Stony Brook was among the top 40 schools for computer science and one of the most economical schools as well. They are really famous for their systems-related courses as well as cutting-edge technologies like Data Science, Computer Vision and Machine Learning.
Course Curriculum
The courses are really well arranged. A lot of interesting projects going on in the departments and one could work on an independent study under the professor of their interest.
Exams
My GRE scores were Quant - 162 and Verbal - 161. Anything above 160 in Quant is relatively safe. My TOEFL scores : 109. Anything above 100 would be competitive. I had 2+ years of work experience and a GPA above 8. SOPs are important as well.
Placement
Due to covid, everyone was struggling to get internships/Full-time placements. Situations are improving at the moment. But SBU in general used to have most of their student finding internships and full-time jobs. The last year or so has been harsh on the students and companies started rescinding the offers because of the economic downfall from Covid.
Internship
No, I didn't get an internship.
Events
New York was a bit harsh in terms of the weather and involved staying inside for the most part of the fall semester. Due to the covid situation, my campus experience was cut short as I had to move out to a friend's place and do it from there. But the campus has a really good community that keeps organizing events every week or so. If you can brave the cold, you have activities to engage yourself in.
Fees
$42951 was the i20 amount. Each credit costs approximately $1000 and my department needed 31 credits to graduate.
Scholarship
No, The fee is already cheap and they don't offer a lot of scholarships.
Faculty
Faculty here do some really amazing research in their respective fields and are even among the eminent people in their fields. If you think of Data Science or Algorithms, there aren't a lot of people more famous than Steven Skiena. A similar OS has Erez Zadok and the network has Aruna Balasubramaniam. Steven Skiena's DS course really piqued my interest in a field I didn't know anything about.
Hostel
I stayed in graduate apartments provided by the university. It was filled with Indian students predominantly, Luckily my room was a bit more diverse with American and Chinese and I got to interact with someone from a different background than where I came from.
