Computer Engineering at University at Buffalo

Buffalo's Computer Engineering program lands squarely in the middle of the pack—below both the national and New York state medians for graduate earnings, but with manageable debt that's actually lower than typical. At $74,753 in first-year earnings, graduates trail the state median by about $6,000 and rank in just the 40th percentile among New York's 17 computer engineering programs. For context, RIT graduates start at $91,000 and even SUNY Binghamton beats Buffalo by $12,000.

The positive here is the debt picture: $22,500 is reasonable for any engineering degree, translating to a 0.30 debt-to-earnings ratio that won't burden new graduates. Earnings do grow 18% to $88,500 by year four, which is solid progression, though still lagging what other SUNY and private New York programs achieve right out of the gate. For a school with a 69% admission rate and strong engineering reputation, these numbers are underwhelming.

If your child has better options within the SUNY system—particularly Binghamton, which delivers $86,938 in starting earnings—those deserve serious consideration. Buffalo works if it's significantly cheaper or offers other compelling reasons (proximity to home, specific research interests), but purely from an ROI perspective, it's delivering below-average returns for New York computer engineering programs.