Stony Brook engineering is excellent. Highly regarded by area firms, and the ABET accreditation is a seal of approval nationally. My son is in EE at a southern school, landed an internship with a major Long Island defense contractor thanks to his school’s accreditation and his own resume. That company had never hired anyone from his school before. His co-interns included several from Stony Brook, a frequent target for the company. It works both ways. Stony engineers are recruited locally, but employable everywhere. Same for every ABET accredited school. This coming summer, my son is interning for a big company in Maryland. Again, they hired him from his southern school, caring more about his resume than the school. He will be working with 80 other interns from schools all over the country, from the prestigious to the obscure. By and large, the engineering world is more concerned about what you can do than what school you attend. To go into massive debt for a perceived (though not necessarily) better school is a move that can literally ruin your life.