Does anyone know about the engineering programs at these schools? I have an aspiring Chemical Engineer & am looking for cost effective engineering programs. What about life on each of the campuses? The happiness of the student body, etc? Also, I know this may sound unimportant, but what about the aesthetics of the campuses? From the pictures I didn’t see a lot of green spaces. Pictures looked a little industrial with lots of concrete.
Can I assume you are OOS (looking for relatively affordable OOS options)?
Actually in state.
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Not unimportant to many kids….aesthetics do matter.
Bing doesn’t appear to have ChemE. Buffalo does and it’s ABET accredited, what you want to look for.
Depending on grades/tests and budgets, there are many cost effective ChemE schools, many OOS less expensive than in state options depending on the state.
Edit - did the title change? I saw Bing. Sorry
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Both Stony Brook and Buffalo are strong schools, academically speaking.
Buffalo has a North Campus located in a more suburban area- years ago it was called the Amherst Campus. This campus is visually unappealing to some, but I graduated from UB and didn’t mind it. I also know many students who attend/graduated from UB.
There is also a South Campus- years ago it was called the Main Street Campus. This campus is more traditional, which many find to be more appealing. It is closer to downtown.
Your major may be on either campus.
There is also a downtown campus which is urban and houses health sciences etc.
There is a campus bus system between north and south campus. I am not sure about the downtown campus, but I believe there is public transportation.
I think the students at UB are generally pretty happy, active, and social.
Years ago Stony Brook was considered a “suitcase school.” I am not sure if that holds true today. It is a strong school but the campus may be considered by some to be visually unappealing. This is a matter of personal opinion.
Depending on the stats of your child, there may be some very pretty schools with engineering where merit is possible.
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Somewhat off topic, but I’ll note that both SUNY Buffalo and SUNY Stony Brook belong to National Student Exchange. NSE allows up to 2 semesters of exchange at any other participating school at no additional cost. Some really fun schools participate, including some with gorgeous campuses in warm locations! NSE can be great for engineering students because unlike “study abroad” it allows for a pretty seamless exchange as long as the other school is also ABET accredited. Some very highly ranked schools for ChemE participate (e.g. UMN.)
https://nse.org/exchange/colleges-universities/alpha-location/
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No title change. Am interested in Stony Brook and Buffalo. 
My apologies - brain fart.
I will just say what I said before:
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To many, both my kids, aesthetics are important.
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I don’t know the budget and student stats - but there are many reasonably priced engineering schools. And while I don’t know how far you’re willing to go (and spend), UDEL is one of the top ChemE in the country.
ESF is another SUNY with ChemE/ABET. It’s integrated in many ways with Syracuse U so you get the advantage of the gorgeous SU campus in many ways at the SUNY price.
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Stony Brook has changed a lot since I was a kid growing up on LI. It used to be a commuter school of pretty smart kids. Now, it’s a STEM powerhouse with a strong reputation across multiple fields. Several of my HS classmates said their children (smart students) couldn’t even get in to SB.
As for the aesthetics: Friends of ours (not from LI and definitely not interested in commuting) looked at it for their son. The dad put it this way: “kind of ugly architecture on the outside but state of the art labs and facilities on the inside.”
Both great schools at a good price.
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We’re from SoCal and our daughter attended SUNY Buff and majored in EE and CS. It was a tough program but she liked the snow and wanted to experience it. Did she ever! But, she made her environment at little like “home”. More on that later:
The buses (Buffalo “Stampede”) come to the dorms (She was in Red Jacket) via the underground tunnel system and take you to the Starbucks entrance at North Campus. They also go to South Campus and the local grocery stores and businesses.
The rooms are generally bigger than what the students have in a number of SoCal campuses and you will not have an issue with getting housing. (You will need the extra room for your winter coats and boots. She wore sandals, UGH!")
Our daughter had a great experience there. The tutoring system was very strong. It’s an advantage to go to the tutors and is not considered “remedial” help but if you need any help, the “5th” floor tutors know their stuff. A number of engineering students utilized that service and received exceptional help. Our daughter eventually became a tutor because she was a strong student and did go to tutoring every day.
The dorms are a little more “brick and mortar dark”, but our daughter decorated her dorm room to reflect her SoCal personality, She put up surf memorabilia-
tiki torches,
beach wall panels,
fish netting,
5 ft. surfboard memo board,
plumeria and pineapple air fresheners,
aloha comforters;
Such that the tour guides brought tours by her room because people heard about the “crazy girl who actually came from SoCal to upstate NY for school!”. (Both my husband and I shipped SoCal signage to her. My sister, a resident of Maui, shipped leis, Alohawear, tiki torches and fun tourist swag to her.)
She did say that the kids and their parents, on the tours, always had “gaga open-mouthed looks” and “surprised”, “great” comments.
Edited to add: she had a single all four years but she and her dorm mates (all singles) got along very well!
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I love how she made her living space her own. Sounds really cool!
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I love the idea of this!
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The facilities (at least from the pictures) do look really state of the art on the inside, which is something to consider. You are right.
You are concerned with costs.
Do you have stats for your student (GPA/Test Score).
Are you open to other locales?
There’s a lot of beautiful schools out there - aesthetically. To many, it is important - I mean, you don’t want to look at ugly all day.
For what it’s worth, Niche (student reviews) rates Buffalo’s campus a B- and Stony Brook a D+.
Aesthetics are in the eye of the beholder, but both Buffalo (North campus) and Stony Brook are on this list.
LOL. I did come across the same article.
They’re not always right. It’s opinion and I’ve been to some and they aren’t nice but on some other lists, I’ve seen schools I like.
If your student has strong stats, they can go OOS for cheap.
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There are two things that the SUNY schools are not known for: beauty and “rah rah.” These are two things that are very important to some/many HS students. Some of the smaller SUNY colleges are actually kind of pretty with new facilities etc, but the bigger universities are definitely not aesthetically pleasing (UB South campus is actually not bad, and Bing has nice dorms). That being said, the academics are strong.
I think this student should make a list of what they want in a school, starting with what they must have and ending with what they are willing to give up. If aesthetics is at the top of the list then I would add some schools that are aesthetically pleasing and where merit would likely happen.
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Thanks for all of the responses! We are already looking at out of state schools including public ones but it occurred to me as we were working on the list that we had not even considered in state public universities, even though some of them appear to be more affordable. I think we are going to include both Buffalo & Stony Brook on our preliminary college list and then visit each to get a vibe for each.
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