<p>I live in Somerset County. NJ's biggest export is college students, and we are also THE MOST densely populated state. Combine that with the fact that there are a lot more college grads with children in NJ than in other states and you have a hell of a lot harder time getting into college. I'm a white girl from Central New Jersey... that's like being an Asian male getting into Harvard. And I face that at every East Coast school I apply to, whether in the north or south.</p>
<p>Actually a lot of parts of North Jersey (close to NYC, basically) arent very nice. I remember riding a bus past some counties, and I wasn't that impressed. i read an article about the 'brain drain' of new jersey.</p>
<p>new jersey is wealthy. new jersey has a large jewish population. people with money tend to value education (because people with money tend to be well educated) and i've found jewish people are as a whole very into education (which is why there is a disproportionately large jewish population at top schools vs. the overall population).</p>
<p>also, with the exception of princeton, there arn't any really good schools in jersey so the people go elsewhere, whereas a really good student from california, michigan, north carolina, virginia, etc. has more incentive to stay instate. who really wants to graduate at the top of one's class to go to rutgers, rider, or caldwell college?</p>
<p>Indeed, NJ really needs a more realistic top 30~40 school. I remember reading somewhere that NJ has one of the highest percentages of students going to college out of state. </p>
<p>lol...maybe if Princeton decided to go public and accepted 10x the students =] so that's what....40000 students? </p>
<p>On the other hand, maybe if Rutgers accepted that ivy league invitation NJ wouldn't be like this. Just friggen improve Rutgers instead of taking away it's financial aid!</p>
<p>eh...Rutgers is beyond help.</p>
<p>I really wish we had a public school system that was on par with that of California.</p>
<p>lol the descriptions of South Jersey where I've lived most of my life except for college and grad school.</p>
<p>Overall we aren't as rich as the nice parts of North and Central, that's true. And it's flat as a pancake. But we're 5 minutes to a beautiful beach, homes in our township are all acre lots (population 11,000), we have lots of trees and beautiful houses. A nice one is at least $500-600,000 or more, not like North Jersey but still fairly steep. We don't have to deal with that god-awful traffic. Our school sends a decent amount to ivies/top 25 so it's not all hicks. Inland there are some let's say unsavory towns.</p>
<p>We get 4 or 5 into Penn or Princeton each year, but they're often athletes. I agree Rutgers needs help, but at least TCNJ seems to be rising.</p>
<p>well rutgers doesnt have amazing research or grad programs, so it may seem like rutgers is bad ... but really it probably isnt as bad as us jersey people make it out to be</p>
<p>rutgers is OK. It has a great pharm program though.</p>
<p>Football has improved if that means anything!</p>
<p>the campus(s) are weird though.</p>
<p>i heard they're restructuring or something ... but seriously, jov is right. new jersey really needs a top notch institution (top 30-40) ... something like michigan, ucla, ucb, uva, unc</p>
<p>its really a shame that new jersey has so much talent but is wasting it all away because there are no decent schools around other than princeton.</p>
<p>atleast new york has a ton, so the graduates might come back.</p>
<p>Once Anthony Soprano became famous, everyone wanted to live in New Jersey. And of course, Tony would attract only a very intellectual type of person.</p>
<p>I lived in NJ all my life and I'm probably gunna go to Rutgers. There's so much to do in jersey. You gotta love the shore.</p>
<p>I'm from North Jersey, typical upper middle-class town. I think it's more affluent than South Jersey because of higher property taxes, proximity to NYC and Phili, etc. The environment also attracts a high Asian population (espcially at my school) and makes the schools pretty competitive. Thus we become over-represented at top colleges with schools like Millburn, Central Hunterdon, Watchung, Montgomery, Bridgewater, Ridge, Chatham, Princeton, Voorhees (those are the ones I know). I actually have no idea why New Jersey gets a bad reputation, once you get out of the cities, its really nice.</p>
<p>I go to Bridgewater :D</p>
<p>My nephew is a student there. They live in Pluckemin.</p>
<p>hehe I know tons of bridgewater kids from swim team (we all swim for SVY)</p>
<p>central jersey represent! =)</p>
<p>Ah the shore. I miss the shore. Everyone else goes to the beach or the ocean. In NJ we went to the shore, and we went every weekend. </p>
<p>BTW, born and raised in Plainfield. Went to Rutgers. Left NJ in the early 70s.</p>