Stony Brook University
Stony Brook University is located in Stony Brook, New York. It is a public, 4-year or above institution.
From Wikipedia: Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in the Stony Brook, New York area, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system’s two flagship institutions. Its campus consists of 213 buildings on over 1,454 acres (588 hectares) of land in Suffolk County and it is the largest public university (by area) in the state of New York. Opened 67 years ago in 1957 in Oyster Bay as the State University College on Long Island, the institution moved to Stony Brook in 1962. Stony Brook is part of the Association of American Universities and the Universities Research Association. It is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity”. Stony Brook University, in partnership with Battelle, manages Brookhaven National Laboratory, a national laboratory of the United States Department of Energy. The university acquired land for a Research & Development Park adjacent to its main campus in 2004, and has four business incubators across the region. Stony Brook is the largest single-site employer on Long Island; over 25,500 students are enrolled at the university, which has over 15,000 employees and over 2,850 faculty. Stony Brook’s intercollegiate athletic teams have competed in Division I of the NCAA since 1999 as the Seawolves. Stony Brook joined the Colonial Athletic Association on July 1, 2022, after competing as a member of the America East Conference since 2001.
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Notes
These are items that bear looking into more closely.
- This institution’s six year bachelors graduation rate is 77.8%, so approximately 1/5 of undergrads who enroll do not earn a bachelors degree from here.
Overview of institution
This, and the rest of the page, use info from the most recent year available, generally 2023.
Institution kind: Doctoral Universities: Very High Research Activity
Undergrad program: Arts & sciences plus professions, high graduate coexistence
Graduate program: Research Doctoral: Comprehensive programs, with medical/veterinary school
Enrollment profile: Majority undergraduate (see more details below)
Average net price for undergrads on financial aid: $17,213 . This is 90% the average cost of Harvard.
Actual price for your family: Go here to see what your family may be asked to pay. It can be MUCH lower than the average price but also higher for some.
Size and setting: Four-year, large, highly residential
In state percentage: 81% of first year students come from New York
In US percentage: 93% of first year students come from the US
Graduation rate (within 6 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 77.8% (this is what is usually reported as “graduation rate”)
Graduation rate (within 4 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 65.8%
Percent of students seeking a Bachelors who transfer out of this institution: 11.2%
Student to tenure-stream faculty ratio: 17.7 (undergrads to tenure-stream faculty) [Tenure explained]
Student to faculty ratio: 7.9 (undergrads to all faculty)
Degrees offered: Bachelor’s degree, Postbaccalaureate certificate, Master’s degree, Post master’s certificate, Doctor’s degree: research scholarship, Doctor’s degree: professional practice
Schedule: Semester
Institution provides on campus housing: Yes
Dorm capacity: There are enough dorm beds for 10315 students
Freshmen required to live on campus: No
Advanced placement (AP) credits used: Yes
Disabilities: 7.37 percent of undergrads are registered as having disabilities.
Map
Comparisons
The sections below show this institution compared with others. The ones listed are ones it has identified as peers, who consider themselves peers, and/or who the federal government considers peers. If a comparison school has the same value as the focal school, its cell is grayed out. Arrows show where there is a signficant trend over time for a school. You can swipe across the table to see more of it; the focal school column is always visible.
- Stony Brook University lists these schools as ones to compare itself within federal IPEDS data, and they do the same back: University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, University of Virginia-Main Campus, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Purdue University-Main Campus, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, University of Missouri-Columbia, University at Buffalo, Iowa State University, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Arizona
- Stony Brook University compares itself to these institutions, but not vice versa: University of California-Los Angeles, University of California-Berkeley, University of Florida, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The University of Texas at Austin, Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus, University of California-Irvine, University of California-San Diego, Texas A & M University-College Station, University of Washington-Seattle Campus, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of California-Santa Barbara, University of California-Davis, Ohio State University-Main Campus, University of Maryland-College Park, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus, University of Connecticut, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Indiana University-Bloomington, Michigan State University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Iowa, University of Utah, University of Kansas, University of Oregon
- These institutions compare themselves to Stony Brook University, but not vice versa: Florida State University, University of Georgia, United States Air Force Academy, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, University of South Florida, Syracuse University, University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus, Texas Tech University, Stevens Institute of Technology, University of Delaware, University of Vermont, Georgia State University, Temple University, University of Illinois Chicago, George Mason University, University at Albany, University of Louisville, St. John’s University-New York, University of Wyoming, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Augusta University, Berkeley College-Woodland Park, Berkeley College-New York, Iona University, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School
Enrollment
General
Teaching
Tenure track faculty are those who are eligible for tenure. This includes both pre-tenure and tenured faculty. Once faculty get tenure, they are (generally) protected from being fired for intellectual reasons, helping to ensure their freedom in teaching and research. They can still lose their positions for misconduct, financial problems, not fulfilling their duties, or other reasons.
Non-tenure track faculty are not eligible for tenure. Some are hired one semester at a time, some have multi-year contracts. They typically have a higher teaching load than tenure track faculty, leaving less time for research or other creative endeavors. They are also easier to fire than tenured faculty. Sometimes they are external experts (a noted musician, a former senator) who are hired to teach some classes without the expected permanence of a tenure-track position.
Note that this chart uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.
Having a low student to faculty ratio is considered a good thing by many, as it can mean more individual attention.
Geography
This has information on the location of the institution. See the about page for more information on what the metrics are and how they are calculated. The goal is to neutrally provide information: for example, some individuals want stringent gun control in an area, some want the opposite: the categories are meant to be descriptive.
Financial Aid
Graduation
Note these are bachelors graduation rates in six years, not four (this is standard). Sample sizes can be small for some demographic groups with few individuals in a school, leading to large year-to-year fluctuations and often extreme values for those groups (if there are two individuals in the class with a given identity, the possible graduation rates are 0%, 50%, or 100% depending on whether zero, one, or both students graduate within six years).
Library
Libraries are changing rapidly. Note that how institutions count digital collections may vary.
Diversity
The US Census Bureau has a diversity index that goes from 0 to 1. In their words, “A 0-value indicates that everyone in the population has the same racial and ethnic characteristics. A value close to 1 indicates that everyone in the population has different racial and ethnic characteristics.” This uses their formula, but with the resolution available for the federal IPEDS data (which does not separate for a given demographic group whether members identify as Hispanic or not). This metric is about heterogeneity within the population, not the proportion of the population that comes from historically excluded groups.
Following the practice of the census, the index is multiplied by 100 to give the percentage probability a random pair of individuals will have a different background. Most institutions argue that diversity is a benefit, so by default a higher number is listed as better, but there may be cases where this measure does not reflect the mission of a college (for example, 70% of the students at a tribal college or university may be American Indian: that could be low-scoring by this metric but should not be read as “bad” given the institution’s mission).
These numbers are based on the most recent year available, generally 2023, which predates effects of the US Supreme Court’s striking down of affirmative action. This has often changed, sometimes dramatically, the incoming student demographics at some institutions.
Overall diversity
Freshman profile
Demographic data for first time degree-seeking students. Note that this uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.
Freshman geography
Test scores
SAT scores
ACT scores
Majors
This presents information on the number of majors and the median earnings one and five years after graduation for people who got a degree from this institution in that field. The earnings are for those who are working and not enrolled in further education. The earnings data (from the federal college scorecard) also has information on earnings for those categorized as ‘MALE’ and ‘NOMALE’ – for readability, these are recategorized here as “Men” and “Women”, respectively, which adopts the gender binary used in other federal data. “W/M earnings ratio” is the median earnings of women divided by men, as a percentage.