SUNY Buffalo vs Albany Medical College

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Suenya

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Hi all. I am trying to decide between Buffalo and AMC. I would love any input as to positives and negatives about each school.

Buffalo is cheaper. Especially if you can get in-state after a year (but how easy is that?). Also cheaper to live around Buffalo than in Albany.

Buffalo has more flexibility in 3rd year it looks like. Many schools I looked at didn't, but for someone with interests including areas outside the core specialties, this seems like it would be very helpful.

Albany seems like a nicer place to be in general. Less dangerous, nicer weather. It's also far closer to Boston, where my family lives.

Albany has an ethics program, which is a big draw for me since I am interested in bioethics.

It seems like many people at AMC live close enough to walk to school and rotations. Buffalo sounds like most people live downtown or in one of the suburbs/neighborhoods about a 5-15min drive away.

Are there any other things I should be taking into account, or other opinions about them? I am going to visit the cities again next week to get a better feel, but I'd love more input about positives or negatives of both living in these areas and the schools and programs, if there is anything people can think of. It's not like I am going to tally up votes to make a decision, I'm more interested in "why"s that I might be missing or not thinking about right.

Thank you!

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I don't go to either of these schools but wanted to chime in since I have family in both cities and have known some people who have gone to UB. First, I think they're both solid schools. About getting instate tuition at Buffalo: I think it's VERY easy to do--I think it's pretty automatic after year one and I have heard of some kids getting it before the first year begins...I would e-mail some current students on this. The obvious advantage to UB is that not only is tuition quite reasonable, but the cost of living is nil. I know somebody who pays about $500 for a gigantic/modern apt. I think the area around Albany is friggen beautiful, and if it's super-important to be near your family I think that'd be a justifiable reason to pick it. If you could be happy at either place I'd probably go with UB since you'd be in the ball park of saving 70-100k+ over 4 yrs which is pretty huge. That being said, if you think you'd only be happy at Albany, go there and don't look back.
 
Hi, I'm having the same dilemma as you-
I'm from Albany, but didn't get great aid from them. My dad works in the hospital however, and I would LOVE to go there for that reason, and to see my siblings grow up (they're much younger)
However, I'm also considering Buffalo, Rochester, Einstein, and NYU
I'm afraid the cost of living is too high in NYC, and I loved Rochester, but I don't think you can beat the state price of Buffalo....

This is so hard. Good luck :)
 
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Thank you for the opinions! Hoping to bump this so some of the larger weekday crowd chimes in :)
 
I don't have much objective input to offer you, but I have a friend at UB SOM who grew up in Albany. I mentioned that I was going to apply to Albany and she said "DON'T do it. Albany is terrible." Her friend, a fellow Albany native, agreed. Their only real reasoning is that Albany is a boring place to live, in their opinion. I've lived in Buffalo my entire life thus far. The weather isn't going to be much worse than Albany, and there is plenty to do in Buffalo. Roswell Park Cancer Institute is here and Buffalo is really pushing the development of medical science in the area. Plus, you will save a ton of money. I lived in a sweet apartment with vaulted ceilings, skylights, balcony, backyard, basement with laundry, etc for 300/mo for the first year and 325/mo for the second.
 
Eh, I don't know why I'm weighing in on this because I have a vested interest in both schools. I'm going to try to be as unbiased as possible though.

Cost of living? Buffalo and Albany are going to be roughly the same. It's true that Buffalo has a ton of housing options and dirt cheap apartments, but you can find similar deals in Albany.

Neighborhood? Buffalo has 26% of the population below the poverty line, Albany has 21%. The area around the medical school in Albany is probably a bit safer too.

Stuff to do? Both are about equal, but Buffalo is denser so there are more things to do in a smaller area. I base this on the fact that both areas have about equal metro area populations (approximately 1.2 million people). The Albany area overall is probably richer and that may indicate they have more to do overall though. So if you want to find something to do in Albany you're going to have to do a lot of driving, but you'll be doing slightly less driving in Buffalo.

Weather? What I always say is that Buffalo isn't any different from the rest of Upstate New York. The weather in Albany and Buffalo are virtually identical (you can look this up on wikipedia or another source if you don't believe me).

Transportation? Both places have crap public transportation. UB has a lot of students so they have a network between there three campuses and there's also a train, but anywhere else you need to go is going to require a car. It's pretty much the same case with Albany: if you live near the college and walk that's fine, but if you need to get to a grocery store or find something to do you're going to need a car. I'm calling it even here too.

In conclusion: both places are equal in everything I just went over.

Proximity to Boston? Albany is about 3 hours away, Buffalo is over 7 hours away.

Price? Well, you already know that. You'll end up saving a lot by going to Buffalo.
 
Just wanted to chime in about the weather (I'm also wled at UB if it makes a difference) - I'm not from the area, but I did some googling about upstate NY weather, and came across some snowfall stats. I always thought Buffalo was one of the snowiest cities in the US, but apparently Syracuse beats it out, and Albany receives the least snow of the cities participating in the "Golden Snowball Award" competition for snowiest city in upstate ny.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowfall_Statistics_for_Golden_Snowball_Award_Cities

Albany
Max: 112.5 inches (1970-71)
Min: 13.8 inches (1912-13)
Average: 64.1 inches

Binghamton
Max: 134.0 inches (1995-96)
Min: 47.8 inches (1988-89)
Average: 84.7 inches

Buffalo

Max: 199.4 inches (1976-77)
Min: 40.1 (1948-49)
Average: 93.6 inches

Rochester

Max: 161.7 inches (1959-60)
Min: 41.7 inches (1952-53)
Average: 92.8 inches

Syracuse

Max: 192.1 inches (1992-93)
Min: 59.4 inches (2001-02)
Average: 116.9 inches
 
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Just wanted to chime in about the weather (I'm also wled at UB if it makes a difference) - I'm not from the area, but I did some googling about upstate NY weather, and came across some snowfall stats. I always thought Buffalo was one of the snowiest cities in the US, but apparently Syracuse beats it out, and Albany receives the least snow of the cities participating in the "Golden Snowball Award" competition for snowiest city in upstate ny.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowfall_Statistics_for_Golden_Snowball_Award_Cities

Albany
Max: 112.5 inches (1970-71)
Min: 13.8 inches (1912-13)
Average: 64.1 inches

Binghamton
Max: 134.0 inches (1995-96)
Min: 47.8 inches (1988-89)
Average: 84.7 inches

Buffalo

Max: 199.4 inches (1976-77)
Min: 40.1 (1948-49)
Average: 93.6 inches

Rochester

Max: 161.7 inches (1959-60)
Min: 41.7 inches (1952-53)
Average: 92.8 inches

Syracuse

Max: 192.1 inches (1992-93)
Min: 59.4 inches (2001-02)
Average: 116.9 inches

Oh wow

I didn't realize Buffalo had a higher average than Albany. And quite a bit higher (29 inches!!)! I think that's a bit misleading though, because it just snows an inch every day. Storms aren't any more common than in Albany, but it doesn't snow as often.

If that makes any sense. Haha.

Syracuse is almost always the snowiest by far though. I had to laugh at someone at Upstate who said she didn't apply to Buffalo because, "it's too snowy." I explained to her that Syracuse was actually snowier on average, but I'm not sure she believed me. Darn Buffalo gets one really bad year (1976-77) and its reputation as the snowiest city sticks forever.
 
That's a pretty huge difference in snow :eek:

I also checked crime stuff online, not sure about reliability. Both areas sound more dangerous than Boston or the cities around it, but not by huge huge portions. I guess it'd be important to know how contained to certain areas the crime is or if its more widespread.

I got my acceptance to Buffalo today, and I am visiting both this week to get a better feel for the areas.

Is there anywhere anyone can think of I would want to stop by and see or walk around to get a feel for what its like living in Buffalo or Albany?

And any more input from other people would be great as well. Hard choice, but one I am happy to have.
 
That's a pretty huge difference in snow :eek:

I also checked crime stuff online, not sure about reliability. Both areas sound more dangerous than Boston or the cities around it, but not by huge huge portions. I guess it'd be important to know how contained to certain areas the crime is or if its more widespread.

If you're really concerned about crime just live in the suburbs. Both Albany and Buffalo have super safe suburbs, and neither have a particularly active rush hour (though Buffalo is probably busier).

I mean whatever city you live in something can happen. Obviously just be street smart, and don't live in a place with a giant poverty/crime rate and you'll be fine. Zipskinny.com is a great resource because it gives you an idea of poverty rate, and neighborhoods with higher poverty typically have higher crime.
 
So I visited both schools and towns. Albany is wicked nice. The area that people seem to live near the school seems fairly quiet and nice (although bedrooms in apts seem super tiny) but with a good mix of walkable nearby food. The park is beautiful. It feels like you can walk the main parts you'd want to go in Albany easily from the hospital, and despite it feeling a bit sketchier than I am used to, it still seemed like a nice safe place in the areas I was most interested in (both for living and hanging out).

Buffalo was less bad than I remembered, but still not so hot. Living further from school and far away seems like it would be annoying. After spending a couple of days in each town, though, I am leaning towards Buffalo. I sort of feel like personally, while Albany is awesome, it probably won't affect my happiness much to have all the nice benefits of living there. The only real downside to Buffalo (besides being rather far from Boston) is that there are so many unsafe areas near both school and clinical sites, which makes walking not so likely.

I'm leaning towards Buffalo after a second look through, but still doing a bit more research before deciding. Thank you all for the input.
 
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