Stony Brook University

Overview

Stony Brook University (SBU) is a public university that is hailed as one of the best universities in the United States and in the world. Founded in 1957 through a 480-acre land donated by Ward Melville, it is the biggest public university in the state of New York by land area. Stony Brook has a five-point mission statement, which involves providing high-quality education while celebrating diversity. It also aims to conduct research aligned with international standards, become a thought leader in the community and in the region, and provide modern medical facilities within the regional healthcare network.

SBU offers over 200 majors, minors, and combined-degree programs distributed among six undergraduate colleges. The most popular majors in SBU are economics, biology, biochemistry, mathematics, psychology, health science, political science, business management, computer science, and applied mathematics and statistics. Students can choose from over 40 graduate school programs in business, journalism, engineering, arts and sciences, and health and medicine. Being the premier medical academic center in Long Island, SBU also houses schools in medicine, nursing, dental medicine, social welfare, and health technology and management.

SBU started out as a small teacher preparatory college. In the 1960s, it began its transition to becoming a full-scale university by beefing up its graduate school and liberal arts and science offerings. By 1980, the Health Sciences Center was constructed in the SBU East Campus in line with the Board of Regents’ directive to put up a new medical center in Long Island. Decades of improving the school paid off as SBU started earning top-tier placement in national and global university rankings. The university has also received recognition as a leader in reducing unequal access to higher education.

Prominent Stonybrook alumni include The View co-host Joy Behar, CondeNast Publications Group President Mitchell B. Fox, and Shutterstock CEO and founder Jon Oringer.

With the enactment of NYSUNY 2020, SBU will be one of the State University of New York (SUNY) recipients of capital funding that will help stimulate jobs, prevent major tuition hikes, and promote economic development in the area. SBU recently added beds to its Stony Brook University Hospital through funds from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In addition, SBU is working with the U.S. Department of Energy for the construction of an electron-ion collider. It will be built in the next 10 years on the campus, which will enable scientists from the U.S. and around the world to conduct research in nuclear physics.

You can also learn more about the educational performance of Stony Brook University in our ranking of US universities & colleges.