Unfortunately, my parents do not qualify for the excelsior scholarship. It’s hard to wait but I’m seeing more now that it is important so I can wait for my financial aid packages
@trackmbe3 that is a really good point for me to consider, thank you very much!
@mom2twogirls thank you so much!! I only have done a campus tour so far and my family and I were not very impressed, but we are already planning on doing that engineering tour and we are hoping for the best.
I have an update for all of you seeing my post, I have applied for the presidential scholarship and a NYS Stem scholarship that would give me free tuition and Binghamton and UB. I’m visiting the accepted students day in March at Pitt and my parents and I are going to talk with the financial aid office too. I am definitely more willing to wait now to make this big decision for sure. I have read lots of threads like “should I choose my dream school or the cheaper option” and in a lot of cases it seems like the dream school/more expensive option was an ivy or top 20 school and in my case UB Bing and Pitt have similar rankings especially for industrial engineering. My mom is still pushing for Pitt because she knows I love it so much, but my dad is on the opposite spectrum and pushing for the sunys but I’m reassuring my mom that I still love the sunys. The one final question is that I know I probably won’t miss out on any opportunities at either of the 3 schools, but do you think I will have the same fun college experience at all 3 of the schools? Am I really missing out on anything at Pitt I may regret later on?
@ndates can you share more details about the presidential scholarship and NYS Stem Scholarship? My son is junior applying next year to Bing for pre med and any scholarship will help.
You are not missing out on anything by avoiding $80k of debt. Go to UB if you can, or Bing. Both good choices
@brown2024 The NYS STEM Incentive program…
Great program, but read the restrictions carefully!
The Presidential Scholarship is a SUNY Buffalo scholarship…
@STEM2017 Thank you - medical career is excluded(: so no hope there.
If you have to pay the extra 20K, definitely go to Binghamton. It is one of the flagship SUNY schools and is well regarded in the NY/NJ/CT area. It is a Kiplingers top 5 Best value schools.
My DD went to Binghamton.
Also with Engineering, if it is ABET accredited (which it is at Bing) then you are good to go.
Large expansion of students without support could be an issue but that could be true of all the schools.
Pitt and Bing are similar enough in reputation that it can’t really be justified to pay twice as much for one over the other, just based on reputation. And you don’t sound as if you perceive that big a difference in the intangibles, either.
$100,000 additional over four years is a lot of money. If career prospects are really the concern, you could finish your undergrad at Bing and then get a masters from Pitt (which can include a co-op), for roughly the same as the Pitt undergrad degree alone would have cost.
Re: jobs from Binghamton…Check out:
http://bingcareerdestinations.com/watson-ssie/
http://bingcareerdestinations.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/watson-ssie-2017.pdf
Search on outcomes for Industrial engineers
When anyone says “don’t worry about the money, go to the school or your dreams” ask them if they are paying. Because if they aren’t, then as everyone says Pitt is on par with Bing, so paying an extra $80K is completely something to worry about.
Thank you for that website. So helpful!! @bopper