At a Glance
Buffalo admits 80.6% 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
$36,063
average debt at graduation
Buffalo graduates carry an average of $36,063 in debt.
Merit Aid
1,090
students received merit aid
$4,590
average merit award
Getting In
Buffalo admits 80.6% of applicants.
This school reports SAT section scores but leaves the composite range blank, so there is no mid-50% band to chart.
Mid-50% by section: Reading 610–690 · Math 610–700.
ACT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 2% of the class submitted
27% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What They Value
Academic
Nonacademic
University at Buffalo gives essays less weight than many schools — academics drive most admissions decisions here. Demonstrated interest is Not Considered here — campus visits and emails to admissions won't affect your odds.
Student Life
32.4% of Buffalo 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 Buffalo, 32.4% 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 2025–26, Section I-3 (class sizes)
12:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus Life
From out of state (freshman class)
3.7%
Live on campus
35%
Men in fraternities
0.3%
Women in sororities
2%
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."
Buffalo's student body is 42.3% white.
Popular Majors
Will They Graduate?
Buffalo graduates 58% 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.
Buffalo graduates 58% 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.
Buffalo
58%
4-yr grad rate
Extra year cost: $30,785*
* In-state cost of attendance. Out-of-state students pay significantly more.
Graduation rate data from Common Data Set 2025–26, Fall 2018 cohort (most recent available). 4-year rate = students completing in 4 years or less. 6-year rate = students completing within 6 years.
72.8%
Overall 6-yr rate
67.6%
Pell recipient rate
There's a 5.2 point gap between overall and Pell Grant graduation rates. Worth asking the school about support resources.
Freshman Retention
84.8%
84.8% of first-year students return for sophomore year.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Buffalo.
Buffalo is a mid-sized city at the eastern end of Lake Erie, with the university's main undergraduate campus in suburban Amherst to the north and a second downtown medical campus. Niagara Falls is half an hour away and Toronto under two hours.
Notable Alumni
Wolf Blitzer
CNN anchor and long-running host of The Situation Room, who took a BA in history at Buffalo
Class of 1970
Robin Li
Co-founder and chief executive of Baidu, who earned a master's in computer science at Buffalo
Class of 1994
Winston Duke
Actor known for M'Baku in Black Panther, who earned a BA in theatre at Buffalo before Yale's drama school
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
The City
Mid-size city
Buffalo, NY
Best For
Traditions
Oozefest
A mud volleyball tournament held each spring on North Campus, running since 1983 and among the largest of its kind.
The two-campus split
Most undergraduates study on North Campus in Amherst while the medical and dental schools sit downtown, with a shuttle and a metro line linking them. Which campus a programme sits on shapes the experience noticeably.
Distinguished Speakers Series
A long-running lecture series that has brought heads of state, Nobel laureates and writers to campus since 1986.
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Buffalo
Niagara Falls
30 minutesThe falls and the Canadian border crossing, both immediately northwest.
Toronto
2 hoursThe nearest major international city, across the border — a passport makes it a routine weekend.
Ellicottville
1 hourThe nearest skiing, in the southern-tier hills.
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Buffalo Niagara International (BUF)
20 minutes from campus
For international flights: Toronto Pearson International (YYZ) — about 2 hours by road, including the border crossing.
Pro sports nearby
- Buffalo Bills NFL
- Buffalo Sabres NHL
Career Proximity
Buffalo's pipeline is health care and biomedical research through the downtown medical campus, alongside advanced manufacturing across western New York.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Kaleida Health
- Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
- M&T Bank
- Moog
Toronto, 2 hours
Who Thrives Here
Buffalo admits 80.6% of applicants into a 21,192-student undergraduate body, which makes it more reachable than its research standing suggests. For a New York family the price is the argument: $11,036 in tuition and fees against $32,466 from out of state. It reports a student-faculty ratio of 12 to 1, low for a public university of this size, though only 32.4% of sections have fewer than 20 students — the two figures together say small classes exist but are not what most weeks look like. Campus life is thinner than the enrolment implies: 35.0% live on campus and Greek life takes in 0.3% of men and 2% of women, so a large share of students commute to a university split across two campuses, with most undergraduate teaching north of the city in Amherst. Outcomes sit in the middle — 84.8% of first-years return, 58.0% finish in four years and 72.8% in six — and the money is the caution even in state, with 53.0% of demonstrated need met and $36,063 in average debt at graduation.