<p>CBChris…you are doing great with your GPA and rank. It is normal to improve from your PSAT to SAT’s anyway and taking a prep couse should help. TCNJ currently only counts the two parts of the SAT, but they see all three. If you can get that score to about 1300 you will be really well positioned.</p>
<p>I completely agree with lewmin. I scored almost 100 points higher on the actul SAT compared to the PSAT. Aim for 1300 for CR and math combined and you shuold be fine. Compared to the other sciences I think there tends to be a little less people applying for physics so that alone could give you a slight boost.</p>
<p>Thank you to both lewmin and HazelEyez for your advice and information about TCNJ. I now know what areas I need to focus on. Can’t wait to visit the campus this spring.</p>
<p>My list</p>
<p>Princeton(1500+SAT, 3.8+ GPA)</p>
<p>(Mega gap)</p>
<p>Rutgers(1200+SAT 3.5ish GPA), TCNJ(1300ish SAT, 3.5ish GPA)</p>
<p>(Big gap)</p>
<p>Stevens(engineering, comp sci)
Ramapo(business, psy.), NJIT(engineering, comp sci), Rowan(chemical eng., education)</p>
<p>Rider(Accounting), Monmouth(not sure), Seton Hall(Business), Rutgers(Newark, Camden)</p>
<p>William Patterson, Montclair, Stockton, Fairleigh</p>
<p>I dropped out from Rutgers engineering program a few years back. It is not really that difficult. However, the classes are so big and do not require attendance. After a while, you may stop going to college completely, which is what I did. If you have good work ethics, and like bigger school, then Rutgers is great for you. TCNJ is not well known nationwide. However, I heard the quality of education at TCNJ is good, and it is very easy to approach your professors. I wish I went to community college first, then transferred there. However, it is too late for me to do that. I am currently a Rider student(with over 120 credits), tripling majoring finance, accounting, and business management. I haven’t work hard here, and my GPA is above 3.5. The school isn’t very challenging, and the average students aren’t very bright, and the campus life seems pretty boring for the part. However, the accounting program is pretty good. I heard they prepare you for the CPA, and they have connections with the Big 4. I would not recommend Rider unless you want to major in Accounting. If you want to go to school in NJ, go to Princeton if you can get in there. If you can’t get into Princeton, go to Rutgers if you like big schools, and you have great work ethic and self control. Go to TCNJ is you like smaller schools and establish closer relationships with your peers +professors. Go to Stevenson or NJIT for tech if you can’t get into the 3 school if you are doing tech. related majors. Go to Ramapo , maybe Seton Hall(if you like Catholic based college) if you do business other than accounting. Go to Rider for accounting. Fairleigh is decent for business as well. Go to Stockton if you want to go to AC a lot:) I hope these tips are helpful.</p>
<p>I think many here are mistakenly equating “selectivity” as a barometer of academics which is ridiculous. Rutgers has strong programs in the sciences that surpass what is available in many other state schools. I’ve done recruiting at Rutgers for my company and have been floored by the caliber of some of he students there and the diversity represented. And lets face it, TCNJ may be more selective according to USNR, but its not very selective to students going to top notch schools such as the Ivies or publics such as UVA, William and Mary, Michigan, etc.</p>
<p>tcnjjj all the wayy </p>
<p>Class of 2010 Bio!!</p>
<p>There are Educational Opportunity Programs at all public universities and colleges in New Jersey, by law. Rutgers is proud to have a large and diverse group of EOP students. TCNJ has a program, as well. See: [Educational</a> Opportunity Fund :: The College of New Jersey](<a href=“http://www.tcnj.edu/~eofp/]Educational”>TCNJ | Educational Opportunity Fund)</p>
<p>So one can compare colleges and universities by admissions profile. Here’s Rutgers’ admissions profile: [Rutgers</a> | Rutgers Admissions](<a href=“http://admissions.rutgers.edu/Academics/AdmissionsProfile.aspx]Rutgers”>http://admissions.rutgers.edu/Academics/AdmissionsProfile.aspx)
This is what TCNJ publishes: [TCNJ</a> At A Glance :: The College of New Jersey](<a href=“http://www.tcnj.edu/~admiss/facts.html]TCNJ”>TCNJ Quick Facts | The College of New Jersey). Do you see a critical difference?</p>
<p>There are other factors that go into the matter of reputation and academic quality. Here’s one: in NJ, there are two members of Association for American Universities (AAU), the 63 leading research uiversities in North America. One is Princeton; the other is Rutgers.</p>
<p>Perhaps one’s choice of a college or university might best be dictated by what one is looking for in the college or university experience? </p>
<p>You can schedule a tour at Rutgers to find out more: <a href=“http://admissions.rutgers.edu/visiting[/url]”>http://admissions.rutgers.edu/visiting</a>. Feel free to e-mail me any questions: <a href=“mailto:dmochowski@ugadm.rutgers.edu”>dmochowski@ugadm.rutgers.edu</a></p>
<p>Do you work for Rutgers or did you just sleep at a Holiday Inn last night? :)</p>
<p>Seriously, that’s great info. Check this: [Rutgers</a>, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick - Topuniversities](<a href=“http://www.topuniversities.com/institution/rutgers-state-university-new-jersey-new-brunswick/wur]Rutgers”>http://www.topuniversities.com/institution/rutgers-state-university-new-jersey-new-brunswick/wur)</p>
<p>CBCHRIS - TCNJ’s campus is small but beautiful. Has a wood-sy feel to it; its great if you like that type of thing. It almost looks like a forest, and make sure you check out the lake. And BTW: their newly renovated dining hall, Elckoff , is INSANE. so much food yu don’t even know where to start.
I’ve applied and I believe I will get in to their EOF program
Good lUck !! :)</p>
<p>thepoptart - Got into TCNJ. Good luck to you too. I agree it’s a beautiful campus, but there is so much more to TCNJ that you don’t see on the tour. My advise to anyone considering TCNJ. Plan a private visit - sit in on a lecture. You’ll be so impressed with what the school is really about. I was. Good luck to all.</p>
<p>TCNJ has a much better reputation. Your classes are smaller, you get more individual attention from the professors, and you don’t feel like a number. The campus environment is quite welcoming and very conducive to learning. Rutgers is just too big.</p>
<p>Also, TCNJ is much more selective and the students at TCNJ are much smarter than the students at Rutgers.</p>
<p>@jacobratner - My son was accepted to TCNJ and Rutgers…if he goes to TCNJ will he be smarter than if he goes to Rutgers? really?</p>
<p>How does TCNJ’s civil engineering compare to Rutgers? Initially my pick was Rutgers but I’m rethinking after merit aid from TCNJ and none from Rutgers. How is TCNJ’s record on job placement of their engineering grads?</p>
<p>I think he means that statistically TCNJ students on average have higher SAT scores and GPAs than Rutgers student. However, you have to account for the fact that Rutgers has to accept many more students and can’t afford to be as selective. Overall, I think they’re pretty similar in terms of academics.</p>
<p>I don’t think either TCNJ’s or Rutgers engineering are that great. I think I’d go with Rutgers though just because it’s more well known and probably has more options. Did your son apply to Rowan? I heard they had a good engineering program. Maybe someone could give you more info as I’m not that familiar with the engineering dept being a bio major.</p>
<p>1-Taken as a whole more Rutgers students go on to top graduate programs vs. TCNJHarvard Law, Yale Law, John Hopkins Med Schoolyou get the picture.</p>
<p>2-Rutgers graduates make more money when graduating from Rutgers Business School of NB</p>
<p>3-Larger corporations will higher Rutgers Grads over TCNJ b/c of our brand name, if you want a job on wall-street worker for a large financial or corporate firm got RUTGERS!</p>
<p>4-TCNJ-may produce more teachers and there for thats what TCNJ is known for around the state of New Jersey. Any other major cannot compete with RU NB</p>
<p>5-Rutgers Professors are more respected in their fields of study, no offence but TCNJ will not attract top specialist because RUTGERS has a graduate program and has research facilities for professors!</p>
<p>6- Both schools are good. however, think about where you want to end up after 4yrs. working at an S&P500 corp or just a local New Jersey Comp.???</p>
<p>No other majors can compete? Both TCNJ and Rutgers have great Bio programs. Thats probably the most biased post in this thread so far.</p>
<p>Dear CallTech and all CC’ers:</p>
<p>My name is Ben Rifkin and I’m dean of the School of Culture & Society (Humanities and Social Sciences) at The College of New Jersey.</p>
<p>I want to assure all readers of this forum that Rutgers has many many more students than The College of New Jersey so most assuredly more Rutgers students go everywhere than TCNJ students, whether you’re talking about law school, medical school, business school, Wall Street Banks, and so forth.</p>
<p>I can also tell you is that our classes are small. We have a 13:1 student to faculty ratio, with average class size hovering around 20. In my division of the college, we don’t have a single room with more than 35 seats so you just can’t have a lecture in our school with more than 34 other students. And yes, that includes Psychology 101.</p>
<p>Our Business School is very highly regarded.</p>
<p>Yes we have a highly regarded School of Education - and we’re very proud of it - but TCNJ is much much more than that.</p>
<p>Our students co-author papers with their faculty, papers published in scholarly journals, they present papers at conferences. Perhaps that research collaboration is more possible because we are primarily a graduate institution.</p>
<p>Our students go on study abroad all over the world (this semester I have two students i Senegal, one in Ghana, and many many in Europe, Asia, and Latin America). Our students have internships, especially in NJ state government located just a couple of miles from our campus. We’re also proud of experiential learning classes, where students get off campus and learn while doing. And we’re proud of our community-engaged learning requirement: every student must get out there and roll of up their sleeves and contribute to the community as part of our learning experiences. This is who we are.</p>
<p>Rutgers has great graduate programs (and some of our faculty have Rutgers PhDs - we’re proud of that). We’re about something different at TCNJ. If it’s a fit for you, come join our community. If it’s not a fit for you, we wish you well where you can find what you’re looking for. For some students, choosing a large institution with research facilities is a good fit. For other students, the personal attention of a smaller institution is a good fit.</p>
<p>Lastly, I want to point out that faculty at The College of New Jersey include professors with PhDs from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, U of Pennsylvania, U of Michigan (that’s me, for example), and we choose to work in a smaller college because we want to have closer mentoring relationships with the students we teach. You can see the TCNJ 2010-2011 faculty listing on line at <a href=“http://www.tcnj.edu/~bulletin/current/Officials_Faculty_Staff.pdf[/url]”>http://www.tcnj.edu/~bulletin/current/Officials_Faculty_Staff.pdf</a> and you can see all the institutions where we earned our degrees.</p>
<p>I wish all readers of CC the very best in their college searches: may everyone find a good fit.</p>
<p>And, if you have any questions about TCNJ, feel free to contact me by e-mail at <a href=“mailto:rifkin@tcnj.edu”>rifkin@tcnj.edu</a> – and for all those accepted for the class of 2015, I will be at Accepted Students Day in the Social Science Building Atrium (a very beautiful space) in a “meet the dean” event and look forward to meeting to CC readers in the TCNJ Class of 2015.</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>BR</p>
<p>Well looks like we got the answer which school has the worse reputation with this week’s news of paying party animal Snooki $32,000(Rutgers).</p>
<p>-Remember “Study hard but party harder”</p>
<p>Thanks all for your input. Heard from a Rutgers grad student who went to TCNJ for his undergrad…thought TCNJ had the better engineering program. I agree that Rutgers have more job opportunity than TCNJ but if he’s going to grad school than it’s where he ends up that’s more important. My son didn’t apply to Rowan, their engineering is good but not sure about the school as a whole…he also was accepted at Drexel and Stevens.</p>
<p>I think his top picks are the private schools but are these schools worth the cost of 2x the public? We will be visiting TCNJ on the 10th for the first time so he may change his mind.</p>
<p>Rowan has a well-rated engineering program, small classes, and entirely new facilities. However, it is very new, very small market penetration, and is not as well known (except for the US News ranking). The rest of the school is, well, not as impressive, but if you’re going for engineering, that doesn’t matter as much. </p>
<p>Our S was accepted and and visited Rowan several times, and while he will probably attend elsewhere, the engineering school has some very good points. Rutgers was just too big, too spread out and just didn’t impress the same way (though it is ranked fairly well and has name recognition). We did not visit TCNJ, so can’t comment there.</p>