My son is transferring after 1 year at a nice LAC in Maryland that gave him lots of fin aid, but 1) still left $17k/yr to pay and 2) wasn’t very challenging or engaging. He got accepted to Drew and Rutgers NB and would live at home to minimize costs.
Drew offered him full tuition/fees in merit and fin aid $. It seems like a nice campus, it has the program (Business) he wants, and the school is so close to our home (20 minute drive) that he could probably develop a social life on campus pretty easily.
Rutgers gave no financial aid so he’d have to take out about $8K/yr in loans, it’s well over an hour commute and it really feels like a big, sink-or-swim kind of place. It seems like there’s little sense of community, especially for a commuting transfer student. However, it’s a world-class university and Drew has again been downgraded by Moody’s credit rating.
What would you do?
It seems living on campus is not an option?
My husband commuted an hour every day each way to college, and never developed close friendships and always felt like an outsider. Plus, he lost two hours a day that could have been better spent studying.
Rutgers is better than Drew, but that is a pretty awful commute.
I wonder whether he will find Drew challenging enough. A friend’s daughter took some classes there and found community college classes at Raritan Valley to be better.
Did he get accepted to Rutgers NB business school? If so, that would be better than Drew. It is huge and impersonal, though,and, ugh, that commute via Route 18 is horrible.
I think the business program is one of the more popular ones at Drew. Where does he feel more comfortable?
He would much rather go to Drew but their financial situation casts a real shadow over that choice. Living on either campus would saddle him with so much more debt.
He can’t borrow $8k on his own. Will you be taking PLUS loans, or co-signing private loans?
Could he start at Drew and see how it goes?
My ex would probably pick up some of $8k and I’d co-sign a private loan for the rest. If he went to Drew, however, his dad and I could chip away at the loan from his first year, so he’d graduate with that much less debt.
How specifically would Drew’s financial situation affect him?
It seems like a no brainier to me – Drew all the way.
I worry that being downgraded to junk bond status by Moody’s casts doubt on Drew’s ability to offer him the same amount of fin aid over 3 years. The fin aid officer did write that as long as he keeps a B average, he will keep the merit aid. But if they don’t have the money, they would have to cut somewhere, right? Less directly, it could affect the value of his degree or even whether the school stays in existence.
New president at Drew seems to be making progress turning things around… they have a few new majors/programs starting this year. While the financial situation is something to keep an eye on, even if he went to Drew this year only, it would reduce his debt load (and not increase it), which would be helpful in the long run. Worst case scenario, Drew closes and he transfers to Rutgers the following year! (I have a relative on faculty there and she does not think the situation is dire…but I guess you never know.)
What aspect of business does he want? It looks like Drew just has a generic “business” major while Rutgers has accounting, supply chain, marketing, and finance (just from a web search) I would have him look carefully at the two different programs and see which meets his needs. From my limited experience, kids that major in things like accounting or supply chain have better job prospects than kids that just have a “business” degree. If his courses transfer, he would only have about $24000 in debt at the most for the three years (if he can work part-time and in the summer and dad pays part of it, should be not too much).
What about the LAC in PA was not challenging? Was that the main reason for leaving? Even though rankings are flawed, was that LAC similar in rank and student stats to Drew (avg SAT and GPA for example). If so, he may find Drew to be similarly less challenging.
OTOH, Drew is much smaller and easier to navigate and having no debt is a plus. He just needs to look at the long game and be sure that he will get what he needs at Drew to meet his goals. Not always easy for a 20 yo to figure out! I agree that it is unlikely that Drew would cut his aid dramatically in the next three years.
If he chooses to go to Drew, he will need to be more proactive in looking for summer jobs etc. and making sure he uses every opportunity available to him . As a prof at an NJ university closer in ranking to Drew, I have noticed that our students who get jobs are go-getters , somewhat overqualified for our current institution, but realize they had limited financial options, and keep on marching. If this sounds like your kid, then he can make it work at Drew.
As @mom2and mentions, RBS has a lot of specialties and many companies recruit there . Did he specifically get accepted to the business school at Rutgers? If he was accepted to their arts and sciences college, that’s a different story.
I commuted to Rutgers as a freshman, and it was a miserable experience for me. I didn’t have a chance to connect with other students - I always felt as though once people heard that I was commuting, something clicked “off.” I had friends in my classes, but once class was over, kids headed off to the dining hall and I went back to my car and went home. I also had a 45 minute to an hour commute that got really awful if I waited until rush hour, so I had to leave campus fairly early. The combination of that plus all of my friends going off to college sort of put me into a depressive tailspin and I ended up dropping out of Rutgers after my freshman year.
If Drew is closer and the program is good there, if it were me, I’d pick that for the better opportunity to develop social connections. Living far from campus was pretty awful for me.
momprof9904, that sounds like my kid - he tends to grabs hold of opportunities. To answer some of the questions above, the problem with the MD LAC was that it wasn’t a super-great school, yet he was going into debt for it. He got into Rutgers’ arts and sciences college, and at this point, he’s more interested in general business rather than something as specific as supply chain management or accounting. As I continue writing and reading this chain, Drew seems like the better choice - as long as they don’t go under. But as janjmom’s email reminded me, even that wouldn’t be catastrophic. Right? 
elodyCOH, I’m sorry you had such a miserable first year! I was a residential undergrad at U.Va. and as great as the education was, I felt like a fish out of water all four years. I just didn’t fit into what was then a big, Southern, frat-dominated school. I did graduate debt-free and I also know that gave me incredible freedom in my 20s to do whatever I wanted.
@ourhouse There haven’t been any non-profit NJ college closures in a long time. The last one, I think, was Uppsala College, more than 20 years ago. I think there are others more endangered than Drew. Closing a college is a big deal, and Drew is at least a “has been”. Many of the others are “never-were”. In your current situation, Drew seems like a reasonable option. I am familiar with a few of the faculty who are still there, and they are a dedicated bunch.
Drew…all the way no doubt. No debt, close enough to be there for social activities and the major he wants. Go for it
Definitely go to Drew. At Drew he can be a big fish in a small pond. At Rutgers, he will always be a minnow in the ocean. A few of my kids went to a Uni that is like Drew - small, private uni. They were able to shine in the classroom, get to know their professors and have opportunities that would not have been possible at RU. Those professors, because they knew them well, were able to give them glowing recommendations for scholarships and grad school applications.
And having debt is highly overrated.
And my son goes to a larger state school (not Rutgers) and has been doing research since freshman year, due in part to his major. I know kids that went to small schools like Drew that did not have that experience. It depends on the kid, their personality, and their major.