<p>My daughter is considering attending either Stony Brook or Binghamton for physics. Which one has a better program and what down or upsides are there to each school?</p>
<p>Stony Brook's physics department is world class! It is ranked as high as some of the Ivy Leagues. Physics is one of Stony Brook's specialties. It is far better than Binghamton for that (and any other natural science), even though Binghamton is considered by some the better "all around" school.
The down side to Stony Brook is that some people say the social life isn't quite as good as it is at Binghamton.... however I really think the college experience will be what you make of it, no matter where you go!
At Stony Brook your daughter will be able to pursue undergraduate research all four years with Stony Brook's world class physics faculty! </p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>In terms of academics, there is no comparison. Stony Brook probably has 5 or 6 world famous professors and a lot of them get involved with motivated/talented undergrads and get them into great grad schools (which is very important).</p>
<p>Socially, all that other stuff, you have to see for yourself. But the undergraduate physics program is really good at SBU.</p>
<p>We just got a tour of the Van de Graaff Building, which is one of those buildings on campus that you walk past regularly but have no idea what goes on inside. (It's between Harriman and Chem.) It was really incredible; faculty and grad students and undergrads all working together, both in and out of class, doing incredible research. Between that and Brookhaven National Lab, I'd put our physics program up against just about any in the nation.</p>
<p>Chris</p>
<p>The bottom line is this: if she is truly passionate about physics and science Stony Brook is the best choice. If she's more concerned with social life than academics Binghamton may be the better choice. But again if she's really motivated by physics she will enjoy herself and her experience at Stony Brook more.<br>
Last summer I attended several lectures given by HS students working with physics faculty. They were very interested and the faculty seemed very helpful, friendly, and enthusiastic about student research. It seemed like a really top knotch environment to do phsysics research!</p>
<p>In early 2000s my hi-school principal advised me to go to Binghamton for physics, because Binghamton ranked higher. It was a disaster. Binghamton is a terrible college because of the following reasons:</p>
<p>1) Binghamton (BU) does not care about education. There were 58" TVs and modern consoles in each dorm but there were no money for lab equipment in physics lab. We worked on stuff made in 1950’s given by US army. It performed better than hardware made in '80s. All 80s made equipment was malfunctioning to such extent that doing lab was impossible almost for entire semester. However there was money for new stadium and union (about 3.0*10^6$).</p>
<p>2) Additionally thanks to incredible corruption of the BU’s rector, there was monopoly of Sodex-ho Marriot at dining services. Food was very expensive and low quality. Only cheesy phillys, plain pizza without suplements, and cheesy burgers. Good quality dinner was at most twice a month and it did cost about 15$ or more. Of course at new union there were better meals but they did not last long and it was sometimes not enough time to go for a dinner to the union.</p>
<p>3) Binghamton is totally focused on advertisement and false good image but not necessary on true quality of education. When you go there you see new stadium, nice union etc. but this doesn’t mean you get good education in physics there. Additionally BU physics department is pretty much dead there. Nothing is going on in physics at BU.</p>
<p>After 2 years I transferred to Stony Brook University (SBU). It is totally different story.
Food is way better everywhere there and is not as expensive as at BU. Additionally SBU’s physics department is way better. It owns majority of Brookhaven Nat’l Lab. It has better professors (all of them received PhD at really good schools like Princeton, Yale, MIT, Berkeley etc.). It is extremely clear that SBU is education focused. You have way more educational opportunities at SBU especially in physics. It is even possible to join some professional research groups at SBU even as undergrad. I was lucky enough to be involved in paid internship with one of the groups led by professor who has world wide reputation. Lab equipment is way better at SBU than at BU. And of course, there is a decent load of physics research going on at Stony Brook, and almost nothing at Binghamton.</p>
<p>I recommend SBU (Stony Brook University) without any doubt. It ranks 11 or higher in the world in Physics. You will waste your time at Binghamton.</p>
<p>Comparing Binghamton to SBU in CSE, Physics, or any other of our natural science programs is an insult to humanity. Binghamton is a liberal arts school, while SBU is a science oriented AAU University. Let me put it this way, aside from having the 4th best nuclear Physics program in the nation(we are ranked higher than most of those Ivy’s, Bing isn’t even in the picture)our research expenditures, along with our award-winning Physics professors simply put us on a whole different tier. A tier, where even Ivy leagues struggle to compete with us. Why don’t you visit SBU, and look at our massive Physics building. The building alone speaks volumes. Go to Binghamton if you want to learn about business. If your interest is CSE, Physics, Chemistry, then I’ll politely tell you right now if you choose Binghamton over Stony Brook, that’s the worst decision you could possibly make in your life. The worst, and you can’t even say you weren’t warned. </p>
<p>N Physics rankings;</p>
<p>Save<br>
Rank
School name
#1 Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI</p>
<pre><code>#2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
</code></pre>
<p>Cambridge, MA</p>
<pre><code>#3 University of Washington
</code></pre>
<p>Seattle, WA</p>
<pre><code>#4 Stony Brook University–SUNY
</code></pre>
<p>Stony Brook, NY</p>
<pre><code>#5 Indiana University–Bloomington
</code></pre>
<p>Bloomington, IN</p>
<pre><code>#5 Yale University
</code></pre>
<p>New Haven, CT</p>
<pre><code>#7 California Institute of Technology
</code></pre>
<p>Pasadena, CA</p>
<pre><code>#8 Duke University
</code></pre>
<p>Durham, NC</p>
<pre><code>#8 University of California–Berkeley
</code></pre>
<p>Berkeley, CA</p>
<pre><code>#10 Columbia University
</code></pre>
<p>New York, NY</p>
<pre><code>#10 University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign
</code></pre>
<p>Urbana, IL</p>
<pre><code>#12 Texas A&M University–College Station
</code></pre>
<p>Source: US WORLD NEWS REPORT.</p>
<p>The home to the MRI, with respect to Science, can not be compared to a school like Binghamton or any other SUNY. Like I said, it’s an insult to humanity.</p>