I can tell you Upstate NY not much around here, well I said this after seeing the same stuff for 27 years. 20-30 mins away from albany is Six Flags Great escape in Lake George which is nice for camping and hanging out with friends during summer. Albany has 3 colleges and a pub town for college kids, as well prob best area to find work in IT around here which is still a struggle, but with your degree should be no problem. Global Founderies also has a plant in Malta which is 40 mins at least away from Albany. There is tons of malls around me, Crossgates being 3rd largest in the state. Which is located on the outskirts of Albany towards Colonie and Schenectady. Saratoga is 20-30 min drive which has the racino and race track when horse season arrives. It is also about 2-3 hour drive to NYC from here, as well as only about 1-2 hours to mass which we can just get on the Mass turnpike from here if we wanted to go there. Upstate NY is prob the central point of living if you wants to travel to nearby areas, or even head to Canada.
I can tell you NYC is like back to back with people, and cost of living is prob one of the worst down there. You will end up paying 20 bucks for just appetizer down there. Not sure prices of NJ are, from what I seen they are pretty high gas wise seems like their trying to relate this prices from NYC.
You have relatives in Jersey right?