<p>Stony Brook is hands down the best SUNY for chemistry. As far as faculty quality, grad school placement, and research opportunities, I don’t think there’s really much competition. Stony Brook administers Brookhaven National Laboratory, which means access to a level of researchers and equipment no other SUNY (and very few other universities) have. There’s a materials science research center on campus. The MRI was invented in Stony Brook’s chemistry department, and nowadays there’s tons of exciting research going on. SBU has world class chemistry and biochemistry (yep, two whole separate departments, meaning more profs, more resources, and more research).</p>
<p>Plus, although the intro chemistry and orgo courses are big because of the large number of pre-meds at Stony Brook, upper division chemistry courses are small and there’s plenty of attention to go around for majors. It’s also worth noting that many of the professors are talented and dedicated teachers in addition to being top researchers… I’m a biology major myself, but I flirted with chemistry for a while and really enjoyed the professors and courses here. And I don’t agree with Perfectedxchaos’s assessment of the social life at all, since in my experience there are always tons of people around and tons of things to do on weekends. The “suitcase school” perception is outdated and inaccurate.</p>