<p>So I had to choose between the three when I was going to college. I wanted to stay in-state, as I knew I was going to graduate school afterwards. My advice - go to Binghamton. Putting the rankings aside, as a graduate student in Computer Engineering who’s interacted with a lot of students and professors from several schools, people respect Binghamton’s Computer Science program a lot. Buffalo’s program is OK, but is not thought of as highly, and Albany’s program in CS is looked down upon a lot.</p>
<p>Despite having an uber scholarship to Buffalo, I chose to go to Binghamton. While the Computer Engineering program was not amazingly strong, the Computer Science program was. I learned a lot from each of the CS courses, and found myself much better prepared for research and grad school as a result. The CS courses were very practically rooted, and expected a lot from the students.</p>
<p>Campus life definitely isn’t great at Binghamton, but my friends who went to Buffalo thought the same of their campus. There’s enough to do to keep you plenty occupied, though. Lots of activities on campus, a good run of concerts and comedians, and an active late-night weekend schedule at school should you choose not to go out. For an area the size of Binghamton, there’s also a very large selection of places to shop and eat, and there’s also minor league baseball and hockey, if you find that interesting. For what it’s worth, most people I knew who hated Binghamton and the atmosphere their first few months grew to really love it by graduation. I can’t comment on Albany, though I’ve read they’re a big party school. That said, I’m personally not a fan of Albany’s campus. Not like Binghamton’s is much prettier, but I like it a little bit more than Albany.</p>
<p>Academics-wise, you’d be making a mistake not going to Binghamton for CS. For the campus life, Binghamton isn’t any kind of stand out, but I don’t think it’s much worse than the other two. Hope this helps, smq115. Feel free to ask me any questions about CS specifics if you’d like.</p>