I’m from NY too. Some of the other SUNYs would debate that Bing is the “flagship” 
I was a shallow high schooler who wanted pretty. Thankfully, my older daughter is more practical and doesn’t care about pretty at all, she says she doesn’t even really see much difference. I suspect because her own public high school doesn’t look much different from the building designs of the public universities, they feel familiar. Her favorite school at this point is a SUNY. (Not Bing! Buffalo told us THEY are the flagship!) lol. My d had decided to basically ignore the people that are a bit snobby about the SUNYs. Luckily, most people where we live are pretty good about it. Lots of them choose Bing, UB, and Geneseo with a few Fredonia, Cortland, Brockport and Oswego choices thrown in there too.