Grew up in NY and hated the SUNY system, wanted a beautiful campus like the movies aand they certainly aren’t that. I have great appreciation for them now as an adult though. Breath of fresh air to not have the entire state fighting over top two schools.

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why your in-state wouldn't work for your DC?

It's already very hard to understand why people pay OOS to UM and UVA. Public ivies or whatever, there is no different from your in-state flagship.

SUNYs are more affordable the most other oos options, and they sometimes offer additional merit. They can be as cheap as in-state.

SUNY Geneseo is mainly a teachers college. Don't forget the specialty colleges where you pay SUNY tuition but it is part of a private school (Labor Relations at Cornell; Forestry at Syracuse; Ceramic Engineering at Alfred U. (not Alfred State); may be a few others.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why your in-state wouldn't work for your DC?

It's already very hard to understand why people pay OOS to UM and UVA. Public ivies or whatever, there is no different from your in-state flagship.

SUNYs are very affordable OOS and if your kid wants to work in NYC, they are generally respected by employers.

I see. I looked it up, 17k tuition. Agree it's affordable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why your in-state wouldn't work for your DC?

It's already very hard to understand why people pay OOS to UM and UVA. Public ivies or whatever, there is no different from your in-state flagship.

SUNYs are very affordable OOS and if your kid wants to work in NYC, they are generally respected by employers.

And there are some SUNYs that have unique offerings that aren’t available or replicated at other in-state institutions.

Plus, SUNYs offer a tuition match to residents of several other states.

The big thing with SUNYs is that there is zero sports culture. That limits popularity vs say Michigan or UVA.

I believe Buffalo has an Honors College or something. I’m not sure if the other top SUNYs do.

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why your in-state wouldn't work for your DC?

It's already very hard to understand why people pay OOS to UM and UVA. Public ivies or whatever, there is no different from your in-state flagship.

SUNYs are very affordable OOS and if your kid wants to work in NYC, they are generally respected by employers.

I agree with the last three posters. Geneseo has a different feel because it's smaller, liberal-arts oriented, and has the prettiest campus. Otherwise, lots of strong options depending on your kid's area of interest.

I don't understand why your in-state wouldn't work for your DC?

It's already very hard to understand why people pay OOS to UM and UVA. Public ivies or whatever, there is no different from your in-state flagship.

If you are looking for the best all-around liberal arts college in the SUNY system it is Geneseo (with 4k undergrads).

I live in NY

It's different here, in a good way. Schools really lean into their areas of expertise.

For Arts - Purchase
Humanities and Business - Bing
STEM - Stony Brook

etc etc

My subjective 2 cents as a NYer:

Bing and Stony Brook are the two highest regarded at this point. UBuffalo and Albany are the next two. Buffalo has been designated a "flagship" so I expect its reputation to rise. Decades ago (30-40 years ago) Albany was the "best" SUNY so it still has a bit of cachet among Boomers/Gen X. Stony Brook is the latest "up and comer" and is very well regarded academically but still has a "suitcase" reputation.

Then there are a bunch of niche SUNYs that are well regarded for those majors- FIT for fashion, Purchase for performing arts, ESF for environmental science.

Geneseo, Oswego, New Paltz are probably the next tier down

I just now did a Google search and several sites came up offering rankings of the SUNY schools. You might also want to look on Reddit.

Do you have specific questions about majors/programs or certain schools?

Is there anywhere to find a ranking of SUNY schools, are a grouping of them into tiers? Or how would you rank them? Which have a good reputation, even regionally, and which don't? There are so many and once you get past Binghamton and Stony Brook, it's hard to know how to assess, especially if you're not from NY.