<p>looking at 2 different schools.. rutgers (main campus) and Monmouth University.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any opinion on either, is one so much better than another academically?
What about socially?</p>
<p>By the way, my interest is in the business school.</p>
<p>please someone anyone, someone must know about these schools</p>
<p>I live very close to Rutgers. It is a good, large public university. It is strong in Philosophy, English, in Education, in the sciences particularly Math and Biological sciences, Pharmacy. The engineering department is all right. The Humanities are not bad. It has a great school of Art, Mason Gross School of Art. They have great and highly qualified professors. There is a guy in the biological sciences who was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential scientists of our time. Our town and neighborhood is full of Rutgers professors and I know many of them. Administration is lacking....it is a huge bulky bureaucracy. If you have great grades and SATs, you can get good scholarships at Rutgers. I would call it a good value in education to go to Rutgers for undergraduate.</p>
<p>The New Brunswick area has many campuses: Douglass, Livingston, Rutgers College etc. Douglass is for women only. Rutgers is the Honors college and probably the best college among these. New Brunswick is a fairly large city. A little run down in some places but culturally has some theatre, some nice restaurants etc. </p>
<p>The sciences, Pharmacy and engineering campus is at Piscataway, called Busch. One disadvantage of Rutgers is that if you take courses in different campuses (and many do), the campus is a sprawl and it isn't very convenient. You have to take the RU buses which I've heard sometimes don't come in time.</p>
<p>I know someone who teaches at Monmouth University. It is trying to improve it's image of not just being a commuter school. I would visit if I were you.</p>
<p>And of course, Rutgers has great athletics. The team is called the Scarlet Knights if I'm not mistaken. Women's Bastketball is very good (of course, U Conn would disagree with that). Huge participation by the student body in the sporting events, particularly football.</p>
<p>These are two very different schools.
I am NJ raised and graduated from Monmouth way back in 1978, so my first hand knowledge is quite outdated. But we also have a current college freshman who was accepted to Rutgers last year and he has friends at both Monmouth and Rutgers now. He ended up at The College of New Jersey and loves it.</p>
<p>Rutgers is surely more well known and is strong in many depts, especially sciences. Admission is competitive because you can get a solid education at public school prices. The logistics can be difficult due to the school size: dorm space, long bus rides between classes, administrative trials and tribulations. But I firmly believe that stuff can be overcome by a motivated student......I was on my way to Rutgers 30 years ago until Monmouth offered me a full tuition scholarship.</p>
<p>Monmouth has a gorgeous campus with a restored mansion as its centerpiece. They've added a new student center, many more dorms and academic bldgs since I was there. The school is about one mile from the beach and I deliberately took a summer physics class one year so I could stay in the dorm and enjoy the proximity. West Long Branch is a nice residential area, at the north end of 'the jersey shore'. Monmouth is taking pride in their increased enrollment and higher admissions standards. Their education dept is still a mainstay, I believe. </p>
<p>I'd have to bet that Rutgers is still more academically rigorous than Monmouth.
But Monmouth was, and I bet still is, a wonderful residential college with friendly but not academically crazed students. I loved it. And I did manage to graduate in 4 years (B.S. with a 3.8 GPA) that has served me fine all these years. It's what you make of the opportunities.
Of course, Monmouth's cost of attendance is significantly higher than Rutgers. They probably still offer merit awards.</p>
<p>Best of luck.</p>
<p>Sorry, musicmom is right. Monmouth is residential. It is trying to get out of it's reputation on emptying out on weekends by offering a lot to do during the weekends on campus. It isn't trying to dispel the image of a 'commuter school'.</p>
<p>"By the way, my interest is in the business school."</p>
<p>I don't think Rutgers has undergraduate business. You could take economics there.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone.. My interest is heading towards monmouth. I did visit and loved the atmosphere, and the campus. I do feel that Rutgers is too large. Money wise it is not a problem since I will be getting $$ towards Monmouth.</p>
<p>I had heard that Rutgers would be better educationally, but felt that what I do with the education is more important than where you get it. ANd I thought MOnmouth was a good fit.</p>
<p>I also heard that they are trying to have more students stay on the weekends. That is what I was told, and I jsut hope its true since i will not be able to leave every weekend.</p>
<p>Does anyone have first hand knowlegde if students are choosing to stay on campus more than before?
Thanks for the information.</p>
<p>Out of those two, I think that Rutgers is the better school by far. It has everything you could ever want in a college: state of the art technology and facilities, a busy campus, great professors. It is a large school but it doesnt always feel that way because you make your small groups of friends. While I do not go to Rutgers, I know many people that do because I live so close to the New Brunswick campus. Therefore, I'm on the campus a good amount of time during the week.</p>
<p>rutgers has business school in newark
it's in the cleaned up part of newark near NJIT and sciences park
i worked at a lab in newark over the summer and the commute is very easy if you don't want to stay on campus</p>
<p>Rutgers is a big school. The NB campus is broken in to smaller colleges so it isn't like 30,000 kids all on one campus. It is a good school for academics, you'll probably have larger classes there though.</p>
<p>How about The College of New Jersey (TCNJ)? It has business and I'd say it's a much better collegiate experience in comparison with Rutgers. The campus is very nice, the surrounding area is safe and easy to get around. Rutgers is huge and for a lot of people it's seen as a means to an end. It provides a quality education at a reasonable price, but the red-tape and getting around can be a huge hassle. I don't know anything about Monmouth.</p>
<p>TCNJ is ALOT more competitive though in comparison, so keep that in mind.</p>
<p>MomOFour-
I don't know much about the business program at TCNJ or I would have suggested it.
Our son is a freshman and loves it there. Much more 'traditional' residential college experience that Rutgers at only a bit higher cost.
Admission stats are higher at TCNJ though.</p>
<p>Gorgeous campus. Small town feel but very close to Philly. Our son makes use of that fact!</p>
<p>This is all good information, but doesn't anyone know anything about Monmouth University. Is the reason no one knows because its small, or because of the quality of education, or is it just outside everyones radar??</p>
<p>Just curious, because it seemed like a nice place when we visitied. Students all seemed happy, campus was clean and nice .... friendly</p>
<p>If you have any specific questions, you can ask and I can ask my friend who is a Poli Sci professor there. I don't know about Monmouth firsthand, though.</p>
<p>Looking-</p>
<p>Monmouth just isn't on the list of 'usual suspects' for the folks here on the forum.
I volunteered my own first hand experience at Monmouth from years ago earlier on this thread. I also know two young ladies who are current students.</p>
<p>What you say is true...........and what I liked when I was there. Nice, smallish, safe campus. Friendly students. The admission requirements are not so stringent.
Fine destination for some students, probably not academically challenging for some who post here. </p>
<p>Hope you get more feedback......It is a gorgeous campus :).</p>
<p>Monmouth campus is very pretty. It's close to the beach, and I'd guess maybe a 45 train ride into NYC.</p>
<p>I checked usnews for last year and avg SAT was 980-1140, 66% acceptance rate. Most people from our NJ hs who go there are average students or a little above. </p>
<p>Rutgers is a pretty big jump ahead academically, as is TCNJ.</p>
<p>i think that not many people will know about Monmouth precisely because it USED to be largely a commuter school. So only someone in the Monmouth county area would know of it.
Also, much of the threads/conversation here is dominated by Top 25-30 selective schools or very large, well-know state schools.
However, Monmouth U may turn out to be a fine place for you based on your visit & understanding of the campus. My H's cousin attended & has a good career in with an import company. If I'm not mistaken, I think he studied marketing there.</p>