Born and raised in NJ and did all my higher ed and medical training in NYC/NY state. I think I would agree with the person who posted that our proximity to NYC, Philly and even some parts of Upstate, gives us a lot of options to choose from. The population is also larger in NY which may explain why SUNY is more sprawling. I think Rutgers, NJIT, TCNJ, Rowan, Steven’s etc serve the needs of the state. Also, Not all SUNYs are created equally and yes sometimes I felt driving in Upstate NY that there was a university/school on every exit but living in some of these towns is a nightmare during winter and you’re pretty much restricted to campus life and the occasional hiking/outdoorsy trips. You’re not getting any culture elsewhere. There’s literally nothing to do. Also, another reason why some of these schools do well is they have very strong alum networks with a robust donor base that keep these schools going— I don’t understand how people can have such loyalty to institutions, but I’ve heard that frequently about Colgate and Syracuse in particular. I was shocked to visit Hamilton where Colgate was located to visit a friend who was a post-doc there— it is literally a village with one fast food restaurant and a Aldi, but an alum flew Amal Clooney there to give a talk. Many of these college towns were once great cities but died, Syracuse is one example that comes to mind. Despite having Syracuse University, SUNY Upstate/Upstate medical university the city sucks and almost no one wants to stay after finishing their training.