@anhydrite - Well I highly doubt he would “need” to use the other campuses, UMass Amherst is a City unto itself… Also, I can’t talk about astronomy as at UMass it is probably a less common area in science, but I can say that UMass is quite strong in the sciences. Considering he maybe interested in Physics/Astrophysics; the program at UMass Amherst has one of the highest ROIs, return on investment, of any college. The average student makes an additional 701K $ over 30 years. (http://■■■■■■■.com/m6xf59t) Additionally, for fun, I looked up what types of telescopes that both schools use. I know size isn’t everything but SBU’s largest telescope is in South America and is 6m (a little less than 20’), whereas UMass Amherst’s new telescope is in Mexico and is THE LARGEST SINGLE TELESCOPE IN THE WORLD (At 50m across! that ~170’) Additionally it took 130 million dollars to build, and was split between Mexico and UMass.
(http://news.sciencemag.org/2013/05/mexicos-large-millimeter-telescope-opens-business)
UMass (http://www.astro.umass.edu/facilities/active-facilities/)
SBU (http://www.astro.sunysb.edu/astro/observatories.html)
PS- As a Massachusetts resident I may be a little bias, but I think our state has the best schools in the country. Heck even UMass, which has been jumping up lately.