<p>In 2008, 31,510 HS grads left NJ to enroll at schools in other states.
Jersey's outflow of students is the largest of any state.</p>
<p>New</a> Jersey’s student drain is gain for District colleges - The Washington Post</p>
<p>As a New Jersey resident, I’m not at all surprised. There is a HUGE quality gap between Princeton (for the creme de la creme, although many of those go to other OOS Ivies) and, say, Rutgers (except for biological sciences) or TCNJ. There are a huge number of students in between those quality levels who simply don’t have anywhere to go in New Jersey. In August, I’ll be one of them.</p>
<p>I completely agree with MoreAboutNothing. </p>
<p>There are few colleges in NJ that have good reputations so most students venture to other states in search of a quality education.</p>
<p>^^ ^^</p>
<p>Yup, that’s basically what the article said.</p>
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<p>Huh? Rutgers seems to be a very respectable and well regarded university in many subjects.</p>
<p>The Washington Post article does claim that New Jersey has capacity limitations in its state universities – though it seems odd that such a problem would not have manifested itself into extremely high admissions selectivity at the state universities.</p>
<p>Rutgers is definitely a good school, but as a NJ HS senior, it is looked down upon-- Especially at my school where 1/3 or more of the 150 (approx) student end up at Rutgers. From outside states, Rutgers looks like a great school (because it is), but that image is tainted by the fact that many students who don’t really try in hs (mine definitely) end up there…</p>
<p>Also, NJ is in a great position geographically speaking. Only a 4 hr drive to Washington DC, 5 hrs to Boston and many points north, plus PA as well which has a multitude of schools to choose from.</p>
<p>haha im from nj, i applied to 9 schools and 7 are out of state! that cuz everyone wants to get the hell out of nj, and the jersey shore stigma doesnt help in keeping kids in nj. plus besides princeton and rutgers, most of njs colleges are isolated and dont get attention from employers that arent in the tri state region.</p>
<p>If the WashPo was the Star Ledger, they’d know there was nothing new here. jetsfan - this has been going on for at least a few decades. A substantial % of my HS class wanted to get out of the state as quickly as possible (I was one of them, my “safety” was the only NJ school). This had nothing to do with bad reality TV - this was back in the pre-cable Dark Ages when we had 3 networks (4 if you counted Metromedia), a few independent channels, AND WE LIKED IT! But I digress.</p>
<p>NJ is a populus state with a large number of high-income over-achieving families producing students who are going to attend a prestigous university OR ELSE! The in-state public & private schools have limited capacity and you have many neaby states with fine programs as johring has observed. From conversations w S & D classmates & their parents, VA OOS tuitions are considered to compare well vs. their NJ competition, so we have a large number of NJ students applying to our programs.</p>
<p>I think mostly socioeconomic factors contribute to this since New Jersey is one of the richest states per capita, so more parents can afford to send their kids out of state.</p>
<p>My daughter is a junior at Rutgers. They have a wonderful nursing program and she absolutely LOVES college. My son is a senior in high school. Rutgers gave him a huge scholarship but he is going to Cornell Univer -College of Engineering instead…and will be full-pay. I wish Rutgers had a renowned engineering school - it sure would save me a lot of money!</p>
<p>Excellent point about having the financial resources to export their kids, Vike. And I always find it interesting to compare instate versus out-of-state perceptions of Rutgers. There’s definitely a stigma of laziness or settling instate (again, excepting biology and biotechnology in particular.) On the flip side, Rutgers is a HUGE draw for New Jersey graduate students in the biological sciences. I attend a prep school, and my AP biology teacher turned down a Yale fellowship to go to Rutgers.</p>
<p>Rutgers has been coaxing a good amount of competitive students with an increasing no. of Presidential scholarships. TCNJ is also a great school, but hardly gets any mention because it’s so new…</p>
<p>NJ has traditionally had an underdeveloped higher ed system relative to the size of its student population. The state has not needed to develop this area to create a high-skilled workforce, because NJ is a net importer of college-educated people from elsewhere (despite the fact that its middle-class 18-year-olds leave in droves).</p>