Bing ranked #6 for best value without financial aid. It also ranked #15 for best value for a public U, and #20 for best career placement. It is also listed in colleges that create futures and green colleges. See the listing here:
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At least in-state, that makes sense to me. Their tuition is really low, and of course presumably a lot of graduates end up in higher-paying New York state markets.
If you look at the link, that particular ranking is national, not regional.
Yes, you’re correct that a lot of grads go on to well paid jobs in NY state, but Binghamton has become more well known nationally and is drawing increasing numbers of OOS students. It was noticeable when my son started there in 2019 and I can tell from the posts in various parent groups on social media that more OOS families are discovering Bing.
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Yes, but when comparing public schools in these sort of ROI ways, the calculation is typically going to depend heavily on what they use for cost of attendance. As they explain if you follow the methodology links:
College Costs
We start with the sticker price of each college (often referred to as “cost of attendance,” which includes tuition, required fees, and room and board), and subtract the average gift aid (scholarships and grants) awarded to students.
But in this particular list, they don’t do that bit about subtracting average gift aid:
Top 20 Best Value Colleges for Students With No Demonstrated Need (Public Schools)
To create this list, we used the same methodology for our ROI rating, but removed need-based aid information. If you don’t qualify for financial aid, these are your best value schools.
I actually couldn’t figure out what they were using for the COA of publics–in-state? OOS? A blend of both? I note different publics have very different blends. Like, apparently Binghamton is around 84% in-state enrollment. At UVM, say, it is about 23%. So, pretty different situations.
So my point was just that I didn’t have a hard time believing Binghamton would score well as compared to most other publics in ROI, assuming at least you were comparing full pay in-state to full-pay in-state for each college. I am less sure what would happen if you compared OOS to OOS, and then my usual assumption is at least in most states, their flagship full pay in-state would beat other flagships full pay OOS in this sort of ROI methodology.
As they should be! Obviously it all depends on what else you are considering. Again in terms of pure ROI, I am not sure it would often be the case full pay OOS at Binghamton would beat their flagship full pay in-state. But, there are many other possible comparisons. Some people just want to go OOS for the experience. Or they might specifically like some program or other feature of Binghamton (like it has a cool residential system). Some people get merit awards OOS, and I understand Binghamton does offer merit to some nonresidents. In a few cases, some people might get admitted to Binghamton but not their state’s flagship(s). And so on.
So I definitely was not suggesting Binghamton could not be a competitive option for non-residents looking at various OOS options. And although I don’t know if this particular measure really captures much of why Binghamton could stand out, I completely agree it has gotten more and more competitive over time.
I am a bit puzzled by this list.
They need 2 separate ones. One for instate tuition (no brainer, agree 100% with the list), one for OOS. How on the earth UMICH and UCs can be good investment for OOS students without FA? Do they mean students who can pay 90k? Who can pay for it and with what kind of loans?
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I have no idea about methodology. Nor do I care. I’m just posting for the benefit of people interested in Bing.
I actually care. Because then some students and parents who believe such rankings and pay through the nose thinking they have to do it for their kids’ success.
Nothing personal against @Lindagaf
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Okee dokee.
Binghamton is very affordable, even for oos tuition. Other public u’s cost tens of thousands more for oos students. For example, Bing costs $47 k for tuition and fees, assuming a student gets no merit aid. UC Berkeley is $73k. U Michigan is $72k. UVA is $73k. UT Austin is $60k. UNCCH is more reasonable at $54k. I guess people at all colleges pay through the nose, but they are paying less through the nose at Bing than at some others on the list.
I suggest you contact Princeton Review and ask them about their methodology. No one here can tell you what you want to know.
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I pay through the nose for GaTech OOS, but DD had many AP and DE transferred (and took some study abroad and summer classes at local schools for instate rate) so we cut a lot of corners to make it “affordable” (like close to 40% of credits.)
Michigan was on the table and there was no way we could afford it OOS.
There is no way on earth I would pay “affordable” 47k for Binghamton.
I guess “affordable” means different to different people.
Yep. Which is the point of the list. So people can make a decision that works for them. You didn’t want to pay full OOS rate for Mich, so you paid through the nose instead for G Tech. Good.
My kid attended Bing and it was great value as an instate student. No debt, no loans, just good value. Even if he was OOS for Bing, he probably still would have gone because he preferred it to any others. To us, it was good value. But it still ultimately cost over $100k for his four years there. So to someone else, that might be terrible value. And it was a LOT less expensive than the private our eldest went to. (As an aside, some lists rate her college as being good value. We felt that school was good value because it helped make her who she is now.)
You feel through the nose for GTech is good value. Someone else may not. So I guess lists like this exist to help people justify their decisions. College is expensive, regardless. People choose how they want to spend their money.
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Agree! And we pay much less (and less than at UMD instate) for our youngest at Rhodes due to merit.
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Many OOS high stats students will get enough aid to bring the price close to instate. Many kids from our NJ school go to Bing for this reason, it is minimally more than Rutgers for what many think is a better experience.
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This is definitely true. Bing has been actively enticing high stats OOS students for a few years now with nice merit scholarships. Last year’s EA 2024 thread seems to reinforce the idea. I can say that my son, who graduated from Bing in 2023, was offered diddly squat with an ACT of 34 and a 93 GPA. Barring hooks, I am guessing that only the very highest stats in state students receive merit awards.
I also know that Bing has the highest yield rate of any SUNY (probably with the exception of the niche SUNY Maritime and ESF, but I can’t be bothered to check right now. Before anyone mentions it, Cornell is not a SUNY, but various colleges at Cornell receive some state funding and are affiliated with SUNY.)
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