<p>I'm a NJ resident and prospective student towards both Rutgers campuses. I live in South Jersey, about an hour from Camden and about 2 hours from New Brunswick.</p>
<p>I am positive that I will be accepted to both campuses. I plan to major in accounting and would like to work in Philadelphia (possibly NYC).</p>
<p>I just spoke today with my father's accountant (a graduate of Rutgers Camden) who spoke of how he loved Rutgers Camden and decided to stay there instead of transferring to Nova or St. Joe's (his original plan). He said he had classmates who went into the Big 4 firms, which is my plan. However this was probably 20 years ago.</p>
<p>So I can either go to Rutgers Camden and commute, or I could go to New Brunswick and pay ~13K/year for room&board. Exactly how prestigious is the Camden campus compared to NB? I think I'd enjoy living at the main campus more, but I'm not sure its worth the money.</p>
<p>My suggestion to you if you have not already done so, is to go visit the campuses. We visited Camden, since we were in PA doing some other campus tours and it was on our way to the New Brunswick Campus. Perhaps I missed something, but it was very, very small. East coast friends said they wouldn’t even stop for gas in Camden (were from California). Since going to school from out of state was going to cost more money than if he went to school in state; we wanted for him a more traditional college experience, with football, Greek life, the old traditional campus, etc. He knew if it wasn’t the New Brunswick campus it wasn’t going to be Rutgers. He is now a junior and as he tells it, the campus does matter to employers- with New Brunswick being the more prestigious, followed by Newark and lastly Camden. You might have time on your hands this summer to visit, but if you can get away in the fall when school is in session you will get a much better vibe. You can make arrangements for a guided tour. Ask yourself what type of college experience you want. Even if you choose Camden - that still is about 2 hours a day driving - 10 hours a week. That could be time put to studying if you lived on campus. Camden does have dorms, but if you have the choice and the cost is the same - I say New Brunswick. Even though New Brunswick has lots of kids living on campus, keep in mind that a lot of the Freshman and Sophomore student body go home on the weekends especially after the first few football weekends have passed.</p>
<p>Someone in New Jersey or NYC may distinguish between the Camden and NB campuses but that firm in Chicago ONLY SEES Rutgers.</p>
<p>I live in Maryland and know folks who graduated from U-Maryland Baltimore County, U-Maryland Eastern Shore, U-Maryland University College who now reside far from Maryland and their new city only saw U-Maryland.</p>
<p>U-Michigan Flint and U-Michigan Dearborn has been getting away with it for years.</p>
<p>Penn State Great Valley has been getting away with it for years.</p>
<p>Go to RU-NB not only would you enjoy yourself more I’d say, but it’s got a lot better rep than RU-Camden, not hating on Camden or anything. Anyone can get into RU-Camden, but its not too easy to get into RU-NB. </p>
<p>If you get a scholarship from RU-NB or good Financial Aid, or you can pay for it, go there.</p>
<p>Yeah I don’t think it’s worth driving over 2 hours per day to go to a sub-par school. I definitely would rather be in New Brunswick, I think. I’m going to NB tomorrow, so we’ll see how I like it.</p>
<p>Rutgers students/parents, what areas should I walk around/not walk around in New Brunswick?</p>
<p>Busch has the newer classroom buildings and BEST freshman dorms(new about 2 years). Mostly engineering,pharmacy,science related majors live here because of the accessibly to classes is easy since most of their classes will be on busch.</p>
<p>Livingston is where most freshman live, the new livingston apts are being made, due to open in fall 2012 but only for upperclassmen. The new dining hall opened there and by far the best there is.( if your family comes down, i wouldn’t recommed eating at any dining hall because they overcharge for non students and might not have any good choices since students are not here in the summer).</p>
<p>College ave is the party campus(main campus) it is right in the city of new brunswick so you literally can walk 3 to 4 blocks and you will hit some poor streets.</p>
<p>Cook/Douglas is the campus with farms and etc. It has alot of animal science/regular science majors because their are so many animals and animal classes there.</p>
<p>I would definitely go to each campus and see how.</p>
<p>I think Shipponz summed it up pretty well - as a parent here is my take! If you go to Rutgers Website, at the top there is an admissions tab, from the drop down menu choose Undergraduate Admissions. You should see on the left side campus tours, click on it for types of tours and dates that they will be having tours. If you take their tour, the bus leaves from the Visitors Center on Busch Campus, where you will get to see the football stadium, golf course, science buildings, dorms (you should be able to go into one of the dorms to get a look see) and dining hall etc. They will then take you to Livingston campus that butts up to an ecological reserve where they have recently built new housing and have a really good dining hall that opened last year, as well as RU’s basketball facilities. Then if it still is the same you will be off to College Avenue which is the oldest part of the University. The one side of this campus sits above the highway (Route 18) and for another several blocks on the other side are Fraternity and Sorority houses as well as other older homes that usually get rented out during the school year. I believe most of the college scene stops on or at Easton Avenue when going that direction. You can explore this area by car on your own - Thomas Sweets Ice Cream Shop - Hansel and Griddles (Pancake House) etc. As you head in the direction of the Cook/Douglas Campus at Albany and Easton is the Amtrack Station if you want to go into New York, Philadelphia, etc. Drop down to George Street which is a mix of old and new businesses’ that are trying to turn the downtown area around (Old Man Raferty’s, Harvest Moon Brewery, etc. ) this street has the potential to be really awesome if they could get some upscale or other creative retailers in - they are working on it. If you loop around and get up to Livingston and George St you will see The Heldrich Hotel and across from it the Theater District. It is my understanding that Johnson and Johnson which you will see off to your right or off Route 18 which is headquartered in New Brunswick have put a lot of money as well as New Brunswick into trying to revitalizing the area. You will see it has got newness and rundown aspects. From College Avenue the bus tour takes you onto Cook/Douglas Campus - It is more lush and green with passion puddle pond and the agricultural areas. I would say it is just after the Heldrich and just past Rockoff (high-rise campus housing on George Street) that the area on the way to Cook/Douglas gets seedier. My son says he does walk this area in the day time and isn’t spooked at night but others shy away from these streets past Rockoff toward Cook/Douglas at night. My son has lived on Livingston as well as Busch with his classes being on each of the campuses. With some majors, the sciences I hear that most of the classes are on Busch, but all the general education classes can be spread out. Hope this helps, keep in mind that the campus will be pretty quiet and with the heat a lot of the greenery may not be so green. I personally don’t think Rutgers is the prettiest of campuses and is very spread out (Sorry RU) but my Son has really thrived here, Dean’s Honors List 3 of his 4 semesters, Frat Member, RA, On Campus Intern, New York Internship this summer and school year, etc. His success has made it worth the extra costs to attend here.</p>
<p>I actually just spent my freshman year at RU-C! From my experience, most of the academics there are excellent (keyword: most, depending on the department/course), but the atmosphere can be rather drab much of the time. It’s definitely more of a commuter school, perhaps smaller than your local community college. I would say that in general the main campus in NB is considered the most prestigious, and it is true that it’s a little more competitive to get into than RU-C. The city of Camden doesn’t have the most pleasant reputation either because of its crime rates, although the campus itself is extremely safe. </p>
<p>Overall, RU-C is a great school for those who are self-motivated and concentrated on their studies. The students and professors there are very friendly and helpful, and the education you get is a bang for the buck. If you want the “full” college experience, however, New Brunswick is the choice (transferring there this fall so I might see you there). Apparently some courses in New Brunswick require more prereqs than the ones in Camden, so their courses are not exactly “equivalent” to each other despite both being the same university. From my few visits so far, I really am loving the NB campus, especially the Douglass area. Beautiful!</p>
<p>Even though it’s much safer than Camden, New Brunswick isn’t the safest place either, particularly at night around certain streets (I think near College Ave). Just ask a current student there and they’ll fill you in.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact I did! And I was very disappointed! I had the Fat Darrel and it was very underwhelming. I have made better sandwiches at the restaurant I used to work at. I don’t understand the whole fries in the sandwich either… Very filling but not very tasty.</p>
<p>Can I ask the main reason why you transferred from Camden to NB? And your major? I’m guessing business is one of the better departments in Camden?</p>
<p>Yes, it is one of the better departments! Business is quite popular over there. I’m majoring in biology right now on the pre-med route. I was originally supposed to go to New Brunswick because I live much closer to it, but my one setback to getting in was my terrible high school chemistry grade in sophomore year (D… long story :P).</p>
<p>PS: I too was pretty underwhelmed when trying the Fat Sandwiches for the first time… especially after seeing the RU Grease Truck episode in Man vs. Food.</p>
<p>I spoke to an admissions officer at Camden and he said as of right now I would be eligible for a $3000 scholarship. </p>
<p>So if I went to Camden and commuted, I would graduate with about $40,000 in debt.
If I went to New Brunswick, this number would be above $100,000.</p>
<p>But at New Brunswick, I would probably get an internship, and almost positively get a Big 4 opportunity if my grades were as good as I hope. Not to mention I would enjoy living in New Brunswick more than commuting to Camden everyday. But I’m not sure if that’s worth $60,000+.</p>
<p>@JeremyS I’ve enrolled at Rutgers NB, but since I’m a first year student, I don’t start school until September, but I was really impressed with the campus at my July orientation and how much school spirit everyone had. The dining hall food at Livingston and touring the Cook/Douglass campus were my favorite parts about orientation along with a lot of other cool stuff that I got to do when I was there.</p>
<p>I thought about eating at one of the dining halls but I decided not to. I hear a lot of bad things about New Brunswick but it really didn’t seem that bad at all. I suppose that it gets worse at night, though.</p>