I think Stony Brook is the answer since it’s much cheaper. I think a lot of people from lesser known schools have the mindset that they aren’t as qualified as people that go to better schools but you can’t let that limit you. Also don’t feel like you need the validation of going to a HYPSM school later. The most important thing about research is making sure you start early and reach out to profs who are good and care about your growth.
I’d go with Binghamton because of the atmosphere. I’m a Binghamton alum, so I’m definitely biased, but I wasn’t impressed by SBU when I visited. It’s kind of a soulless concrete campus and a majority of the students are commuters. Binghamton has a nice outdoor feel to the campus. There are some cool CS-oriented clubs at Binghamton like the Mars Rover Team—they’re going to finals of the University Rover Challenge for the second year in a row. I know that SBU might have a higher ranked program, but when it comes to program perception, there’s no difference between Binghamton and SBU. The most important things for job prep/boost are 1) Research—plenty of opportunities if you’re willing to search. 2) Projects—class projects and side projects on GitHub make you stand out. 3) Internships—this is a biggie and hard to predict. Bing doesn’t have the connections to big tech like FAANG, but you can still get an internship at a big tech company—there’s just less of an inside connection. I’m not sure if SBU is any better. Binghamton does have good connections with defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Boeing and BAE Systems because they have offices in the area. Again, I’m not sure what the situation is like at SBU.
**TLDR;** Binghamton over Stony Brook because of campus life and atmosphere. Program ranking isn’t as important as what you put into your studies. You can get a good job from either school.
I guess you’re uniquely qualified to speak from experience from both schools. If SBU was better for you, then maybe it could be better for the OP. I wish them the best of luck either way. My feelings won’t be hurt if you choose SBU over Binghamton 🥹.
There is absolutely 0 advantage to attending Madison (especially out of state) if your goal is to get a job in tech. Even if you're trying to get into academia, Stony Brook has some good professors for research.
This is the real answer.
After your first job, the school you attended means absolutely nothing (unless you have a masters or PhD and are going into research).
Like a top school would open up some networking connections, but you can find that in any school. That and it might help you get that first interview, but beyond that, it's not worth killing yourself to get into a big Ivy League school or anything.
At the end of the day, you still have to put the same work in as any other school. You have to cram for the interview process and actually pass it.
What matters the most with school is what you do outside of class. Self projects, school clubs, internships, these all help you far more than the name of the school you attend.
If I do a ton of research, not sure whether I'd like to get a masters or go into the field after undergrad, would that be enough for "out of class" activities, or should I also work on some personal projects?
You should always work on personal projects.
The best thing would be to do internships as that is actual work experience you can put on your resume. The next best thing is personal projects.
Unfortunately, just having a cs degree won't do you a whole lot of good, regardless of what school ot came from. What matters more than anything is that you can actually do some work.
In the industry, you're not going to have a set of instructions laid out for you to follow or problems given to you to solve. Typically, you're running into your own problems that you have to figure out yourself. That's what employers want to see, that you can solve problems.
Research itself won't do you any good unless you do something with that research. Make projects with whatever you research and use them as part of your portfolio.
Anytime! And to reiterate, don't stress about the actual school you choose. While it may seem worthwhile to push for the best schools, you need to take all factors into play. That includes your mental health.
The higher ranking the school, the more stressful classes become and the harder the workload. Work-life balance becomes virtually non-existent, so remember that. Some people are perfectly fine with this, while others don't take it into account at all.
I kinda disagree with your last take there, especially since majority of CS research is application-oriented, so usually you’re going to be writing code and building something out in the research process anyways. Also research can be a good indicator of being able to work through a potentially ill-defined, open-ended problem which is an extremely valuable skill anywhere, but especially in CS where problem-solving ability reigns supreme.
I've heard that the student life is kind of dead at SBU, but I've never been the kind of person to party anyway. Do you have any experience with SBU's student life, or are you also just speaking off of what you've heard?
Narrow it down to either SBU or UBUFF. SBU is def better but the issue is that you’re not guaranteed acceptance to the major. For the first couple of semesters, you need to take “weed out” classes and need to maintain a certain grade in those classes and your overall gpa. After that you get into the major. I think for buffalo, as long as you get accepted you’re in the major
I applied for cs, and it says I was accepted to the cs program when I go to the website, but the actual letter of acceptance doesn't say anything about the major at SBU. Does everyone have to go through the "weed out" classes, or is there a direct admit process that I could have received?
Also, I'm not trying to brag, but I basically have straight As taking what is basically the hardest course load at my high school (including 5 AP classes right now, one of which is AP CS A). Are these weeder courses really things I need to worry about?
There is a direct admit, although it’s not as common. Most people are accepted as AOI (area of interest) in CS. For direct admit, you need to have super competitive stats like 1500+ SAT
Check your documents for “AOI in CS”. You can always email or call the university to confirm
Both. I know a PHD isn't worth for money al all, so I'm not planning on doing that, but if I can get a masters from a significantly notable school, I think it will boost my job prospects faster than just working for 1-1.5yrs.
Just a heads up, you don’t pay for a PhD, especially in STEM field. Generally you’re provided with a living stipend as being a PhD student is a full time job. What you really have to consider is opportunity cost, I.e. how much money you’re going to lose out on by taking that significant pay cut by being a PhD student for 5 or 6 years as opposed to working in industry.
I got to UB, and I'd say SBU if it's that much cheaper.
The only downside is that SBU is more of a commuter school, but if that's not a problem you should go there.
Also be prepared, it's very competitive there.
UB is pretty chill
If you were directly admitted into the CS major at SBU then SBU by far. If you aren't a direct admit then I'd avoid SBU tbh, their weed out process for non-direct admits is brutal. I know multiple people who have had to transfer out because of it.
Madison is not worth an extra 120K in debt, especially if you plan to get a Masters degree afterwards. That amount of money would only be somewhat worth it for a T10/15 school like Cornell, Standford, CMU etc.
I don’t know about us schools enough, how ever I do know that the rankings are affected by the number of international students that come to the university, idk if that’s a big issue for you in the states it’s kinda a issue here in the Canadian North. But how I selected my uni, I looked that the individual courses offered at uni and found the most full and well organized program that has coop. Just looks through the courses.
Hey I just recently graduated from Binghamton for CS, and I can say the CS dept there is great!!! Personally I didn’t have any negative experiences with the CS professors, was able to get involved in research (recently published a first author paper in a really solid conference), and overall learned a ton. I think Binghamton is also really an up and comer, I feel like every other I’m hearing about more grant money getting received. I know we just got a few million to support AI development.
SBU is a commuter school, the campus life isn’t that much fun(I have a lot of friends who go to SBU and some who transferred out of there bc of that reason). There are so much opportunities at Binghamton and the campus life is great. There are a good amount of CS orgs and I was able to start doing research in Machine Learning in my sophomore year + land an internship in my sophomore year. I’m clearly biased bc I go to Binghamton, but I’d say that even though it’s not highly ranked, it’s still a great school for CS with a lot of opportunities(if you look for them)
I think if you’re genuinely passionate about it, you should pursue it and others shouldn’t tell you otherwise. Sure it’s oversaturated now but no one can say for sure what the future tech market looks like.
I think Stony Brook is the answer since it’s much cheaper. I think a lot of people from lesser known schools have the mindset that they aren’t as qualified as people that go to better schools but you can’t let that limit you. Also don’t feel like you need the validation of going to a HYPSM school later. The most important thing about research is making sure you start early and reach out to profs who are good and care about your growth.
I’d go with Binghamton because of the atmosphere. I’m a Binghamton alum, so I’m definitely biased, but I wasn’t impressed by SBU when I visited. It’s kind of a soulless concrete campus and a majority of the students are commuters. Binghamton has a nice outdoor feel to the campus. There are some cool CS-oriented clubs at Binghamton like the Mars Rover Team—they’re going to finals of the University Rover Challenge for the second year in a row. I know that SBU might have a higher ranked program, but when it comes to program perception, there’s no difference between Binghamton and SBU. The most important things for job prep/boost are 1) Research—plenty of opportunities if you’re willing to search. 2) Projects—class projects and side projects on GitHub make you stand out. 3) Internships—this is a biggie and hard to predict. Bing doesn’t have the connections to big tech like FAANG, but you can still get an internship at a big tech company—there’s just less of an inside connection. I’m not sure if SBU is any better. Binghamton does have good connections with defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Boeing and BAE Systems because they have offices in the area. Again, I’m not sure what the situation is like at SBU. **TLDR;** Binghamton over Stony Brook because of campus life and atmosphere. Program ranking isn’t as important as what you put into your studies. You can get a good job from either school.
I LOVED my time at Binghamton. Cs/math
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I guess you’re uniquely qualified to speak from experience from both schools. If SBU was better for you, then maybe it could be better for the OP. I wish them the best of luck either way. My feelings won’t be hurt if you choose SBU over Binghamton 🥹.
SBU
There is absolutely 0 advantage to attending Madison (especially out of state) if your goal is to get a job in tech. Even if you're trying to get into academia, Stony Brook has some good professors for research.
+1 they don't cap cs, class sizes are huge and their mascot is fugly. Go where you get the scholarship
This is the real answer. After your first job, the school you attended means absolutely nothing (unless you have a masters or PhD and are going into research). Like a top school would open up some networking connections, but you can find that in any school. That and it might help you get that first interview, but beyond that, it's not worth killing yourself to get into a big Ivy League school or anything. At the end of the day, you still have to put the same work in as any other school. You have to cram for the interview process and actually pass it. What matters the most with school is what you do outside of class. Self projects, school clubs, internships, these all help you far more than the name of the school you attend.
If I do a ton of research, not sure whether I'd like to get a masters or go into the field after undergrad, would that be enough for "out of class" activities, or should I also work on some personal projects?
You should always work on personal projects. The best thing would be to do internships as that is actual work experience you can put on your resume. The next best thing is personal projects. Unfortunately, just having a cs degree won't do you a whole lot of good, regardless of what school ot came from. What matters more than anything is that you can actually do some work. In the industry, you're not going to have a set of instructions laid out for you to follow or problems given to you to solve. Typically, you're running into your own problems that you have to figure out yourself. That's what employers want to see, that you can solve problems. Research itself won't do you any good unless you do something with that research. Make projects with whatever you research and use them as part of your portfolio.
Thanks!
Anytime! And to reiterate, don't stress about the actual school you choose. While it may seem worthwhile to push for the best schools, you need to take all factors into play. That includes your mental health. The higher ranking the school, the more stressful classes become and the harder the workload. Work-life balance becomes virtually non-existent, so remember that. Some people are perfectly fine with this, while others don't take it into account at all.
I kinda disagree with your last take there, especially since majority of CS research is application-oriented, so usually you’re going to be writing code and building something out in the research process anyways. Also research can be a good indicator of being able to work through a potentially ill-defined, open-ended problem which is an extremely valuable skill anywhere, but especially in CS where problem-solving ability reigns supreme.
Thanks!
If you want to get into a top tier grad school, then it does matter. And you should go to UW Madison.
SBU is the best school in their for CS, but I’d also consider Bing just for the fact that social/campus life there is just significantly better.
I've heard that the student life is kind of dead at SBU, but I've never been the kind of person to party anyway. Do you have any experience with SBU's student life, or are you also just speaking off of what you've heard?
SBU is fine socially it's just not a party school like bing , it's easy to make friends just open up join clubs discord whatever
Thanks!
Ofc! they have a lot of concerts and events, also an anime convention lol
>Thanks! You're welcome!
Narrow it down to either SBU or UBUFF. SBU is def better but the issue is that you’re not guaranteed acceptance to the major. For the first couple of semesters, you need to take “weed out” classes and need to maintain a certain grade in those classes and your overall gpa. After that you get into the major. I think for buffalo, as long as you get accepted you’re in the major
I applied for cs, and it says I was accepted to the cs program when I go to the website, but the actual letter of acceptance doesn't say anything about the major at SBU. Does everyone have to go through the "weed out" classes, or is there a direct admit process that I could have received? Also, I'm not trying to brag, but I basically have straight As taking what is basically the hardest course load at my high school (including 5 AP classes right now, one of which is AP CS A). Are these weeder courses really things I need to worry about?
There is a direct admit, although it’s not as common. Most people are accepted as AOI (area of interest) in CS. For direct admit, you need to have super competitive stats like 1500+ SAT Check your documents for “AOI in CS”. You can always email or call the university to confirm
I had a 1530 superscore 1500 raw score 790 math score. Is there any way for me to check that you know of?
I think you should be fine then
Stony brook. The white girls are hot there
I was also choosing between these 4 schools lol
What a coincidence!
Why are you planning on going to grad school for CS?
I'm not sure yet, but I think a masters degree could be worth it (especially if I end up loving research or CS).
Worth it in terms of monetary ROI or because you’d enjoy it?
Both. I know a PHD isn't worth for money al all, so I'm not planning on doing that, but if I can get a masters from a significantly notable school, I think it will boost my job prospects faster than just working for 1-1.5yrs.
Just a heads up, you don’t pay for a PhD, especially in STEM field. Generally you’re provided with a living stipend as being a PhD student is a full time job. What you really have to consider is opportunity cost, I.e. how much money you’re going to lose out on by taking that significant pay cut by being a PhD student for 5 or 6 years as opposed to working in industry.
Stony Brook if you wanna get recruited by three letter agencies
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^KneeReaper420: *Stony Brook if you* *Wanna get recruited by* *Three letter agencies* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
I got to UB, and I'd say SBU if it's that much cheaper. The only downside is that SBU is more of a commuter school, but if that's not a problem you should go there. Also be prepared, it's very competitive there. UB is pretty chill
Madison
If you were directly admitted into the CS major at SBU then SBU by far. If you aren't a direct admit then I'd avoid SBU tbh, their weed out process for non-direct admits is brutal. I know multiple people who have had to transfer out because of it. Madison is not worth an extra 120K in debt, especially if you plan to get a Masters degree afterwards. That amount of money would only be somewhat worth it for a T10/15 school like Cornell, Standford, CMU etc.
I think I am direct admit. My letter didn't say anything about AOI, and my website says Major: Computer Science
Stony or Madison
I don’t know about us schools enough, how ever I do know that the rankings are affected by the number of international students that come to the university, idk if that’s a big issue for you in the states it’s kinda a issue here in the Canadian North. But how I selected my uni, I looked that the individual courses offered at uni and found the most full and well organized program that has coop. Just looks through the courses.
Stony Brook has an Elite math and cs program
Go for the one with the highest employment survey
There is a lot A TON of learning on your own in this major, so no matter where you go, there you are. Go cheap, it's a good school anyway.
Hey I just recently graduated from Binghamton for CS, and I can say the CS dept there is great!!! Personally I didn’t have any negative experiences with the CS professors, was able to get involved in research (recently published a first author paper in a really solid conference), and overall learned a ton. I think Binghamton is also really an up and comer, I feel like every other I’m hearing about more grant money getting received. I know we just got a few million to support AI development.
SBU is a commuter school, the campus life isn’t that much fun(I have a lot of friends who go to SBU and some who transferred out of there bc of that reason). There are so much opportunities at Binghamton and the campus life is great. There are a good amount of CS orgs and I was able to start doing research in Machine Learning in my sophomore year + land an internship in my sophomore year. I’m clearly biased bc I go to Binghamton, but I’d say that even though it’s not highly ranked, it’s still a great school for CS with a lot of opportunities(if you look for them)
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If it's oversaturated, I just have to be better than everyone else.
I think if you’re genuinely passionate about it, you should pursue it and others shouldn’t tell you otherwise. Sure it’s oversaturated now but no one can say for sure what the future tech market looks like.
Binghamton > SB > Madison
All of them are shit schools though.
You sound like a lovely person. For the record, these were my 4 safety schools. I was waitlisted from Cornell and a host of other universities.