Many on this board appear to be possessed of “inside” information. I offer this as a personal observation and wonder whether there is correlation, causation or coincidence.
In years past, RU established clear guidelines for merit aid. For example, those applicants graduating HS in 2012 with a three part SAT score of 2250 or higher (plus a very high GPA) received a Presidential Scholarship which amounted to full tuition, room and board. That’s not the case anymore and given the reaction of a number of posters, many merit awards (or non-awards) have resulted in surprise and disappointment.
I’ve noticed this trend (declining merit awards) about time RU joined the Big 10. Since joining the Big 10 there appears to be less transparency in merit awards and frankly fewer formerly deserving applicants receiving academic scholarships. At the same time, the athletic budget has reported astounding annual deficits.
So, my questions is - are these events - declining merit awards and larger athletic budget deficits - related?
Joining the Big10 usually means more money for the school’s athletic dept, not less. The Big 10 schools split the TV revenue (and the Big10 has its own network), even if the school is really bad at sports like Rutgers so doesn’t get on TV as much as other schools.
The athletic department pays for its own scholarships and often contributes money to the general fund too.
How about looking at the budget from the state of NJ? In the years since 2012, it hasn’t been in good shape. Governor did nothing but fight with the legislature over money for years.
Joining the Big10 usually does mean more money for the school but not in this case, at least not right now. RU agreed to a graduating share of conference revenue and was originally scheduled to receive its first full share of Big10 revenue in 2021. However, due to borrowings (or advances) needed to limit the athletic budget deficit, RU now will not receive a full share until 2027. Yet, RU continues to spend large amounts on its athletic facilities.
I agree the State’s budget requires close examination.
But is the partial share of Big 10 revenue more than the revenue Rutgers was getting from its old conference(s)? Big 10 has much more money than the others. The Big East had a lot of money problems.
But anyway, I don’t think the loss of academic scholarship money has anything to do with joining the Big 10. And has there been a loss? Perhaps Rutgers just has more applicants with higher stats, and therefore the requirements to get a scholarship have increased.
Well then, coincidence would be your choice of the potential answers I offered above. You may be right. But, you are just guessing.
If, as you posit, RU has more high stat applicants, then it would behoove RU to find the money to keep those academic superstars in state - whether by fundraising or by budget reconciliation. After all, in state applicants (or their parents) already subsidize the university through their state income tax payments.
But, at a minimum RU could dispense with the guesswork and offer more transparency regarding its merit aid as it once did.
Rowan University has also decreased the amount of merit aid it is giving to applicants in this class and last year’s class. I’m assuming it is because more students are staying in state, so they have a better pool to choose from. Recent awareness of the high cost of student loans to future living has also likely had an impact on who is going to Rutgers and who used to go out of state.
I would recommend looking at the NJ Stars program for your community college if you are in the Top 15% of your class.
For those that seek a community college experience, that may be an answer. It is not an answer for those who want to attend Rutgers. On this thread we’re discussing whether Rutgers’ merit aid has declined over recent years and whether that decline is related in any way to it’s new membership in the Big 10.
Rutgers does itself and the citizens of NJ a disservice when it fails to offer merit awards to NJ students on a basis commensurate with other competitive colleges and universities. Those students leave the State and statistically are less likely to return when compared to students attending college in-state.
Rutgers re-branding efforts haven’t impacted local interest in the school. It must find a way to keep the State’s high achievers. In this age of skyrocketing education costs, better merit aid can be one solution.
Actually the State to whom we in NJ pay taxes to started to reduce its assistance to merit based programs since before 2009. So colleges have had to rebalance since then in order to create merit offers to keep top students in state.
So actually at Rutgers for instance they have since built the Honors College ( opened Aug of 2015 ) and Program with Merit Awards to capture Top Scholars.
So Merit is increasing at Rutgers it’s just not state subsidized. Clearly they are targeting top instate students.
I do applaud Rutgers for the Honors College. They overpromised housing at the facility in the past, so let’s see how they manage with a few years experience.
The merit awards to top scholars unfortunately have declined. To the extent that Rutgers has found the budgetary capacity to make merit awards, I am happy. I am not happy about the largest athletic budget deficit in the nation and I wonder how many more merit awards could be funded if the athletic program was self sustaining.
I’m curious about what stats are needed for in state students at Rutgers. Dd was accepted, but no merit and honors program. She got into every honors program she applied to elsewhere (including Villanova), and received every school’s top scholarships (except Villanova). Her ACT is 34, 4.1 GPA, 9 AP, the rest honors, 4 NHS’s, 4 year varsity sports, captain, top 10 in her class (out of 300+), legacy (dad and sister), tons of volunteer hours, officer in 4 clubs, top level competitive Irish dancer, top choir, 4 years school musical, tutor… Out of state public and private schools will cost less than Rutgers (UDEL, UCONN, URI, Scranton, Quinnipiac) and since they have better DPT programs that’s fine, but I still have 2 16 year olds with similar stats who I was hoping would be offered something from Rutgers.
@Mjkacmom Congrats on your DD’s achievements. Rutgers invites its top 1 or 2% of applicants into the Honors College. They won’t say what ACT/SAT scores and GPA are needed to get in (probably in case there is an unusually high number of tip top applicants in particular year). My son was invited to Rutgers Honors College last year with 35 ACT, APs, high GPA, ECs, research, volunteer, etc.
My advice for your 16 year olds is to have >=35 ACT and high GPA…even if you have to pay for test prep/tutor. It will be worth it for the merit scholarships.
Dd tried so hard to get the ACT up to 35, private tutor starting August before junior year. Ironically, even though she’s a math kid, she ended up getting 36’s in reading and English (I think that’s what her tutor focused on). The same tutor will start with my 16 year olds this August. Unfortunately, the6 don’t have the same drive as D19 (who is the middle child of 5, I think that had something to do with it). She literally couldn’t have added anything else to her load (never time fi4 a job, so free time was babysitting and tutoring).
The standards changed so that a certain score will not guarantee you a scholarship. For example, I got a lower score than most people but I got a full ride. Only being in the honors college guarantees you a scholarship of $10k or above. I know someone who got $10k and a 1300. Not everything is test scores. Look at the website to see what else they consider. The honors college cares about you being in the top 10 percent of your class among other things. I think the standards changed with the introduction of an interdisciplinary honors college that looks more for diversity in order and is necessary to get bigger scholarships.
Don’t worry too much about your test scores. I got a 1530 and got a full ride from SOE (2nd most competitive school within Rutgers) and a 34 act. But I also know people who got 1560s who didn’t get it. Make sure you don’t only focus on your sats cause theyll only get you so far.
@Mjkacmom I also got a 34 ACT but got the honors college (which is more prestigious than program) and presidential scholarship for a full ride ($28k) My school is competitive.Around top 8 percent (2 percent from each school) is chosen for honors college and then I think next 8 percent is chosthehonors program. Don’t feel bad. I know people much smarter than me who didn’t get anything because they did not fit what Rutgers wanted
In the years that my kids have gone through this process, I’ve watched a lot of schools stop giving out automatic merit awards. I rem the days when you knew right away if you were getting a Chancellors Award from Pitt. No more. You apply for the award and there is no certainty whether you get it.
Temple and Alabama were still giving out very generous auto awards as late as when my last son was applying to schools. No more.
I have a book that listed a number of auto merit awards back from days of yore. The list is now very short and dwindling. So it’s not just RU. It’s getting increasingly more difficult to get large awards even as the cost of college is increasing.