<p>The state legislature was all set to re-up the scholarship program, which only requries $200 million, penny change with the new tax hikes and Corzine stepped in and Vetoed it. Rutgers, the best public University in the State of New Jersey, has lost its scholarships for in-state residents. Now where do we go? The answer is out. </p>
<p>Maybe this was a brilliant political tactic, b/c the voters who are going to hate these fiscal polices are the college bound non-property holding individuals, so if they move out of the state, he will not have the people voting in the next election.</p>
<p>If you are smart, there is no reason to stay in NJ (for more reasons than one). Assuming your are one of the 15/16 applicants who get rejected from Princeton, but feel you need to be academically challenged LEAVE! There are better places for you. Also, either you or your family is going to have to pay for it, so it is in your best interest to go to a prestigious college, that can set you up down the road.</p>
<p>New Jersey pays the most for public schools in the nation (I almost certain on that fact), and we have parents who have connections to the larger cities in the area and put a high premium on academics. So as a result we produce a multiude of quality applicants for good schools. However, we are forced to leave the state, because there is no where for us to go! </p>
<p>Its sad when the tops of a public high school can feel that they will be able to go to a challeging public school without leaving thier state. For shame Corzine! We'll all go to California!</p>
<p>I live in NJ and I'm not looking at one school in NJ. Not necessarily becaues of the reasons you mentioned, but I don't want to be so close to home. But I am only looking at NE schools it seems.</p>
<p>I'll post what I posted in the Rutgers forum in response to mike:</p>
<hr>
<p>I agree.. I'm in shock with Corzine's slash of the Outstanding Scholars Program. I really don't see how the decision makes ANY sense, when there were so many other, less vital programs to cut from higher ed (hey, I won't even try to say cut from other places). The budget restores some of the cut from UMDNJ to help restore its image (many believe the huge cuts on higher ed result from UMDNJ's scandal in the past year). It also only cuts half of some vet program, and there are a ton of other programs such as that which could be cut. To be honest, so many programs are draws for a specific, relatively small group of students (i.e. the pre-vet program). The Outstanding Scholars Program was almost universally the biggest draw for all of the honors students at Rutgers.. and many at TCNJ. Without scholarships to make Rutgers an attractive choice for intelligent NJ-ers, I bet about 5 students will live in Brett and McCormick Halls (the honors dorms) when these changes take effect.</p>
<p>One thing I want to comment on is how you say that NJ students will have to look OOS to be academically challenged. Though the money will no longer be a draw, Rutgers and TCNJ are still both academically excellent and I don't think that will change much. I've never felt that I am getting a worse education than I could have gotten at another, more "elite" college.</p>
<p>I think the 200 million was the Rutgers Budget as a total. I feel really bad for those students who went to Rutgers or TCNJ on a pretence that they were getting a full ride and now will have to end up paying or transfer.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure that the scholarships for students already enrolled at Rutgers will stay intact. I've heard that was "guaranteed" and there has been no talk of cutting them by President McCormick.. just layoffs and cutting other programs.</p>
<p>$66 Million was cut from the Rutgers budget.</p>
<p>But I sure do feel bad for students who were planning on going to Rutgers because of the cost... this doesn't leave them with many options. It's still possible that Rutgers and TCNJ will fund their own scholarships without aid from the state but within their budgets. Nonetheless, this really was a huge blunder by Corzine imo... really shortsighted.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm totally glad that I dodged that bullet and went up north for college. I have eight friends who are either going to Rutgers and TCNJ and it horrible that they had to be put in this situation, and it's completely ****ty of Corzine to have stepped in. Though there is some ray of hope b/c from what the two friend of mine who are going to TCNJ are telling me is that the school will finance all the merit scholarships themselves for all students in the class of 2010 or earlier [though to afford this the college will be closing for a week in June or July to make ends meet]. So at least those who had been attracted to all the merit aid in NJ will at least be able to avoid that. Though this obviously doesn't go over well with NJ now that we will fail to keep in strong NJ students, but oh well, so much for the prestige of Rutgers and the up and coming TCNJ.</p>
<p>I would check out the link I posted above from Inside Higher Ed. Search news.google.com for Rutgers or rutgers budget and you'll get the recent news.</p>
<p>New Jersey has two pretty good state schools. Rutgers and TCNJ are nothing to sneeze at. It's a shame that Corzine doesn't want to work around the budget for in-staters...</p>
<p>I posted a similar response in another thread, so forgive me for how much of this is repeated.</p>
<p>Many students at the top of their class are lured to Rutgers and TCNJ by their merit scholarships. Neither school has very much (if any) need-based aid to give out. Many of my classmates and myself depended on need based aid to fund our education. We were pleasantly surprised when we found that going to private, prestigious schools out of state was actually significantly cheaper for us. So considering that New Jersey's public colleges were on thin ice as it was, this budget cut is going to be a devistating blow. </p>
<p>I'm interested to see how the student body changes at Rutgers and TCNJ in the next few years. </p>
<p>I almost have to laugh at the $1000/year Bloustein scholarship. It wasn't really enough to entice any student to stay in NJ as it was, and now it won't even make a dent in tuition costs. </p>
<p>
[quote]
If you are smart, there is no reason to stay in NJ (for more reasons than one). Assuming your are one of the 15/16 applicants who get rejected from Princeton, but feel you need to be academically challenged LEAVE! There are better places for you. Also, either you or your family is going to have to pay for it, so it is in your best interest to go to a prestigious college, that can set you up down the road.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I completely agree with you Mike. It's a real shame that we have what is probably the most financially generous college in the country right at our doorstep, but only 1 out of 16 top students can take advantage of it. </p>
<p>In fact, Pennsylvania seems to have more New Jersey natives in their colleges than New Jersey does! Has anyone else noticed this?</p>
<p>I really regret voting for Corzine. He's so out of touch with the average person.</p>
<p>Wow. This sucks. I was considering going to Rutgers based on the fact that I could get a certain amount of merit money for my SAT scores, thereby lowering the in-state costs for myself. Now, Rutgers wasn't my number one choice, but I was giving it a long, hard look just based on the fact that I could be getting a lot of financial aid money, which is big for me (I need all that I can get badly...then again, who doesn't?). Oh well. So much for that. Thanks a lot Corzine. Here I come out of state schools.</p>
<p>NJ is the largest exporter of college students, even with these merit scholarships. The largest importer is......... North Carolina, we were told by the admissions director at Lafayette College. My son would not be eligible for the scholarships anyway because he is not in the top 15% at his very competitive public hs. (The 15% is the cutoff for any scholarship in the matrix of SAT scores vs class rank). We had pretty much already crossed Rutgers off the list due to uncertainty surrounding the pending reorganization and funding, which promised to be an annual hassle even before this. It's funny that the legislature also limited the state schools to an 8% tuition hike.</p>