SUNY Stony Brook vs UW Madison

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi, I got admitted to both SUNY Stony Brook and University of Wisconsin - Madison for Computer Science, and I'm having a hard time making a decision on either college.</p>

<p>Stony Brook is in-state for me and I would be playing ~$5,000 a year after scholarships and financial aid, </p>

<p>while Wisconsin is out-of-state and the tuition is $33,000 (without room & board b/c I might not dorm). I didn't receive financial aid information from them yet but I estimate in the end, I will be playing ~$20,000-$25,000 a year. </p>

<p>Wisconsin ranks VERY high for Computer Science, one of the top in the country, while SUNY Stony Brook is overlooked on most rankings. U.S. News ranks Stony Brook at #44 and Wisconsin is ranked #11. U Wisconsin is twice the size of SUNY Stony Brook.</p>

<p>A separate ranking ranks SUNY Stony Brook at 16th & Wisconsin at 18th, but that may be biased since it's on the Stony Brook website:
<a href="http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/about/news/nrc2010.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/about/news/nrc2010.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I know for a fact that I will be getting a top tier education at Wisconsin, but SUNY Stony Brook would be cheap for me compared to Wisconsin. Is it worth going to Wisconsin or is Stony Brook the way to go? What would you advise?</p>

<p>Thanks :)</p>

2

<p>The $80,000+ difference makes it very hard to argue in favor of Wisconsin when Stony Brook is well respected and well recruited for CS. Especially if there are additional loans involved.</p>

<p>But wait until final financial aid and net price are determined before deciding.</p>

3

<p>While I love UW and think it offers a better overall college exp. I have a hard time saying spend an extra $80K for that. Especially if loans.</p>

4

<p>I’m with Barrons and UCB and I am here in Madison. Stony Brook is the choice in this case.</p>

5

<p>Alright, I was thinking the same thing as well. Thanks for the help!</p>

<p>Sent from my SGH-I897 using CC</p>

6

<p>Don’t just go off of rankings, you must be silly and naive if you think Stony Brook isn’t as good(if not better, with better faculty, more research, more investments, better resources, and far more going on) than UW-Madison. Use your brain, and do some research by visiting both sites. Don’t let US World News serve as your sole decision maker. Stony Brook CS is twice the size of UW-Madison, it’s faculty is twice the size(from better schools)undergrad population majoring in CS is twice the size, and Stony Brook has far more accomplished alumni, IMHO(think president of Stanford).</p>

<p>Best,</p>

7

<p>I doubt that. Faculty same size (research assoc are not faculty). </p>

<p>[CS</a> Highlights | UW-Madison Computer Sciences](<a href=“http://www.cs.wisc.edu/about-department/cs-highlights]CS”>About – Computer Sciences – UW–Madison)</p>