How good are the SUNY engineering schools? I know only Binghamton, Stony Brook, U Buffalo, and New Paltz have programs, and since I have never heard of anyone going to New Paltz for engineering I assume it is not that great, although I may be wrong.
I visited Binghamton and Stony Brook and liked them both, I preferred Binghamton.
Buffalo may be a bit too far for me since I live in Westchester and don’t want to travel far, but if it is much better than the others then I will consider it.
I think it might be worth checking it out for yourself because from what I’ve read, the facilities for engineering are newer and quite a bit better than Binghamton’s. You might still end up preferring Bing for other reasons (convenience of location, size, etc) but it might be a good idea to check out UB in person to make sure that the engineering dept facility difference isn’t more important for you.
If driving is too far, try pricing air and train travel.
My SoCal dd attended UB for EE and software engineering and loved the program. Yes, she traveled over 3000 miles to attend but on Southwest, the flight was direct from San Diego to Buffalo.
She’s been working now for a couple of years at a corporate big international firm in San Diego and is a UB grad.
I am probably not going to consider Buffalo, I would prefer to be close to home. Comparing just Stony Brook and Binghamton, which one has better engineering?
If you read more on the boards (my knowledge is from the CC boards, not first hand), Stony Brook is better in like physics and such but I haven’t seen anyone say it’s much better in engineering. bing’s engineering page looks pretty interesting to me. It might be better for you to try looking to see what types of engineering research are being done at each to see which may be more interesting to you.
The impression from the boards here are that Bing had a more traditional, immersive campus while Stony Brook is a bit more of a suitcase school and many kids go home on weekends. Bing’s student life sounds more fun.
Buffalo is supposed to have the best engineering program followed by Stony Brook. Binghamton’s engineering is there, it’s small and not really the most advanced but people that go there do end up with jobs. Going there won’t really put you at a huge disadvantage is you really prefer it that much. Anyway, mom2twogirls is right, Stony brook is more of a commuter school and people go home on the weekends so if you want the residential experience, binghamton is better for that.