What Students Say
Likes
- Career focussed: The course curriculum is designed and updated according to the trends and demands
- Less distractions: Located in a quiet neighborhood and away from the distractions
- Experienced professors: Professors are knowledgeable and teach from practical point of view
Dislikes
- Remote place: Sometimes, it is boring as Binghamton University is in a remote place and away from the NYC 3 hours away
- Harsh weather during winters: It gets below 0 degrees celsius during winters
- Has local airport but better connectivity of airport is 1-2 hours away.
Course Curriculum
- I hate Computer Architecture and Organisation, which I had to take and it lowered my GPA. Now a good thing is they have made it optional (need to check if they have removed it from the syllabus completely). Most of the international students are Indian.
- There is not a specific class for me. In my batch, around 100 students started studying during the spring 2022 semester. Difficulty of course curriculum depends on an individual. For me Operating system were difficult.
Admission Experience
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I applied to 4 Universities.
- • University of Texas at Austin (Rejected)
- • University at Albany (SUNY) (Rejected)
- • SUNY at Binghamton (Admitted). I chose SUNY at Binghamton
- • University of North Texas Denton (Admitted)
- Maybe my bachelor's was in Electronics and Telecommunication and had an average score; the first two rejected my application, UNT chose to offer me Computer Engineering, and SUNY at Binghamton offered me an MS in CS major.
- It has a good ranking among SUNY campuses and on the east coast. Plus affordable living and competitive courses.
- I had to get Transcripts, reach out to professors for LORs, draft multiple SOP, appear for GRE and TOEFL, pay the application fees, Once admitted, appear for a VISA interview.
- Minimum scores (GRE: It was waived off due to COVID; TOEFL: 79)
- Admission process is quite lengthy. Draughting SOP was a task.
- I resigned from my job in May 2021. I first applied for a fall 2021 intake but deferred it to Spring 2022 due to less VISA interview appointments. Fall is an ideal semester to start a master's (but it depends on the person) considering the job market scenario and graduation ending and OPT/CPT ending time. I applied 3-4 months before the fall semester in March-April 2021.
Faculty
- There are a lot of international students who enrol in the CS programme for masters. Currently there are 66 faculties. Many of them are into General Coding, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, High performance Computing, Operating Systems, Computer Architecture and many more fields.
- Professors do have the dedicated time slots for connecting with students to resolve any queries. Being proactive in the class, interactive students stand out the most. If you can build up the connection with Professor then they could help you with the Part time/full-time jobs.
Campus Life
- Campuses do have a buzz on most of the weekends. and there are a lot of organisations/clubs that organise festivals and parties. Spring fling which is organised every spring semester. There are 2 campuses. One is in Vestal (main), and the other is in downtown Binghamton.
- Every weekend night there is a movie scheduled (kind of old, not new). Free food is available. Many tech clubs and coding clubs are there. Indian festivals like Holi and Ganesh festivals are celebrated.
Part Time Jobs
- Teaching Assistant (TA), Research Assistant (RA), or Departmental Assistant (DA) positions are the competitive positions. Try to connect with professors as early as possible with credible interest and profile. They won't accept if you don't possess the skill sets. For TA/RA/DA positions, Tuition fees are waived. During a master's, 20 hours are allowed to work. It's quite easy to get an on-campus job. but if tried earlier with consistency, you can get it early.
- On campus is where there are ample part-time opportunities. Most of the students apply and get on-campus part-time jobs. Handshake, or reaching out to the professors, or the careers page of the university is where the jobs are posted. Every state has its own criteria for minimum wage; at my time, NY had USD 13-14/hour. And 20 hours are allowed/week. so you can do the maths.
Placement
- Getting a job is completely dependent on you and your skill sets. Till 2021 it was easy to get a full-time job. But getting a full-time job now has become a task and it completely depends on the individual, how he/she tailors the resume, cracks the interview and so on.
- I graduated in Dec 2023. There are still some of my friends who are searching for a full-time role. It's not going to be an easy ride for most of the students.
Accommodation
- Masters students have to choose off campus. I sublet a room from a friend i made during the application process. I used to pay $350/month for rent. There are many websites, apartments.com, rent college pads. There are many property managers in Binghamton. My accommodation was 3-4 miles away. I had to take the campus bus. It used to reach in 10-15 minutes.
Exams
- GRE and TOEFL are required. but during my time, the GRE was waived off.
- Statement of Purpose, Letter of Recommendation, Resume, bachelor transcripts, Application form
- No, an interview was not a part of my application process. but the admission committee carefully goes through the resume and profile. And if someone is applying for a PhD, then professors could interview or look out for interests/work published.
Fees
- Per semester I was charged USD 14000 considering I chose 3 courses. Fees can be calculated/credited by course. USD 1100~1200/credit and USD ~4500/course. Total cost was around ~45000 USD. University has transportation (free), rent (~500/month), groceries (~100-200/month) and other miscellaneous costs (~100 USD).
- It differs from person to person, as even 4 courses could be taken instead of 3 per semester in order to manage the master's journey, subject to the advisor's approval.
Scholarship
- I was offered a scholarship (USD 1000) but i deferred my application to the next semester. So it got nulled. Most of the students got it during the covid period. Those who gets research role/ Teaching Assistant/Research Assistant/Graduate Assistant, their tuition cost gets paid by University which could be ~70% of the total semester cost. but it's quite competitive to get a Research/Teaching Assistant job.