University Buffalo

Date: Mar 02 2006
Major: School of Information (This Major's Salary over time)
I applied and entered UB without knowing exactly what I wanted to do with myself. UB just happened to be nearby where I lived and it was an affordable and "good" school to attend according to local guidance councilors. Unfortunately, it wasn't until after grad school that I realized the absolute importance of getting a college/university education at a top school… not just one that is conveniently nearby or affordable looking. UB is a "third tier" University which means 1) Employers do not go there to recruit, be it for the MBA's, JD's, Engineers, or CS graduates - at least until they've exhausted filling positions from Ivy League and other top-tier schools first. 2) The student body is made up of a lot of dull-minded individuals. 3)Faculty members are not great teachers, nor are they great researchers - they're pretty much average to below average in both areas and although each department has a token Ivy league graduate who holds the title "distinguished professor", I could literally count on one hand the number of great professors within all the UB Schools. Another observation is that over the past 10 years, within the MBA, Engineering, and CS programs, a massively large number of India-Educated faculty members have been hired. Not a bad thing by itself, but most of the professors are horrible teachers which can barely speak english, and their educations are questionable by anyone that listens to them trying to teach.

I do not recommend attending UB - except for those individuals that apply and cannot get into Cornell, Binghamton, or other higher quality schools in NY or around the US. I ended up getting a great job out of grad school, completely blowing the curve in terms of starting income level with a top company, but had to work really hard to sell myself in the job interviews and I relied almost soley upon experience and knowledge I gained outside of the University. The faculty members in both my undergraduate and graduate programs did nothing to help me obtain positions upon graduation and the career centers and guidance councilors are a joke, without connections to major employers nor with other reputable educational institutions. Please take my advice, especially if you are sharp/smart/of strong mind, etc… you don't want to attend UB only to later see, as I have, others hired into greater companies, for more money, sometimes on a fast track, because you thought you would somehow get a "value" by attending UB. Your university choice indeed will have a major impact on your future career opportunities and you owe it to yourself to aim as high as possible when making that choice.