And whats wrong with rural Pennsylvania?
Which one? Look, a few of the SUNYs are "OK" but they aren't great schools. The state screwed up that system like they do everything else. NY should have a top notch land grant university. We should have something at the level of Penn State or Ohio State or Michigan or, hell, even UConn. BTW, PSU is way better than any SUNY so I wouldn't be so quick to knock Pennsylvania. I actually considered moving across the border to get in state tuition for my kids at PSU. I still may do that. The SUNYs are not top notch. They are "good enough" for those people looking for an affordable, decent, education. I would advise my kid to go there if it were between a good SUNY and an overpriced private school that is barely better, if at all. (Syracuse, for example) I mean. yes, it is a good value. But it is not a great education. My son is applying to a couple of SUNYs as safety schools due to the value aspect alone. The one thing it allows is to not already be in debt going into Med school.
Look I am not doing to bash Rural Penn too much. There is an old saying that Penn is Philly and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between. One of the reasons for the Alabama in Penn is Penn St at state college. State college is sucking all the PSU system money dry. The other rural state college r jokes. The best n brightest in penn go to state college n abandon their home regions. SUNY has 4 meds schools disperse into different areas. Albany, Buffalo and Syracuse r all research universities with significant private investment n research money. The avg SAT scores n acceptance rate for the 4 main SUNY r actually higher then state college. Upstate NY has multiple charming regions that is locate nears the universities. The trade off for the dispersal in SUNY money is no B10 football team. There is not much Alabama in NY state either
I actually agree with you on this! I am afraid......
Yes, I am well aware of Pennsyltucky. It is true. Still, Penn State is a really good school. A little big and a little too rah rah but a good school. I am surprised you didn't mention Stonybrook.
Yeah, we visited there with my oldest son and it was kinda scary. I felt like someone could jump out of the bushes at any time screaming, "we are penn state!"
Both USN and AAU are a single factor. There is a lot of data out there and there are "feel" factors as well. You should see the spreadsheet we have. Both Stonybrook and Buffalo have some negatives. They each also have some positives, the biggest being in state tuition. For us, the biggest factor is pre-med reputation and their ability to get students into US MD schools. Neither pop up as suggested for pre-med (not many schools do, however) and data on acceptance rates is hard to come by. I actually wish I had harder numbers for Buffalo as the one source I have is shaky. We know many of the doctors in our area and my son has shadowed most of them. A grand total of one of them suggested Buffalo. It would be nice to have hard data to compensate for the lack of glowing recommendations for the SUNYs.
I don't disagree. It has gotten to the point where very few private schools are worth the cost and, even then, it depends on your financial situation. If you are in a position to get a decent amount of financial aid, the private schools look better. If you are in the category of making over $250K a year, the value scale tips toward the in state option quickly. If you are filthy rich, who cares, go private. Basically, upper middle class is a tough place to be in this example. The analysis also depends on your intended career. How much value will you get out of the network you will be exposed to? The very best private schools with great networks and great financial aid are tough to beat. But the in state schools start to become an attractive option quickly as you move down the list. You get to the point where you say, yeah, that school is better but not THAT much better to justify the extra cost.
