<p>I never really understood this and I would like to know why? </p>
<p>Does this mean the SUNY system is bad? Will it be harder for me to get into a great grad school such as Stanford if I go to a SUNY school for undergrad? Thank you! :)</p>
<p>R. E. L. A. X. ! ! !</p>
<p>What do you mean? 
this is an honest question </p>
<p>I think the SUNY system has been under-rated for a while. We’re Californians and our daughter received an excellent education at Buffalo. She was an EE Major but had to do the CS component in a 5 year program. She’s working as a software engineer with an EE background. </p>
<p>Her company hesitated to hire her because they wanted UC grads, but her background coursework from UB was really strong. They hired her over a year ago; she’s blown them “out of the water” such that they are paying for her grad school for a CS degree at UCLA or SD. In her “spare” time, she wrote a number of HOW TO software steps which are now being used throughout the company. They have her in a jr management program and shipped her back east for training. Along with her software tasks, she now oversees interns and experienced new hires, and uses her guidebooks to train new employees.</p>
<p>UC has got better professors, better research facilities and big campuses.</p>
<p>@"aunt bea" Wow that is awesome!! 
I’m wondering, if you guys are from California, what made your daughter decide SUNY Buffalo over a UC school for undergrad? I am hoping that if I end up at SUNY Buffalo or SUNY Binghamton, that when I apply to graduate school, they won’t overlook me.</p>
<p>Daughter got a full ride at UB. At the time, that was $120k over 4 years with a number of private scholarships for expenses; with 3 college-ready kids, it was a no brainier. She also wanted to get as far away from us as possible, LOL! (Team mom, PTA, Scouts activities, full house all of the time). She likes seeing seasons; we have sun, sun, rain, and earthquakes.
She was also admitted to the UCs and went to SD’s orientation for admitted students, but hated the competitive vibe. Friends of hers, and my younger daughter’s friends, complain/complained of the lack of sociableness at SD. Again, this was her opinion and her younger sister’s opinion of only the SD campus.<br>
Dd was “contacted” by phone within hours of submitting both LA & SD grad application. </p>
<p>Since the international poster has never lived in the US, and I doubt he’s attended either campus, he can’t really compare the schools. </p>
<p>I thought UB had better facilities than San Diego. Our UC System is out of money. UB Profs were tough according to dd. UB’s 2 campuses were huge! Not saying that UB or SD are better or worse, just our experience with UB was phenomenal!
DD is hiring and does recruit from UB for software engineers. PM me if you attend UB, and are interested in an internship in California. I’ll pass along your resume. (BTW: never call it “Cali”, not cool in California.)</p>
<p>Just keep up your GPA, get an internship experience, and you shouldn’t have a problem getting into grad school.</p>
<p>It’s a great question @MusicalAsian7 and I suspect it is due to a combination of factors. The UC system has campuses in or near its largest cities (LA, Berkeley) whereas SUNY’s main campus is in the somewhat less glamorous city of Albany, where the weather isn’t so great. (Nevertheless, SUNY Albany is a visually striking campus, with gorgeous gleaming buildings in a 1960s modernist style.) NYC, on the other hand, has its own system (CUNY), and there are a lot of other great universities in the northeast that are competition to SUNY.</p>
<p>SUNY has some stellar programs. As Aunt Bea noted, Buffalo is way underrated. Geneseo is a fantastic liberal arts college. The ceramics program operated by Alfred U on behalf of SUNY is one of the best in the US, and perhaps the world. So the system has a lot to offer, and I imagine that inside academia it is regarded very highly.</p>
<p>The suny system was created to provide an efficient and inexpensive degree for everyone while the UC system specifically targeted the top 10% of students and the Cal state/Community colleges picked up the rest. New York state was never crazy about the whole wacky notion of public education in the first place (see Cornell). The UC system got better funding from the start and suny was always an afterthought. UCLA and Berkeley were already established when the UC system was created while New York just had a bunch of smaller teachers colleges and such. New York also never bothered establishing a flagship campus so you have a bunch of schools (everything from community colleges to large research institutions) fighting over the same limited resources. Also, SUNY schools tend to be in smaller, rural areas upstate so people who want to stay in New York city instead go the the CUNY system.</p>
<p>@"aunt bea" Wow that is awesome thanks so much for your well thought out and detailed answer! It really helped! What did your daughter think of the professors at UB? I live in a small town and go to a school with 81 ppl in my senior class. It would be a good experience but also possibly scary to go to UB because of the huge school population. Classes would prob be huge so im worried I wouldn’t be able to see my professors for individual help if I struggle in some classes. I’m worried I would not be able to keep my GPA up.</p>
<p>@sprinkles12 @MidwestDad3 thank you both for your answer! it makes sense! Would you guys think that a SUNY degree is of less value? I heard that most people out of state have not heard of SUNY before.</p>
<p>Musical, the first year are weeder classes. The way to be successful is to immediately go to the tutors on the fifth floor of the library building on north campus. They will tell you how to prepare for the next quiz or test but you have to go at least once a week. They will also tell you what to study and where to focus your essays.</p>
<p>SUNY schools will be much more affordable than UC’s for an international, so with that definition of “value,” SUNYdelivers. Degrees from SUNY schools such as UB, Stonybrook, Binghampton and Geneseo in particular are widely respected, even if they do not have the same immediate name recognition as some of the UC’s. Ultimately, it is important to note that your success in life is not going to be based only on the name on your undergraduate diploma.</p>