to Bing without much debt and really feel it is a better match for you and your intended major.)
Too many students feel that “the grass will always be greener” out of state. They don’t want to go to the “same college everyone from my high school is going to.” They often end up at an out of state public that is more expensive but not any better than their in-state choices.
SUNY B is in a suburbanish area on a main drag with suburban malls. I would have no hesitation about having a teenage child walking around late at night. Rutgers (New Brunswick in particular) is in the middle of the homeless wino area of a poor city. If you enjoy being harassed for money while taking children to the theater, go live in New Brunswick. The traffic is horrific. Neither pro nor con, but New Brunswick is really unpleasant to walk around in.
Most of the time, the OOS publics ARE better than the in-state choices. For example, UNC, NCSU, and UNCW are all better than all the NY and NJ publics.
So let’s stay on topic. For a good NJ student who does not have money to burn and plans to seek employment after graduation the answer is a no-brainer:
- R-NB gives merit scholarships to instate students up to full ride so the cost differential with Bing may be much bigger
- There is a Honors program in Rutgers with guaranteed honors housing
- Some programs at Rutgers are highly ranked nationally. Rutgers is respected outside NJ and joining Big 10 will only increase its national standing.
- Rutgers-NB is located in a large metropolitan area with a lot of internship and employment opportunities, Bing is in economically depressed area. Compare Job and Internship Fairs at R vs B, note number of opportunities and companies that hire there. A lot of large banks, insurance companies, telecoms, pharma, Wall Street and Silicon Alley are within 1hr from R-NB and hire/offer internships to R students.
- For a NJ student it is much easier to obtain Summer internship through Rutgers commutable from home. Good chance you will be interviewed by Rutgers graduates.
- For NJ residents living within the commuting distance from R-NB (most of them are) it is easy to take Summer classes or create coop opportunities. Not everyone’s college experience is a smooth sailing and this additional flexibility may be important.
- Rutgers-NB is one hour away on the train from Manhattan that is beneficial for fun or job search during the school year, Bing is in the middle of nowhere and, by the way, weather there in the Winter is not that good.
i agree its a no-brainer for a nj resident. However, the school to consider as a #1 choice is TCNJ by far for undergrad, especially for someone with legal aspirations (just look at the alumni). TCNJ is the highest rated state school nj , its small and has an absolutely beautiful campus. Do your research but many accolades out there for TCNJ including #1 public in the North by USNWR, top B-school per Bloomberg, one of the 75 most competitive schools in the country per Barrons, etc,. Serioulsy deserves your consideration asap.
@stones3 while I agree with you (and I think that TCNJ is better than both schools OP is considering), I have to ask: are you affiliated with TCNJ in any way, shape, or form?
Yes, I agree that there will be much greater opportunities for internships and summer jobs that could lead to a full time job in New Brunswick than Binghamton. The Binghamton region has been in a recession for decades, after the loss of tens of thousands of good-paying jobs, and it is an isolated and not highly populated location.
If you would need or want to live off-campus as an upperclassman, the cost of housing in New Brunswick may be high. I’d guess you could rent a whole house in Bing for the cost of a one bedroom in New Brunswick.
To respond to an above post, very few students will have the ability to choose between UNC-CH and Rutgers. UNC-CH has a strict cap on out of state students, which makes out of state admissions very very difficult. Also, the North Carolina state government has been recently cutting funding and interfering with the academic independence of many of North Carolina’s public universities, and a new policy was quickly established, with little debate, that reduces the amount of funding UNC-CH can use towards need-based aid. Therefore, out of state students at N Carolina publics may expect rapidly increasing tuition and decreasing aid during their next 4 years.
In comparison, many other states are now trying to compensate for past cutting of funding to public universities, and are actively seeking out of state students.
UNC-CH continues to meet the full demonstrated need of in state and out of state students.
SUNY Binghamton students who want internships get them- at least the students that I know. A driven student will succeed at Rutgers or Binghamton. If money is not a concern pick the one you like better.