Is this true?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rutgers University
1

<p>I had a meeting with my transfer adviser the other day and he had quite a bit to say about Rutgers. </p>

<p>A few highlights:
- it's completely disorganized internally, a "disaster"
- students are just a number, professors don't care
-there's loyalty only to the schools that professors teach at: ie, instead of saying "I teach at Rutgers," a professor will say, "I teach at Douglass," and if he or she shows interest in a student, that student will be part of the school they teach at
-parking spots are few and far between and the campus is "hell to navigate"
-credits will not transfer, despite the fact that I am at a CC in NJ with an articulation agreement with Rutgers whereupon all my credits should transfer
-there is "absolutely no sense of community"</p>

<p>Do any Rutgers students or parents have any comments at all about what I've heard? After hearing all this I'm seriously considering having Montclair State as my safety instead of Rutgers.</p>

2

<p>bump</p>

<p>So no one has anything to say about this?</p>

3

<p>I commute so I'll comment on the parking problems and campus navigation worries. </p>

<p>Dormers under a certain number of credits(except out of state students and Livingston students, I believe) can't have a car on campus. Commuters, like myself, must buy a parking pass for a certain campus. Parking on Busch and Livingston is not a problem. The commuter parking lot on Busch is for the football stadium and the lot on Livingston is the RAC lot. These will never get filled. College Ave, however, does tend to get crowded but they only sell a certain number of permits so that it doesn't overflow every morning. The Cook/Douglass parking deck situation I am not too sure about. After 6pm, parking becomes easier, more lots open up and one campus' permit is good for another campus until 2am(or some odd hour like that).</p>

<p>If you do choose to come to Rutgers and want to have a car, make sure you have a permit. There are "parking nazi's" who do come around and give tickets. They are, for the most part, very thorough.</p>

<p>As for getting around campus. The campus is LARGE and you will at some point have to take the bus to get around. That was one of the main reasons I wasn't really looking foward to coming here, I wanted to be able to just walk to all of my classes. Now that I am here, and it is getting cold, I am thankful for the busses. Some people will complain about the busses not being on time but for the most part they come every couple minutes to take you to other campuses. The routes are fairly simple and cover all of the campuses well. Just make sure you know which one you're getting on.</p>

<p>As for some of your other concerns. Rutgers is a large state school. You will see that it isn't too different from a Penn State, UMD, UC type school. There are a lot of people who go to school here. YOU will have to do your own thing, YOU will have to work to get what YOU want. If YOU want extra help or YOU want the professor to notice you, speak up. </p>

<p>Internally disorganized? I'm not too sure what you mean exactly but financial aid, scheduling, and academic advising all seems to be working out.</p>

<p>A lot of people here take great pride in which school they are enrolled in(RC, Liv, SOEng, Pharm, Cook, Doug). They are all distinct schools.</p>

<p>No sense of community? ~30k people don't all want to fit into this sort of college community. You'll have to find your own group, perhaps within your school/major, whom you can relate with. Yea, for the most part, everyone here will cheer for the football team but not everyone is really interested in sports, get it?</p>

<p>I'm not sure about credit transfer.</p>

4

<p>Teachers arn't loyal to their college. In the rutgers consortium (so to speak), a teacher can teach in newark one year, and the next at the college, and the next in livingston. They can even teach day classes in one school and night classes in another. (my high school english teacher taught night classes for rutgers livingston and rutgers newark in the same year)</p>

5

<p>My AP Biology teacher went to Rutgers, so I had a long talk with him about it. He has a BS in Biology and a Masters in Microbiology. The big thing he said to me is that at Rutgers, for many courses, he was literally just a number. No one knew his name, and when they took attendance for those courses, it was by number. I'm not one for a tight-knit community, I learn better by myself, so this aspect doesn't bother me.</p>

6

<p>maybe students used to be more like a number years ago since all these old alums are saying that, but i dont find that that's the case anymore at all... all professors have office hours and though some may be more inviting than others, any professor that i have approached has been welcoming... i have had some really really great professors here and i dont feel like i was at a disadvantage by coming to a huge university</p>

<p>for the navigation problem-- yea it can be confusing at first, but youll figure it out within 2 weeks... no big deal... and if you're living on campus (which i don't know if you are but i highly recommend) you don't need a car b/c of the buses</p>

<p>for the lack of community-- again, if you're commuting i think this could be a problem... it's hard to really get to know people through classes and become great friends; you would have to make an effort to get to know people through organizations and stuff-- it's so much easier when you live in a dorm and meet tons of people like that</p>

<p>i don't know about credits transferring but as far as i know credits from CCs are transferred</p>

<p>ummm and yea the thing w/ professor loyalty to their college could have only existed pre-80s because professors are no longer connected to colleges</p>

<p>so yea-- in any case, i advise you to go to Rutgers unless you are really looking for a small college... RU is going to have better academics, school pride, and more fun than montclair and most other schools no question imo</p>

7

<p>I believe if you have an associates degree from a NJ CC then all the credits will transfer. Depending on you major, some of your credits may be counted as free electives. You can evaluate your transfer credits on ARTSYS <a href="https://www.njtransfer.org/artweb/chgri.cgi?1893311136986125%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://www.njtransfer.org/artweb/chgri.cgi?1893311136986125&lt;/a>
I commute, but I live close off campus. So I can commute back and forth to meetings. Organizations tend to have meetings later in the day or at night. The off campus student association is a great place to start. They even have their own office at the Rutgers Student Center, to hang out in. You must take the iniative at Rutgers, but I feel everyone benefits from that. This is not high school after all, and Rutgers is not an ordinary school.</p>