<p>I am considering Drew University as a safety school because it has a great location and offers a number of merit based scholarships. Does anyone have any information on the prestige and academic rigor of this institution? If you attend Drew, or were admitted, did you receive a scholarship? If so, what was your profile like? </p>
<p>Thank you for your time...your comments are very much appreciated =]</p>
<p>I can't speak to the academic rigor but I do live in the general area and would say locally it has very little prestige. This is NOT the same thing as saying it is not a good school. (Someone who knows it direclty will have to tell you that, and a visit and more research will help you develop an informed opinion too). But I can say that strong students in suburban New Jersey (Morris/Somerset/Union Counties) generally do not look at it even as a safety school as far as I am aware, possibly because they want to go farther from home or possibly becasue it just doesn't have the aura they are looking for. I am also not so sure it is in a great location--Madison is a pleasant suburb and you can get to NYC quite easily on NJ Transit, but it is by no means a college town. Again, not a bad thing, but "great" jsut isn't a word that comes to mind.</p>
<p>Thanks for the insight...it says a lot when students from the general vicinity don't even consider it. Mostly, I preferred the location because it was close to NYC, and I wouldn't have to go that far from my current location, which is NYC.</p>
<p>I think mattmom is right on, but I wanted to add that they seem to be very generous with aid- I know one person who turned down some very prestigious schools to attend Drew on a full ride, and she loved it.</p>
<p>My daughter's GC called Drew a "hidden gem" and although most of her students attended when Gov. Kean was president, they generally loved it and did very well. They are very generous with aid, my friends son got over half covered and it beat any more prestigious school by far. She said most of his professors were graduates from Ivy league colleges or top universities and he didn't have any complaints (except the usual minor things) about his classes. Being so small, you don't get lost in the crowd, but some students might not like that and the size is too small for some. Wheaton (MA) was given similar marks in some areas too, but doesn't have access to NYC which is nice.
I don't have personal experience though.</p>
<p>My son goes to Drew and likes it. There are a lot of students from the New Jersey area, but this year there is even more out of state and international students. His decision was based partly on the merit money (we aren't rich and didn't have a lot of savings) but he also got a good feel when he went for a visit. He wasn't Ivy bound by any means but he got into schools like Conn College, Holy Cross, Wheaton, etc. but didn't get close to the money offered at Drew (Holy Cross was close, but he didn't like it on revisiting) As a safety school, I'm sure it will be fine and probably not your only one. Academically, he wasn't disapointed except for one freshman class. He sees quite a difference already this year.</p>