My instate flagship, SUNY Buffalo, is a fantastic school and I’d be happy to go there. It’s dirt cheap and my dual enrollment credits are guaranteed to transfer (in NY, public CC credit automatically transfers to state schools). Honestly it’s a steal. I can graduate in 3 years or space out my courses more, all for less than 25k a year (before merit aid/scholarships). My one main gripe though is location. Buffalo is a great city and the fact that the campus is 20 minutes away means that I have easy access to it without the safety or noise concerns. But I’m not sure how good it is in terms of internships and networking and stuff like that. We all know that that’s pretty important in getting a job, so I’m wondering if some of the schools in bigger, more happening cities would ultimately wind up being a greater value in the long run despite the OOS/private tuition. The schools I’m thinking of are UT Austin, Northeastern (great co-op program), NYU, and UCLA. I know these schools (especially the last three) are crazy expensive and I’m not bound to get any aid at all at the public ones, and it seems crazy that I’d want to go to these places considering Buffalo is either as good as them or marginally worse in my major (computer or electrical engineering), but if I go out and actively seek internships and connections and a network at these places, do you think I would ultimately be better off, financially and otherwise, than if I had stayed in state? If the answer is “it depends on the money”, at what point do you think it would not be smart to take the higher tuition? I’m probably not paying 70k to go to a school just because of a slightly higher ranking and a better location, but if you’re talking about 35-40k then it’s more reasonable. My parents told me this and while we’re not struggling financially at all, it would certainly be smart to not spend a ton of money if I can get similar returns at a much cheaper school. But will these OOS/private schools ultimately give me better returns?
Hi–These are all great questions. In computer science what you can do is probably more important that where you’re located. That being said, getting your first job can be helped by being closer to your desired job market. Also, your jobs will help teach you as you go along. In other words, you will learn as you grow in your career and that will give your career momentum.
My question is: why those schools? Northeastern you said has coop program. Okay. And it’s in Boston, which may have start ups of some sort. Austin has start ups, but OOS tuition is a big drawback. NYU gives lousy financial aid, but is in NYC and close to the great internships there. UCLA near start ups I guess and OOS tution.
First principle: no education is worth $250K debt which is possible given some of the schools you list. NYU and maybe UCLA as OOS tuition: these are expensive schools.
Second: what is your ultimate goal? Being near internships for low tuition? If that’s the case, then there are alternatives.
You live in NY state. Good news! Your in-state schools should offer better tuition than any OOS schools. That takes care of tuition issues. The second question, are there any schools with computer science near start ups? Fortunately the answer is yes.
First: look at Buffalo’s opportunities and find out what they really are. You can ask the Career office at Buffalo for the list of recruiters that have come there. See if any appeal to you.
Second: look at schools closer or inside of NYC that are cheap. Off the top of my head, I’d look at the CS programs at the various CUNYs. CUNY is known as the “Harvard of the Proletariat” in that it’s a quality education at rock bottom prices. (https://www.hastac.org/blogs/cathy-davidson/2014/09/03/eighty-five-percent-or-why-cuny-new-yorks-best-kept-secret) CUNY has produced several Nobel prize winners (http://www2.cuny.edu/alumni/nobel-laureates/). It’s near nearly every start up you could hope for and well established companies like Google. They are also dirt cheap. My feeling is that the CUNYs are the smart person’s NYU. They offer what NYU offers but at a fraction of the price. And no debt for most students.
Here is a search tool where you can see which of the colleges have CS–http://www2.cuny.edu/admissions/undergraduate/explore/programs/
There are also SUNYs closer to NYC that you may want to consider: http://www.suny.edu/attend/find-a-suny-program/undergraduate/
If you hustle, you will do fine at Buffalo. Get good grades, and be aggressive about getting experience. Take the opportunities you can scare up locally to build any technical experience this coming summer, during the school year, and maybe after your first year (can be hard to get internships first summer anywhere). Apply early for internships – start before winter break, and hit it hard over break. Cultivate relationships with a few profs for good recommendations. Get to know older students in your major, and keep in touch when they leave school. Use the campus career center a lot – for resume review, practice interviews, and leads. Keep in touch with them – one of my kids once scored a local part time internship during the school year through her school’s career office. Don’t waste your money on those other schools.
If you can get over the usual revulsion that folks in the Northeast have regarding the Midwest, check out U of Nebraska at Omaha…a very affordable up-and-coming school in a city with lots of companies and internship possibilities. Or the U of Nebraska at Lincoln, the state flagship.
Would you consider SUNY Stonybrook? It is in state and close to NYC, and it is as well regarded as Buffalo, I guess.
i had no idea that Buffalo is NY’s flagship. I didn’t think we had one
NYS doesn’t have a flagship. Keep Buffalo as a safety and add Stony Brook in case you aren’t accepted at MIT, Harvard, or any of your other reaches. Stony Brook is a good school and it’s close to NYC. It’s a commuter school, though, so you might want to visit to make sure you’d like it.
The commuter aspect is the main reason I don’t want to go. I live an hour north of NYC, so I’d probably commute too, which is something I absolutely don’t want to do
Agree that NYS doesn’t have a flagship. In most people’s opinions SUNY Binghamton is the top university in the SUNY system. I would consider SUNYBinghamton as well as SUNYStony Brook to give yourself more options within the NYS system.
Cast a wide net in your applications and then see how things turn out. Keep in mind that one can also look for summer internships which don’t have to be where the school is located.
Go to Buffalo and rock it. You will have plenty of internship and job opportunities.
Also, you have a major advantage of living near NYC. You can easily research summer internships in NYC from Buffalo and do Skype interviews, etc.
@confusedjunior89, Check out SUNY New Paltz. You’d have easy access to NYC there and can cross register at both Marist and Vassar.
I would think SUNY Buffalo is at least on par with Binghamton and Stony Brook, honestly. Buffalo is a fantastic school, and you should definitely try to kill it there.