What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$12,943 to $27,716 a year for in-state students, depending on income.
College Scorecard 2024 estimate · in-state rates
See the price at your income ↑Sticker price
Full cost before aid: $30,539 a year in-state. Average need-based aid package: $16,916.Aid and debt
54.1%
receive need-based grants
$25,283
average debt at graduation
3,604
students got merit aid
about 19% of undergraduates
$3,725
average merit award
Getting In
Key dates
Test scores
SAT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 1350–1470 · 38% of the class submitted
ACT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 30–34 · 4% of the class submitted
58.7% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What they value
- Very important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- GPA
- SAT/ACT scores
- Personal essay
- Important
- Recommendations
- Considered
- Class rank
- Extracurriculars
- Special talent
- Character
- First-gen status
- Legacy status
- Where you're from
- In-state residency
- Volunteer work
- Work experience
- Demonstrated interest
What this means for you
Stony Brook rates course rigor and your essay as Very Important, and your recommendations as Important.
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Rigor means AP, IB, and dual enrollment carry real weight — make sure your mix of AP or IB courses is strong. The essay is weighted like your GPA. And recommendations matter here too — a recommender who knows you well helps.
Stony Brook rates demonstrated interest 'Considered' — it can tip a close decision, without being decisive.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section C7 (admissions factors)
Stony Brook just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-Stony Brook essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
39.4% of Stony Brook classes have fewer than 20 students.
39.4%
under 20 students
38.8%
20 to 49
21.8%
50 or more
Every class section counts, labs and seminars included; first-year courses tend to be larger. Stony Brook CDS 2025–26, I-3.
19:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
8.3%
first-years from out of state
52%
live on campus
1.5%
of men in fraternities
3.3%
of women in sororities
Who attends
- Asian36%
- White22.5%
- Hispanic16%
- Black6.2%
- Unknown / other4.9%
- Multiracial3.3%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. Stony Brook CDS 2025–26, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
64.5% of Stony Brook students graduate in 4 years.
64.5%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2019
77.1%
finish in 6 years
Entered fall 2019
89.4%
return after first year
Finishing late means paying for extra semesters, so the 4-year rate is the one that shows the cost.
Students with Pell Grants
80.3% finish in 6 years, against 77.1% of all students.
A 3.2-point gap: Pell Grant students finish more often than students overall.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Stony Brook.
Stony Brook sits on Long Island's North Shore, about 60 miles east of Manhattan, with the Long Island Rail Road running to Penn Station.
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It is a suburban campus near a small harbour village rather than a college town.
The City
Small town
Stony Brook, NY
Best For
Notable alumni
Notable Alumni
Jef Raskin
Started the Macintosh project at Apple; took a BA in mathematics and a BS in physics at Stony Brook
Jon Oringer
Founder of Shutterstock, who earned a BS in computer science and mathematics at Stony Brook
Class of 1997
Joy Behar
Comedian and long-running co-host of The View, who took an MA in English education at Stony Brook
Class of 1966
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
Traditions
Traditions
Roth Regatta
Students build cardboard-and-duct-tape boats and race them across Roth Pond at the end of the spring term. Most of them sink, which is the point.
Shirley Strum Kenny Lecture and the Simons legacy
Stony Brook's identity is tied to its research funding and to Brookhaven National Laboratory nearby, which it co-manages — a research footprint unusual for a university founded in 1957.
Wolfstock
Homecoming weekend, named for the Seawolves, combining the football game with an alumni carnival.
Weekend escapes from Stony Brook
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Stony Brook
New York City
About 2 hours by trainThe Long Island Rail Road runs from Stony Brook to Penn Station; most students go in by rail rather than drive.
The Hamptons and Montauk
1 hour 30 minutesThe eastern end of Long Island, and the standard warm-weather trip.
Port Jefferson
10 minutesThe nearest walkable harbour town, with a ferry across the Sound to Connecticut.
Getting there and game days
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Long Island MacArthur (ISP)
25 minutes from campus
For international flights: John F. Kennedy International (JFK) — about 1 hour 15 minutes by road.
Pro sports nearby
- New York Islanders NHL
- New York Yankees MLB
- New York Mets MLB
Internships and jobs nearby
Career Proximity
Stony Brook's pipeline runs through health care and research on Long Island, plus the finance and media economy reachable by train in Manhattan.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Stony Brook Medicine
- Brookhaven National Laboratory
- Northwell Health
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
New York City, about 2 hours by train
Who thrives here
Who Thrives Here
Stony Brook admits 48.2% of applicants and charges New York residents $10,930 against $34,910 for everyone else, which is most of why 80.6% of its 18,615 undergraduates are in-state. The social texture is unusual for a campus this size: Greek life is close to vestigial at 1.5% of men and 3.3% of women, 52.0% live on campus, and 11.1% of the entering class is international. A student who wants a Saturday-afternoon football culture is in the wrong place; one who wants a lab bench is not. Teaching runs at scale — 19 to 1, with 39.4% of sections under 20 — and the outcomes hold up: 89.4% of first-years return, 64.5% finish in four years and 77.1% in six, with Pell recipients finishing at 80.3%, a gap that runs the right way. Aid is the weak point. Stony Brook meets 57.9% of demonstrated need, so the low resident sticker price is doing more work than the aid package, and average debt at graduation is $25,283.