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I, too, am puzzled with the NJ reference, particularly from someone who is concerned about prejudice.
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<p>Good point! Plainsman wrote:
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Where can my kid go to college where there is hardly anyone from my hated birth state of New Jersey?
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<p>If I were a parent of students from NJ, I'd take great offense to this. It would be like asking where my kid can go to college where there are no Black students.</p>
<p>No offense taken here. He lives in PA now.</p>
<p>My husband quit his Lehigh fraternity 30 years ago after an African-American student was black-balled. I guess things haven't changed much.</p>
<p>Sorry Alex06 - - Bucknell and Lehigh are very similar. Both are relatively conservative, small unis in PA with a low urm enrollment. </p>
<p>That Bucknell works with Posse is not particularly significant since the Posse scholarships are not limited to or even targeted at urm students, first gen students or poor students; lots of middle-class to affluent White students get Posse grants. That's one reason some of the more progressive colleges/unis don't particiapte in Posse: the schools don't see any reason to give $ absent a showing of need or merit.</p>
<p>Also, the fact that urm or minotiry students didn't tell you or otherwise report race base incidents doesn't mean they didn't occur. In fact, there have been at least a couple of CC posts regarding incidents at Bucknell. Not that racial incidents are common at either school (or any school I can think of), but they do occur more frequently than your post suggests.</p>
<p>Building on nysmile's post #107: homogenous student population, politically conservative and geog remote - - the trifecta from hell.</p>
<p>"Where can my kid go to college where there is hardly anyone from my hated birth state of New Jersey?"</p>
<p>You say you hate people prejudging you (or your daughter) based on the color of your skin, but you continue to judge people based on the state of their residence. </p>
<p>You don't choose the color of your skin; you (as a college student) don't choose the state your parents lived in / chose to raise you in. Don't you see that you are guilty of the exact same prejudices you claim to decry in others?</p>
<p>"All / most people from NJ are xxxx" is just as incorrect as "all black people are yyyyyy." </p>
<p>And sorry, if you restrict your search to near your home in PA, you're going to get lots of people from NJ. That's how it goes.</p>
<p>"My husband quit his Lehigh fraternity 30 years ago after an African-American student was black-balled. I guess things haven't changed much."</p>
<p>I think a lot of things went on at various college campuses 30 years ago that may have changed in the interim. 30 years ago, biracial dating and/or marriage was quite out of the ordinary. Gays were mostly in the closet. Earrings (on guys) and tattoos were quite out of the mainstream.</p>
<p>Plainsman is absolutely serious about his feelings for NJ. As I keep pointing out, the parameters he has drawn rule out just about every school. The NJ thing is a clear deal-breaker. As was pointed out, ALL the northeast schools have a lot of students from NJ.<br>
I wonder how he counts kids who went to boarding school in NJ- i.e. Lawrenceville, Peddie, Blair et al. If they actually grew up in other states, did they get contaminated by NJ during their years in high school? Maybe Plainsman should call those schools and figure out where the grads are going to college so he can rule those places out.<br>
I sincerely hope your employer transfers you back to the midwest soon, Plainsman, so you can sleep better.</p>
<p>nothing like stereotyping an entire state.....it's like saying all NY'ers are rude.....ridiculous....</p>
<p>To the OP: You have two choices: 1) If you want to keep your D away from us "horrible" NJ people, you are going to have to send her much further than 35minutes from your house....given that you LIVE about 35 minutes from the "horrible" state
2) You could send your daughter to a SUNY...then you can deal with the NY people.....in fact, your daughter may be a good fit for Geneseo...very few NJ people, lots of bright NY kids....</p>
<p>plainsmen - after almost three semesters at Muhlenberg, I'm certainly glad my D didn't rule it out because there were too many kids from NJ. While I've been trying to understand the motivations behind your criteria, when you rule out a whole school (or several schools) because some students (2/3 of Muhlenberg students DON'T come from New Jersey) come from a particular state, you've lost me.</p>
<p>My D is not greek at Muhlenberg, she has friends that are greek, and friends that are not; she has made friends from across the country... California, Colorado, Louisiana, the Midwest and New England. Also remember that, along with Muhlenberg's high concentration of theatre majors, there are also quite a number of gay students. She does not feel a segregation between greeks and non... and this is coming from someone whose sister was at a highly visible greek university.</p>
<p>teriwtt: I can't recount all the negative experience I had growing up in NJ. I've done that. There are just too many -some horrific- to repeat. I admit my experience has biased me against New Jersey forever. I can't stand the place. Mea culpa. It will forever be South Africa, circa 1975, in my mind, and the notorious NJ State Police (just Google the racial history on that force--it'll make you cringe) forever jackbooted Nazi Storm Troopers. I got pulled over by one four weeks ago, after venturing across the state line on business, and when the jerkoff realized I wasn't guilty of what he originally accused me of, he made up a "no seatbelt" charge. Funny, I unbuckled my seatbelt to remove my wallet so I could get out my driver's license. What a bunch of jerks! </p>
<p>Sixteen years in the lily white midwest where I was treated with respect and courtesy by law enforcement, only to come back here to face the Apartheid police of New Jersey. </p>
<p>I just don't understand how Muhlenberg, a small private college, not located near the border like Lafayette, could draw more New Jerseyans than native Pennsylvanians. Doesn't anybody from New Jersey go to college in their own state? I guess if they can't get into Princeton they all flee because NJ colleges stink.</p>
<p>I'm sorry. That was a rant. It's just that I got used to the absence of New Jerseyans out in the upper midwest. Out here they seem to be everywhere. And the notorious NJ State Police are still up to their "Driving While Black" harassment.</p>
<p>Then send her to college in the lily white Midwest, then, Plainsman. What do you want?? You restrict her to being close to your home and then you complain that people from a nearby well-populated state are there.</p>
<p>I have to tell you though, you sound just as prejudiced and closed-minded as the people who you decry for the very same thing. Just imagine if someone repeated your rant and substituted "black" for "New Jerseyan." People are people, Plainsman. Some are good, some are bad, some are indifferent. </p>
<p>Signed, someone born in NJ who lives in the upper midwest</p>
<p>Plainsman -- New Jerseyans generally shun the midwest, although there are pockets of them around some of the older industrial cities such as Cleveland, Kenosha and Flint. I was curious as to whether or not there are certain parts of New Jersey that are more acceptable than others. For instance, is Short Hills preferable to Morristown? How about Freehold? How about the age old question of South Jersey vs. North Jersey. Thanks for any insight you can provide.</p>
<p>I don't see much difference among those who live on the borders of states. We have family in Delaware and they go to NJ and PA without regard to the state borders. I don't pay any attention to the Ct line when I do things. Greenwich and Stamford are as part of my map as NY areas. When I go to NJ, I don't really think of it as going to another state, though I love those gas prices. Muhlenburg is an excellent college that would draw heavily for a couple hour radius around it. NJ is densely populated, more so that than part of PA and would therefor contribute a lot of students to that school. </p>
<p>My neighbors daughter went to Muhlenburg and love, loved, loved it. An exuberant, talented, young lady, great student, she wanted a school with a strong arts program and lots of opportunity for her there. She chose it over Skidmore and Ct College because of the atmosphere there. It has become a hot college here in the NYC area, I understand.</p>
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I guess if they can't get into Princeton they all flee because NJ colleges stink.
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<p>I am finding your generalizations and prejudices extremely offensive. I'm sure the students at The College of New Jersey and Rutgers who are proud of their schools and, in some cases, had no other financially viable options would disagree. My nephew (lives in Collegeville, PA) chose TCNJ over a number of other fine schools.</p>
<p>Rutgers is an alternative to examine. My only issue with Rutgers is that it is difficult to get a handle on its various campuses. I know a number of folks who graduated from there who enjoyed the experience and are were well educated. They feel every amenity was provided by the school and the way the campuses are designed gave this huge school a much smaller school atmosphere, yet with all of the advantages a big state school can provide. </p>
<p>I know two great kids from wonderful families who are going to NJIT and cannot say enough good things about it. It goes on my list for my next son for that. To diss an entire state is foolhardy.</p>
<p>Plainsman, again, I don't get it. It is one thing to not like New Jersey. It is common to not like certain regions when thinking of where you want to LIVE. I grew up in NJ. I have nothing againt NJ but I just don't want to live there. But I have never ever thought of the notion that you have in terms of not wanting my kid to go to college with other kids who grew up in NJ. How are those kids so different? And it is a gross generalization. They are just kids. Your kid doesn't have to go to college IN New Jersey but she is going to come into contact at college with kids who grew up there....at all the colleges she is looking at. I can't imagine what you'd have against kids who grew up there! It is unrelated to living there. It is unrelated to the cops there and so forth! If you feel this strongly about it (and isn't she the one picking her college anyway?), she is gonna have to go pretty far away to not be at a college that has lots of kids from NJ at it. But....right....you want her to go to college close to home. Something will have to be a trade off then. Isn't your D applying to Brown, Amherst, Swarthmore? Those schools have a significant number of kids from NJ too. Watch out!</p>
<p>By the way, Muhlenberg is a school that has a heavy proportion of students from the REGION. It is particularly popular with the students in the Middle Atlantic States. Some colleges have more of a regional popularity and some more of a national one. </p>
<p>As far as people from NJ going to college in their own state......for one thing, NJ has a huge population and so we are talking of a lot of college bound kids. NJ, however, doesn't have a LOT of colleges. My kids go to very selective colleges and there are plenty of NJ kids at them. Real nice kids too. Do you have anything against kids from VT (that's our state)? Just asking so that I hope your kid doesn't go to school with mine since my kids may be someone she may need to avoid! :eek: Please be aware that your attitude toward KIDS from NJ is nothing different than someone saying they don't want to go to college with your mixed race D. Kids in NJ can't help where they were brought up. Kids of different races are born that way. Kids are kids, no matter their origin. I know a lot of great Black kids and I know a lot of great kids from NJ too.</p>
<p>Again MOWC is spot on. Plainsman you just need to stop. Your posts are becoming more and more offensive.
The fact is most (something like 80%) kids going to college go within two hours of home.
Couple that with the fact that the per capita income of New Jersey is about $10,000 higher than that in PA and it's not hard to see why Muhlenberg recruits a lot in NJ.</p>
<p>My advice is to forget about your daughter. She is fine. Get counseling to understand why you live and work in close proximity to NJ. Explore a career change - I am sure you probably have a ulcer by now worrying about crossing the state line. Your health is at risk. Time to mail in the keys to your house, if you can't sell it and take a road trip back to the upper mid-west.
You might even find an audience to listen to your prejudicial ranting.</p>
<p>Plainsman, how do you feel about conversing online with those of us who were raised in NJ? Just wonderin'.</p>
<p>Plainsman- NJ is also not a state where I would choose to reside, but then I happen to like the bigoted south! My son graduated from a prep boarding school in NJ and it was the most beautiful campus with wonderful faculty and administration that we could have ever imagined. The school has turned out several black athletes who are now playing in the NBA, and somehow they managed to survive their NJ experience. I found the school to be liberal (almost too much so for my economics-policy conservative son) and focused on diversity.</p>
<p>I just don't get how you can make these statements. I'm embarrassed FOR you.</p>
<p>I agree with all those offended by Plainsman. I think that post was as bigoted as any I have seen at CC.</p>