At a Glance
Binghamton admits 38.6% of applicants.
What You'll Actually Pay
See what families at different income levels actually pay after aid.
What families actually pay, by income level
After grants and scholarships. Before loans. Public school prices shown at in-state rates.
Source: College Scorecard / IPEDS, 2024-25
Where the Sticker Price Goes
Based on average need-based grant. Actual cost varies by family income — see chart above.
Shown at in-state rates.
Debt at Graduation
Not reported by this school
receive need-based grant aid
$27,208
average debt at graduation
Binghamton graduates carry an average of $27,208 in debt.
Merit Aid
1,556
students received merit aid
$7,395
average merit award
Getting In
Binghamton admits 38.6% of applicants.
SAT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 44% of the class submitted
ACT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 9% of the class submitted
52% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What They Value
Academic
Nonacademic
Binghamton University considers your essay Important — a strong essay can differentiate an otherwise average application. Demonstrated interest is Not Considered here — campus visits and emails to admissions won't affect your odds.
Student Life
51.6% of Binghamton classes have fewer than 20 students.
Share of undergraduate class sections at each size, from CDS Section I-3. More red = more large lectures.
At Binghamton, 51.6% of your classes will have fewer than 20 students.
Class size data reflects all undergraduate sections including labs, seminars, and lectures. Large research universities often have smaller upper-division and graduate-level sections that improve the overall distribution. First and second-year students typically experience larger classes than these averages suggest.
Source: Common Data Set 2024–25, Section I-3 (class sizes)
17:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus Life
From out of state (freshman class)
14.7%
Live on campus
43%
Men in fraternities
16%
Women in sororities
16%
Who Attends
Racial and ethnic breakdown of enrolled undergraduates, as reported in each school's Common Data Set. "Unknown / Other" includes students who did not report or selected "other."
Binghamton's student body is 51.3% white.
Popular Majors
Will They Graduate?
Binghamton graduates 74.6% of students in 4 years.
Graduating late means paying for extra semesters. The 6-year rate tells you who eventually finishes — the 4-year rate tells you what it actually costs.
Binghamton graduates 74.6% of students in 4 years.
What finishing late actually costs
Based on each school's published cost of attendance. Public school costs shown at in-state rates.
Binghamton
74.6%
4-yr grad rate
Extra year cost: $30,345*
* In-state cost of attendance. Out-of-state students pay significantly more.
Graduation rate data from Common Data Set 2024–25, Fall 2018 cohort (most recent available). 4-year rate = students completing in 4 years or less. 6-year rate = students completing within 6 years.
82%
Overall 6-yr rate
75%
Pell recipient rate
There's a 7 point gap between overall and Pell Grant graduation rates. Worth asking the school about support resources.
Freshman Retention
89.5%
89.5% of first-year students return for sophomore year.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Binghamton.
The campus sits in Vestal, across the river from Binghamton in New York's Southern Tier — a former manufacturing region well away from the state's big cities. The campus is self-contained around its Brain-shaped ring road, and the Nature Preserve is inside it.
Notable Alumni
Hakeem Jeffries
House Democratic Leader and the first Black lawmaker to lead a party in Congress; the first Binghamton graduate elected to Congress
Bob Swan
Chief executive of Intel, who earned his MBA at Binghamton's School of Management
Paul Reiser
Actor, comedian and writer, co-creator and star of Mad About You
Class of 1977
Tony Kornheiser
Sportswriter and co-host of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption
Class of 1970
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
The City
Small town
Binghamton, NY
Best For
Traditions
Stepping on the Coat of Arms
Tradition holds that a student who steps on the university seal set into the floor of the Peace Quad will not graduate in four years. Students walk around it.
Spring Fling
The end-of-year outdoor concert and carnival on the Peace Quad, run by the Student Association.
The Nature Preserve
A 190-acre preserve with trails and a pond inside the campus ring road, used as much for study breaks as for biology fieldwork.
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Binghamton
Ithaca & the Finger Lakes
1 hourGorges, waterfalls and the Finger Lakes wine trail.
New York City
3 hoursFrequent buses; the single most common home destination for the student body.
The Catskills
1 hour 30 minutesHiking and skiing without leaving the state.
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Greater Binghamton (BGM)
20 minutes from campus
For international flights: Newark Liberty International (EWR) — about 3 hours by road.
Pro sports nearby
- Binghamton Rumble Ponies MiLB
- Binghamton Black Bears FPHL
Career Proximity
Binghamton's own region is small, so its pipeline runs on New York City three hours south, plus a genuine local cluster in electronics and health care that traces back to IBM's founding here.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Lockheed Martin
- BAE Systems
- UHS Hospitals
- IBM
- Amphenol
- New York State agencies
New York City, 3 hours
Who Thrives Here
Binghamton admits 38.6% of applicants and its middle-50% SAT range runs 1360 to 1480, which puts it in genuinely selective territory, and in-state tuition is $10,567 against $30,447 from out of state. That gap is the whole argument: for a New York family this is one of the strongest price-to-selectivity trades available, and for everyone else it is a more ordinary proposition. The caution is money again — Binghamton meets 76.0% of demonstrated need, not all of it, and graduates carry $27,208 in average debt. Academically it behaves like a small college inside a public budget: 51.6% of classes have fewer than 20 students and 74.6% of students finish in four years, 82.0% in six. Only 43% of undergraduates live on campus and Greek life sits at about 16% of men and 16% of women, so a lot of upperclassman life happens off campus in Vestal and Binghamton rather than in residence halls.