Reviewed on Jun 25, 2025(Enrolled 2014)
What Students Say
Likes
- Research oriented courses
- Real world applications to the courses which directly translate to better understanding of corporate job requirements
- Extensive lab work
Dislikes
- Cold weather
- In campus living a bit expensive for students from India.
- Buffalo as a city didn't have a lot of corporate opportunities.
Course Curriculum
10
- The course was a research-heavy course. The coursework required a lot of investigation and implementation. I would rate course load 4/5. Completely practical.
- Mostly positive as the practical implementation of the course. Companies were actually using what was being taught. Negative was the distribution of practical courses. In a few semesters, a few heavy implementation-orientated courses clashed, taking a toll on the student's availability.
- Per day there would be 2-3 classes. Average students were 70. There were 200 Indian students in my course.
Admission Experience
-
I applied to 9 universities
- Reject: 5
- Accept: 4
- Rejected at:
- University of California, Irvine
- University of California, Davis
- SUNY Stony Brook
- Texas Aand M university
- Boston university
- Accepted at:
- Florida State university
- Rutgers
- SUNY Buffalo, NY
- UT Dallas
- Yes, I received a rejection also. Most reasons were generic responses like 'too many applications', 'better candidates', and 'they want a more diverse crowd'.
For me, the most important parameter was cost of living when compared to states like California and Florida. The next important criterion was that the course should be research-oriented and not a regular course like languages or database tutorials. That was the reason why I didn't apply for California State universities. - Buffalo is quite cold and I didn't know about it as much as I should have known.
- My application process was quite straightforward. I had taken both GRE which I scored 1300/1600 on, and TOEFL which I scored 110/120. Then I collected all documents, including LoR, SoP, bank statements, mark sheets, degrees, etc. After that I filled out the form online and via DHL and applied to all the universities. I had applied early, which gave me an edge. I applied in August-September. By January I received the admission.
- I applied early and started researching in June and July. I had already started preparing for my exams and I had taken both the GRE and TOEFL. By August, the September admission process started and I started applying online.
- All fee payments were done via credit card and the average application fee was $80. Some universities had more expensive application fee like UC Davis and Irvine, which had around $120. By January I started receiving results both accepts and rejects. In February I received an admission acceptance from SUNY Buffalo. After that, I started all financial documents along with bank statements and proof of funds. The entire process took 6 months. The visa process took another 2 months. By February or March, my visa application was successful.
Faculty
10
- There would be 1 professor and 4 teaching assistants for a team of 50-70 students. This was a decent ratio, as students got enough time from both professors and TAs.
- The teaching standard and techniques were pretty standard and answered questions if asked by a student. In fact, the distributed system teacher taught us some teaching techniques too.
- Yes, many people, especially seniors, were given teaching assistant roles, especially if they were PhD candidates.
- Operating system teacher Oliver Kennedy was quite an influential teacher, as he made sure the course concepts were clear to the students. Russ Miller was another teacher who influenced the students.
Campus Life
10
- There are 2 campuses – north and south. We were mostly in South campus which houses the engineering department. North campus has the medical department and also a hospital. There are quite a few festivals like Halloween, Diwali and Holi. There are a lot of social events at a smaller level too.
- I was part of a technical group.
- There were dj nights , pizza parties, hackathons and other events. Some events were sponsored by companies like bank of America, Bloomberg and Amazon.
- There was a hackathon where bank of america exposed their API for us to build a business use case around it.
Part Time Jobs
- Usually 15-25 students get teaching assistant and research assistant roles. They would be given $800-$1300. There are a lot of on-campus jobs. There are jobs in restaurants, the housing department, administration, and other departments where students were asked to design course websites and back-end databases.
- Getting the job was a bit difficult, as people are many and roles are fewer.
- Hourly would be $10. Some department roles paired better, like the administrator department. It paid $200 a week. It was difficult to get a job as people were more and jobs were fewer. Also, the jobs were on a need basis and not always available. There are flyers or word of mouth to get these jobs. People would search via conversation with the department, flyers on the common floor and people who know seniors.
Placement
6
- Almost all jobs are via online application and no jobs are via campus, although there was some fair where companies came. One has to apply to many, many companies to secure a job interview. Most interviews are 3-6 rounds long, talking about system design, coding challenges and HR rounds. The interview is quite challenging.
- Most people secure a job in 6 months. Internships are quite available, although the process is quite challenging. Full-time is also the same situation. There are a lot of companies like Amazon, bank of america, Bloomberg, Oracle, Cerner, Siemens, and IBM.
Accommodation
Off Campus
6
- I used Facebook to find roommates. Most people use Facebook to find houses and Roommates.
- The rent was $1000 per month. The rooms are ok in the Buffalo region. It's an old city and people will have a cultural shock. Candidates who reached early got houses closer. Also, people reach out to seniors to book rooms on their behalf as rooms run out very fast.
- My accommodation was almost 20 minutes away from the bus stop. So it was quite a walk. The bus service is provided by the university from north campus to South campus. During winter the frequency is increased so that people have to wait less during extreme cold.
Exams
- I took the GRE to demonstrate the mathematics skills required for STEM branch study.
- I took TOEFL to demonstrate my ability to understand colloquial English that is required both inside university to discuss with professors and colleagues and outside university in case I have to discuss with social departments like police, doctors and lawyers.
- Documents required are educational, the reason to pursue further study and my ability to fund my education.
- My undergraduate degree and mark sheets, my statement of purpose, my letter of recommendation from educational and professional connections, my resignation letter from my employer, my bank statement and funds to support my education.
Fees
- I was charged $20000 per year. Most of it was a course fee. There were other charges like an annual fee, examination fee, and course fee. The fee was collected annually.
- I didn't join the hostel and stayed outside along with my friends. There is an entire area where students live. Mostly houses are 4-bedroom apartments.
- My monthly rent was $250 per person per month. Groceries cost around $50 per person per week. Bus passes were included in the fee structure. Purchasing cold winter clothes is mandatory, as Buffalo is very cold.
Scholarship
- I didn't receive any scholarship.
- Yes, a few of my batchmates received financial scholarships. Mostly they were PhD students. They received a stipend. Also, few candidates received research assistant and teaching assistant roles. They would get $800-1200$ for a month.
- On average, there were 10% of candidates who received scholarships. There were on-campus jobs in various departments, not only the computer science department. Developing websites and back-ends for quite a few departments like geology, history and economics.
