I am majoring in Industrial Engineering in college. I applied to Pitt, UB, RIT, Stevens, Binghamton, and RPI. The only two schools I really loved were Pitt and Binghamton. I’m from NY and cost is extremely important to me. I’m middle class and I basically get no financial aid anywhere, and my stats aren’t great enough for a lot of scholarships. I got into Pitt, UB honors, and Bing and I applied RD ago RIT Stevens and RPI. I am basically between Pitt and Binghamton at this point and Pitt has always been my dream school, I love everything about it and I have already made amazing friends. However, it is over twice the cost of Binghamton. I was basically ready to accept my fate and commit to Binghamton today but my mom said no. She doesn’t like Binghamton and she doesn’t think I’ll get a good job there. I am completely lost and I just want to commit right now. I know I love both Binghamton and Pitt the most and i want to make sure I can get a roommate since it feels like everyone is committed. What should I do?
Why does your mother think you won’t get a good job coming out of Binghamton? Does she recognize how good UB engineering is? What can your parents pay for college? Can they afford Pitt?
Is UB honors referring to Buffalo ?
What is the dollar difference per year at each school ? Will you take out loans to pay the difference ?
I think my moms thoughts are that one Pittsburgh I’d have much more job opportunities compared to Binghamton, one of the most economically depressed cities in the US. Coming from upstate NY, the economy here is pretty hard and my parents have experienced troubles with employment. We had toured Bing many times and it’s awesome but for her the engineering program doesn’t stand out compared to others like RIT or RPI. We have toured UB as well, but we both agree it doesn’t seem like a great fit for me but I’m still open to it. I have heard mixed things about UB and their engineering school, and everyone from my high school goes there. My parents are really unclear when it comes to money but it seems like we can only afford about $30k per year, and Pitt is way more than that 
Yes I was accepted into the University at Buffalo’s honors program. Binghamton is about $24k per year and Pitt is about $50k per year. At Binghamton we most likely would not have to take out loans, but at Pitt at the end I would have about $80k in loans and with interest and tuition rising it would be even worse. I’m ok with going to Binghamton, I like it a lot but I’m having trouble convincing my parents and they are making me have second thoughts about their job placement.
I think you need to sit down with your parents and ask them how much money they can spend on college each year. You can add in summer earnings and the $5500 student loan. That number is what you can afford.
How much is Pitt? Did you get any merit?
RIT isn’t really in the same category as UB, Stevens, RPI, Binghamton, or Pitt. I would consider it to be a safety compared to the others. I don’t believe that you will suffer from a lack of opportunities having gone to Binghamton or UB as opposed to Pitt. They all have great engineering programs and placement. Stevens for example has one of the best engineering placement records in the United States. RPI is no slouch, either.
Binghamton may be “one of the most economically depressed cities in the US” but very few Bing graduates end up actually working in Binghamton. Companies come from all over the state (and tri state area) to recruit Binghamton students. This is not an issue.
With regard to engineering, UB has the best reputation for engineering among the SUNYs. And Buffalo is not a depressed city (unless you find snow depressing). UB would probably also be the least expensive of ALL of your choices, especially with honors and merit scholarships that come with it.
I would give UB strong consideration.
They said $30k is what we can afford and Pitt is around $50k. I most likely won’t get any scholarships there based on my stats. It’s hard because it’s my favorite but that’s why I applied to a lot of schools. Those are also good ideas, I have a job and I plan to work my summers as well to help save up.
Thank you for the advice!! I am from Rochester and RIT and UB were my safety’s, Bing and Pitt are my target, and Stevens and RPI are my reach. RIT seems to have really good coops and we had an excellent tour there, but for me it’s too close to home. Obviously I’m still open to all the schools though.
That is a good point as well, I will remind my parents about that. Merit for UB comes out soon so I will definitely be considering that as well 
Binghamton feels like a better fit for me but if I can save even more money I will definitely give UB a second look
If you haven’t visited UB yet, you should. The engineering complex is much more developed and expansive than Binghamton…it doesn’t even compare, frankly.
Overall, Binghamton is ranked higher than UB and their campus is nicer, but for engineering, UB is better.
If one of the SUNYs is doable without having to take out large student loans, then that is preferable to going to Pitt having to take out $80k of loans in four years, or adding that onto any loans you may already need to attend the former. That level of debt should really be a non-starter for you and your parents. The opportunities graduating from the public universities will be comparable to those having graduated from the more expensive school. Engineers are in demand today. None of the organizations with which I have worked in my career for example preferentially hire from specific schools. The person’s talents are the key, not the school from which he or she graduates.
I visited UB in the spring and I didn’t have a great tour, but I haven’t seen the engineering complex. I definitely should go on an engineering tour, thank you for the input! I’ll definitely take a look soon.
Thank you, I agree with you completely and it’s reassuring that it’s not always the school name that is important. I just needed some reassurance. I am the first child so my parents don’t know a lot about the college process? it’s hard because I hear mixed advice like “don’t worry about the money, go to the school or your dreams” or “save the most money possible”, but I think UB and Binghamton are great offers and maybe I’ll get a scholarship from the other 4.
With respect to early career salary outcomes, Binghamton grads tend to earn a little more than those out of Pitt:
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/suny-binghamton-2836
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/university-of-pittsburgh-3379
The data represent general figures across majors, but they nonetheless probably indicate you’d have no reason to expect to earn less with a Binghamton degree.
There is lots of time left to decide where to go. No, I don’t believe everyone is committing.
Most students won’t know the financial aid award yet.
Wait until all numbers are in.
Is your parent’s income under $125,000? Then you could get free tuition at SUNYs through the Excelsior scholarship.
That would be a great deal.
I’m a fan of Pitt but I would not go $80K into debt to go there over your two (no debt) SUNY options.
@ndates Let me start off by saying that the engineering departments at both Binghamton and Buffalo are excellent. However i agree with the above poster that the facilities at Buffalo are better. Another consideration not mentioned above is where you think you can do better academically. Binghamton Watson Engineering students are going to be mostly students who were stars with A averages in high school with top standardized test scores. That will be your competition. Versus Engineering students at Buffalo who were mostly B students in high school and who had lower standardized test scores and who did not get accepted to Binghamton. Your class rank and gpa in engineering courses will be a factor in where you can secure internships and a job upon graduation. The fact that you were accepted into honors at Buffalo indicates that you are in the top 10% of the entering class. You’ve indicated that your stats were not high enough for scholarships at Pitt and some of the other schools you applied to. Therefore I think you have a greater chance to do well grade-wise at Buffalo versus competing with students at Binghamton Watson Engineering. And doing well in Engineering is difficult enough without taking on the added burden of honors courses and a research thesis. This is why I caution you about being in honors. And also because engineering firms are less concerned with honors and more concerned with how you do in engineering courses.
We didn’t tour Bing because my d is interested in Chem E and Bing doesn’t have it. Actually, UB has more variety of engineering majors in general than Bing does.
We toured Cornell, UB, RIT and U of R. The hands down best engineering tour was UB. Seriously. We did both the engineering tour and the campus tour at UB and the campus tour was just meh. Not bad but just forgettable. They really shined with the engineering tour in our opinions. You really need to go there and do the engineering tour before deciding. I am the exact opposite of a STEM person and when they did the spiel about Industrials engineering, I wanted to sign up for it!
Even if my daughter wanted a different program that Bing does have, we would have definitely steered her to UB for engineering (there are other programs that Bing shines a bit more on).
Also, if you go for the engineering tour, set up an honors college tour as well! We did that one day over the summer and it was a very friendly and helpful tour.
And make sure your mom does the tour with you. I think it would put her mind at ease about jobs.
Good luck!