<p>I'm looking for some information about the various Rutgers campuses. This would be to live near and work with the college not be a student. What are the differences in terms of safety, environment, cost of living, quality of living.... I have NO information so I'll take all comments.
Thanks!</p>
<p>None are good choices, I’m afraid.</p>
<p>Which campuses are you interested in - New Brunswick, Newark, Piscataway (Busch), Camden? They are all very varied - and not close to each other.</p>
<p>I disagree with that one. I know many, many folks who graduated from Rutgers, and have done extremely well and enjoyed their years there. I applied to the Douglas campus many years ago when it was an all female environment. It was highly rated and the ideal of having all of the resources of one of the biggest universities in the US and yet be in a small campus was attractive to me.</p>
<p>I don’t live in NJ so I cannot comment on the current situation, but I’ve known some bright kids from NY, PA and other states go to Rutgers over other choices, and were fine there. We used to go to one of the campuses regularly for swim meets, and I found it to be an attractive well appointed place. The facilities were just fine and there appeared to be much going on. The towns nearby were not very good. Camden and other areas are truly blighted, but there are many, many top schools in unattractive surroundings, including Yale, UCh, Vassar among many others.</p>
<p>Well, I graduated from one of the Rutgers’ campuses and my sister went to Douglas. I also grew up in New Jersey. In my opinion, none are good choices. New Brunswick is probably the least dangerous city but the campus itself has been voted among the ugliest in America (Princeton Review of top 366 colleges, 2008 Edition) and I agree. What I don’t understand is why the OP is focusing on Rutgers?</p>
<p>Camden is crime-ridden & scary. But, there are suburbs 20 mins from Camden which are very nice. However, a student wouldn’t get much social life in the 'burbs.</p>
<p>Wow, what a slam as to New Brunswick. In the past several years, New Brunswick has undergone some regentrification, and has 3 theaters that have live performances, and many restaurants (some rated 4 stars). I don’t go to bars (too old for that) so that I don’t know. There is an art museum on the Campus, and the College Avenue campus has film festivals as well. I think some of the areas such as Livingston College look generic, but the college avenue campus is fine. I would think a car would be desirable, as shopping and such are not too prevalent in walking distance. You can live in many other places and be within a few miles of the campus.</p>
<p>Newark on the other hand, a definite no, IMHO.</p>
<p>If you are going to work at Rutgers, I’d pick the Douglas Campus (is that the one in North Brunswick?), Piscataway or New Brunswick campuses and then you could live in any of a number of nice suburbs, such as the other Brunswicks (North, South, and East), Franklin Twp, or even farther south to Princeton, Plainsboro, etc. No to Camden and Newark for sure.</p>
<p>Douglas grad chiming in here:
Are asking which city to pick - New Brunswick (Rutgers, Cook, Douglas), Piscataway (Livingston, Busch), Newark or Camden?</p>
<p>Both Newark and Camden are faily high crime areas. New Brunswick and Piscataway are affordable NJ cities. Esp important if you are bringing a family with you. If you are a simgle guy, then your criteria would be quite different. And safety may not be on the very top of your list. New Brunswick has the prettiest school campuses and the nicest buildings.</p>
<p>Camden does have a very nice aquarium so it you like that sort of thing, this may be a good city for you. </p>
<p>So, maybe you can be a bit more specific about what you are looking for.</p>
<p>You could work in Camden or Newark and live in some of the best towns in New Jersey.</p>
<p>Camden - Haddonfield, Moorestown
Newark- Essex Fells, Summit, Westfield </p>
<p>There are so many more it is not worth naming them all. I have worked at offices both next to Rutgers Newark on Halsey Street and Rutgers Camden by the Aquarium both areas are fine. It is the residential areas that are problems not the areas by the college. Granted it is not Utopia but the area by the colleges is not where the majority of crime takes place.</p>
<p>H worked for Rutgers Newark until recently and we live about 10 miles from there. So, we are very close to New York City, and we raised our kids in a decent public school system, but we pay extremely high taxes for it. </p>
<p>Newark is looking up - but it’s not out of the woods yet.</p>