<p>Can anyone give me info(beyond the website info) about the following colleges:
Rider U., Fairleigh Dickinson U., Monmouth U., Ramapo College, and College of NJ?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>First four pretty similar. CONJ is considered more competitive. All tend to be suitcase colleges to some extent.</p>
<p>Ramapo is not at all like Monmouth, FDU and Rider. It is a NJ public that I have heard is trying to position itself to be as competitive as TCNJ, but they are not there yet. They accept solid B students who probably have an average SAT score (M&V) of about 1100(TCNJ’s is bit over 1300).</p>
<p>Monmouth has housing problems. You’ll probably need to live off campus after freshman year. It is near the beach. </p>
<p>Rider has a lot of geese on campus in my opinion. I saw the school before their dorms were redone and they were just horrible! I don’t know what the living conditions are now, but I would not send my kids to a school that housed students in dorms that looked that. It is a statement about their priorities, in my opinion.</p>
<p>FDU has 2 campuses (one near Drew) and one in Hackensack in NJ. I know that the Florham Park campus, which is near Drew, is supposed to be lovely. Sorry, I don’t know anything else about the school.</p>
<p>I believe that on the whole the private schools listed above (not Drew) have much weaker students than what you will find at Ramapo. TCNJ has the strongest students out of those listed above.</p>
<p>My nephew is a rising sophomore at TCNJ. For the most part, he had a good freshman year. He liked his housing, but is moving off-campus for soph year. The off-campus options are good. He found the academics to be challenging. (business major) He also found that it is a suitcase school. He is from PA and also bailed out many weekends. The frat scene is strong, but he chose not to pledge and still got to go to plenty of parties. Support services are fairly good, but there have been budget cutbacks. I haven’t seen the campus, but it’s supposed to be really nice.</p>
<p>anyone have thoughts on Seton Hall?</p>
<p>Thanks, I appreciate the help.</p>
<p>My D is at Ramapo and so far she is very happy. I have been impressed with the overall operation of the school. The dorms are by far the nicest I have seen at all the public colleges in NJ.
Had a relative at FDU-Florham. She received an excellent education and graduated and landed an excellent teaching position. Peggy Noonan was an FDU grad.
I graduated from TCNJ right at the time they started the marketing campaign and the push for better students. They deserve credit because they absolutely changed the reputation for the better. I am not so sure the education is better in comparison to FDU or Ramapo but the belief that the education is better can not be denied. Ramapo is in a much wealthier area than TCNJ so will have a difficult time ever getting top students from that area. Those students will pay for expensive private schools while the top students in TCNJ’s generally area are largely middle class and will pick TCNJ over Bucknell, Lafayette and other similar private schools based on cost.
My D did get accepted to TCNJ by the way but she needed to be further from home for her “growth”. I also had a concern about where she would live if she did not get housing after her sophomore year. I expect she will end up doing grad work at TCNJ so for her Ramapo was the better option.</p>
<p>tom1944, What is the current COA at Ramapo?</p>
<p>TCNJ’s education can be assumed to be “better” because on the whole the students are stronger at TCNJ than Ramapo. IMO,Ramapo has stronger students than FDU, Rider, or Seton Hall. I think that Drew probably has students that are similar to those at Ramapo, though they may be wealthier or taking on much more debt (unless they got a great package).</p>
<p>I agree with everyone who says that TCNJ is excellent. It’s the best school on your list. You can get a private school LAC type of education at a public school price at TCNJ.</p>
<p>nem- while I have to admit I am basing my opinion of the education at all the schools on a small sample I see zero difference in “how smart” the students are at the 3 schools. I deal with students from all the schools since I have interviewed and hired students from each of them since 2003. I have had discussion with my D and her friends that attend each of the schools. The weakest student I personally knew from the 3 schools was a B student at TCNJ and to honest she really was not so bright. We worked together at a part time job I had 2 years ago and she really left a negative impression. Nice girl just not bright. I have interacted with about 200 students from the schools more from TCNJ than the others but enough to get a feel.
I think the COA was about 22k. I should check my bills for an exact amount.</p>
<p>Tom1944, if the yardstick is GPA and SAT/ACT scores, TCNJ would have the brightest kids overall. Naturally one could find students less bright, or highly intelligent at any of the schools.</p>
<p>Actually, I’d select Drew as the best education in the lot. TCNJ is selective, and for that reason people tend to think that the education is top-rate, but I’ve been more impressed with the Drew grads I’ve met. But really, if you end up having to decide between Drew and TCNJ, you’re in a great spot. </p>
<p>FDU/Madison has a nice campus, and it’s down the street from higher rated Drew. Recently, they’ve been offering good merit money. Both the students and the faculty range from fair to excellent. The issue there is that about half the students are commuters and/or part-timers. For an optimal undergraduate experience, you’ll want to live on campus. I’ve heard that the residential students tend to bond, but because the numbers are relatively small, it may be harder to find your social niche.</p>
<p>About Rider: Rider’s profile and reputation has risen since the 1980s when it was considered primarily a commuter business school with a few other academics thrown in. Both TCNJ and Rider beefed up their programs about the same time, although TCNJ (once with a reputation for educating NJ’s teachers and not much else) succeeded to a higher degree. </p>
<p>Because I know nothing about Ramapo and Monmouth, I’d rank the remaining school in terms of education received:</p>
<p>Drew
TCNJ
FDU
Rider</p>
<p>Again a small sample but my niece and her 3 good friends at FDU seemed to get an excellent education and have done well in the job market. They graduated 3 years ago.</p>
<p>No doubt that TCNJ is clearly the superior NJ public based on stats as reported.</p>
<p>Rider has a great reputation in accounting.</p>
<p>^^^ Yes, if someone wants to study business, that may be the best choice among the options.</p>
<p>I would argue that TCNJ provides a better education than Drew</p>
<p>pierre- can anyone really determine which school actually provides a better undergraduate education. What is it based on. We can determine the depth and variety of various majors but unless we have some type of standard objective measurement no one really knows what school or professor provides the best education. Is someone with a Harvard PHD a better teacher than one with a Rutgers PHD?
I have no doubt that schools are perceived to be better but I do not think anyone has actually proven that school A educates their students better than school B.</p>
<p>Whatever you do in life, don’t go to college in Jersey.</p>
<p>I just took a look at my D’s classes. So far she has taken or signed up for 14.</p>
<p>Class size/ college of professor
13 / Un. of Chicago and Harvard
22 / Rutgers
35 / Yale
35 /Iowa
25 / NYU/Penn
15 / NC St /UNC-Greensboro
14 / Columbia
14 /Harvard</p>
<p>She had 2 of the professors above twice with similar class sizes and 4 adjuncts and I did not bother to find their schools. Those will be the only adjunct professors she will have. The balance of her classes from this point will be full time faculty.
Now I can not tell you which of these professors was the best teacher although she was most impressed with one of the adjuncts. He is a published author and was teaching part time. He has now retired.</p>