SUNY Buffalo vs. Pitt

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Going to a SUNY school as someone from outside of NY can be kind of rough. It will be almost all in-state kids. Pitt is not like that.

I don’t see why all in state kids would be rough, especially a state like NY that has farms, towns, and cities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going to a SUNY school as someone from outside of NY can be kind of rough. It will be almost all in-state kids. Pitt is not like that.

I don’t see why all in state kids would be rough, especially a state like NY that has farms, towns, and cities.

+ 1 . I’m not sure about all the SUNYs, but my niece is at UB and there are many international undergrad students. Stony Brook also.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pitt is clearly superior in every single way. Pittsburgh is wonderful, Buffalo is not. Pitt is much stronger in academics and has a great vibe. How is this even a question?

I would say the opposite. Then again, I'm a graduate of SUNY Buffalo and am successful, so I'm bias to my experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pitt is clearly superior in every single way. Pittsburgh is wonderful, Buffalo is not. Pitt is much stronger in academics and has a great vibe. How is this even a question?

Pitt is not stronger than Buffalo academically.

[Anonymous]

Go Bills! 😀

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Going to a SUNY school as someone from outside of NY can be kind of rough. It will be almost all in-state kids. Pitt is not like that.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go Bills! 😀

The beloved Bills. You have to go to 4 in a row to lose 4 in a row. Hopefully this year!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Going to a SUNY school as someone from outside of NY can be kind of rough. It will be almost all in-state kids. Pitt is not like that.

Why is that "rough"?

[Anonymous]

University at Buffalo is a co-flagship (along with Stony Brook), if that means anything.

[Anonymous]

Pitt students (I’m a Pitt parent) are passionate about being Pitt students. They wear the merch everywhere. There is a strong sense of belonging. The green space is primarily at Schenley Park, but students can access nature, downtown, and funky neighborhoods quite easily.

UB has less of a college pride vibe. It is a perfectly fine school, but is more sprawling, and less unified. Downtown Buffalo has a lot of vacancies and is farther from campus. I like Buffalo, but don’t get the sane pull from UB.

[Anonymous]

The Lake Effect Snow starts in November for Buffalo and they get a ton throughout winter(end of March). Just something to consider if that matters to your student. I did a grad program at Buffalo, met awesome people/friends and had a great experience. The snow/cold is real!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:University at Buffalo is a co-flagship (along with Stony Brook), if that means anything.

What happened to Binghamton?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Went to UB and also worked there. Familiar with Pitt, which has long been an aspirational peer for UB. Both schools are AAU members with strong focus on research and service. Pitt gets the nod in the rankings, but UB is an academically strong school without the widespread exposure outside NYS. While Pitt is an urban campus, the majority of UB activity is on the sprawling, suburban North Campus in Amherst built in the 1970s-1980s. Think modernism and brutalism with lots of indoor walkways. Some students live on the more traditional Main Street campus, which is on the edge of the city, and then the new downtown campus is primarily medical school and hospitals.

Another factor is that while Pitt courts a lot of OOS kids, UB undergrads are almost all bright students from New York State. (The grad school is very different and more international.)

I'm a Pitt grad. My dad was employed by SUNY Buffalo for a while when I was an adult. I grew up in Pittsburgh and only observed Buffalo as a visitor.

I think the above review is pretty fair. As a Pitt alum, I'd prefer Pitt for a few reasons.

1) Pittsburgh is prettier and more vibrant than Buffalo in the context of Rust Belt towns.

2) People have various hierarchies in their minds about the SUNY schools. My first reaction was "Why not Binghamton?" Is Buffalo the best SUNY for your kids' majors? Closest to where they want to work after graduation?

3) Pitt has a solid Honors Program. Haven't heard how SUNY Buffalo handles this.

4) Pitt is closer to DMV's job market and presumably your DC's home.

5) I'm cool with New York state (paternal family from there) but myself decided to decline schools with a mainly NY/NYC mindset.

I really had a good time at Pitt and learned a lot, had great professors, etc. I graduated during a recession so getting a job was a struggle. That was the one downside.

My dad's SUNY Buffalo favorite grad students did well for themselves. They work in finance, live in a good neighborhood in Connecticut, and their daughter went to Stanford. They all make more than me, lol.

That above anecdote kind of points to understanding the issue of what industries and geographies your alma mater is good at placing into. NY students have a large statewide job market. However, I explicitly knew I did not want to live in the NYC metro or NJ ever. I also did not know what types of jobs I would head for until my senior year. Eventually, I had to move to a larger job market (DMV) to get a job that would make full use of my Econ degree. From what I now know, I would still prefer Pitt to GW (which it resembles), AU, or Georgetown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going to a SUNY school as someone from outside of NY can be kind of rough. It will be almost all in-state kids. Pitt is not like that.

I don’t see why all in state kids would be rough, especially a state like NY that has farms, towns, and cities.

PP. Pittsburgher. Kids can be kind of parochial. There are also subtle behavioral norms that are regional. Pace of speech, nerviness, etc.

The more people are in places where everyone has grown up the same way, different people stick out a little more.

My Midwest grandpa advised me to go Midwest for grad school because he thought our family didn't need to keep ramping up East Coastiness.

Some people argue these subtleties aren't real but the existence of so many jokes and stereotypes hints at a grain of truth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going to a SUNY school as someone from outside of NY can be kind of rough. It will be almost all in-state kids. Pitt is not like that.

Why is that "rough"?

NP with an idea - because they all head home on the weekends, or bring their friends from home to visit them.