I was wondering what people here thought about Rutgers University in terms of prestige. I’ve seen opinions all over the board with this one. I’ve heard people describe Rutgers as a first rate public school (although not in the UMich or Berkley caliber), and I’ve heard people describe it as a mediocre state school. This has been debated on CC before, but most of the threads or several years old so maybe opinions have changed since then (since they joined the BIG10, added the Business Building and merged with the Med School).
Im a NJ native, and Ive noticed that people look down alot on Rutgers, which I think has skewed my own beliefs about it in a negative direction
But, whenever I travel out of state, I Find that people I know have a high opinion of Rutgers. People I’ve talked to during visits to California and Hawaii regard it as an Ivy League level school! It seems the farther from the actual University, the higher the opinion of it!
Don’t believe them. Nowhere close to Ivy League level. It’s not terrible by any means, but the out-of-staters grossly overrate it. At best, it’s a 4 star school, and only the fourth best in NJ.
State schools in the northeast are not prestigious. That doesn’t mean it is a bad school, particularly for the cost, but it certainly isn’t prestigious.
Those people in CA and HI are smoking something. Rutgers is nowhere near Ivy League.
HOWEVER: there are a few programs that are very prestigious.
I would not say Rutgers is fourth best in NJ, unless you break it down to majors. Princeton is obviously #1, but I cannot imagine any other NJ colleges ranked higher than Rutgers overall.
For grad school, Rutgers has a significant positive research reputation, and depending on your field, might be a better choice than some Ivies. For undergrads, it is more difficult to access the top researchers.
One also has to remember that schools like Rutgers and Penn State are land grant schools, so the physicality of going to Rutgers vs. Princeton or other private universities is totally different - walking to class among trees vs. taking buses to all classes.
@rhandco I’d contest that Stevens and TCNJ are better than Rutgers overall. At the very least, they’re certainly more well-respected than Rutgers.
Just looking at my high school, smart kids who want to stay in-state tend to go with Princeton, Stevens, or TCNJ. Kids who can’t afford or are scared to leave NJ attend Rutgers.
Certainly seems that way from postings on these forums. It seems odd that New Jersey residents have such a low opinion of their own state flagship university, to the point that they will pay significantly more to go to an out-of-state flagship university that is not necessarily better.
@ucbalumnus I think its a consequence of NJ residences having a type A personality and wanting to send their kid to a school they can brag about. I guess going to the state school is too ordinary for a lot of people.
@CrimsonAmbition2 still nowhere near the caliber of any of those universities.
@ucbalumnus I disagree. Penn State and UMaryland are, in my mind, certainly better than Rutgers. The other Northeast public flagships, however, are right on its level (such as UMass, UConn, Stony Brook, Binghamton, UDel) or lower (URI, UVT, UNH, UMaine).
I’d take my current school for full price over Rutgers (or any NJ school sans Princeton) for free.
Listen, Rutgers is not hurting for good students. Getting in the accelerated medical and dental programs is a nightmare. Getting into the pharma program is extremely hard. If a student doesnt have a 26 ACT, getting in the College of Arts and Sciences is not certain even instate. Enrollment is 66,000 across all campuses.
NJ is small and the population is very concentrated so for lots of kids Rutgers is too close to home. The other thing about Rutgers is that the campus shows very poorly. It is spread over 6 towns and you need to take buses everywhere.
That said if you are a kid used to being on the go and like a very exciting social life, Rutgers is great. I think about 15,000 kids live on the New Brunswick campus. No shortage of fun.
NYC is 45 minutes away and there is a train station on the College Avenue campus.
@BatesParents2019 I agree with you on almost everything. There are definitely intelligent smart kids who attend Rutgers and the hard sciences (Engineering and Pharmacy) are very difficult to get into. I know many intelligent and wealthy people who went to Rutgers. One of my best friends had a 4.0+ GPA and decided to go to Rutgers. Yet, when i bring up Rutgers to many locals, people just talk down about it (unless you went there of course, and even then.
But your also right about the negatives. It certainly is too close to home, to the point where its mundane. When i visited Rutgers, trying to find a student from out of state is like playing “wheres waldo”, i think 90% of students are in-state. Which is boring. Its college, you want to meet people from new places, not be surrounded from people from your state.
And the campus layout is atrocious. The busses really try to make life difficult for students. I have friends who have had to wait about an hour just to get back to their dorm after class. What a nightmare
I keep reading posts on CC pronouncing that TCNJ is “more prestigious” than Rutgers. While its profile has risen in recent years, and it is a very respectable school, most people from outside of NJ have never heard of it. For people who aren’t familiar with TCNJ, it was once Trenton State College, and is now “The College of New Jersey.” The intent was to make it a first-rate liberal arts college, but NJ budget difficulties have not kept up with the mission. It has some good departments, and is smaller than Rutgers, but it is not the research university that Rutgers is.
@woogzmama TCNJ students have the same profile as Lehigh, Lafayette and Bucknell students, Class of 2019. When was the last time you were on campus? The new $100 million STEM center will be open in early 2017. The very spiffy Campus Town project opens next month.
I’m from California, and most people here have probably never heard of Rutgers. So I doubt many would consider it to be Ivy-league caliber.
That being said, Rutgers is a very respectable university. That’s true even if it isn’t prestigious, in NJ or elsewhere. You can get a fine education there in a variety of subjects. And I don’t have the link handy, but I believe they do a fairly decent job of getting their alums in Wall Street jobs (which isn’t wholly surprising given its proximity to NYC.)
You certainly wouldn’t be making a bad decision to attend there. And if you attended, and graduated, you should feel proud of being an alumnus of a fine public university.
Rutgers isn’t Ivy League but it certainly is no schluff either. It’s a respectable research university that attracts students from all across the country/world. I disagree that Stevens and TCNJ beat it out, although I do know that those schools get a heavy push/bias on CC. Besides Princeton and Rutgers, most of the schools in NJ (public or private) are small and second-tier. They don’t get the widely known acclaim that BC, BU, UMD, etc. gets, but that doesn’t make them poor schools.
Rutgers has amazing programs for pharmacy, engineering, environmental science, business, and law. Besides that, it’s probably just your average state school. However, it still is very good and what people on here (or at barbecues) say shouldn’t affect your decision.
Also, just to warn you that NJ residents have a strong hate relationship with Rutgers…Penn State is probably right on level with Rutgers and PA residents would look down on it too. It’s just a thing that state residents don’t hold their public flagship too highly.
I’m an NY resident, and I find Penn State one of the best Universities out there. The problem with Rutgers is that you don’t hear their name called every day. You only here them during football season.
@LBad96 What do you think of the fact that Rutgers advertises itself as the #33 ranked school in the World, and 24 in the US. The cited a ranking released by the “Center for World University Ranking”
@CrimsonAmbition2 LOL. Probably paid that publication or they’re lying. No way in hell are they that high. Like I said, my school is equal to, if not better than, Rutgers academically, but in a FAR better surrounding environment. Don’t believe me?
UNC W: 4.06 weighted average (up from 3.9 2 years ago, indicating greater desirability and selectivity), 1290 average SAT CR+M, 25% have more than 640 on individual section of their SAT. 34% classes have fewer than 20 students, 14% 40 or more.
Rutgers: 3.79 (weighted average), 1220 average SAT CR+M, 25% have 640 or more on individual section of their SAT. 38% classes have fewer than 20 students and 27% have 40 or more.
@TheDidactic I respectfully disagree with your last statement. Penn State has an edge over Rutgers (by a half star) in academics. But you are right that PA residents would look down on it, especially because of what happened with Sandusky (that doesn’t sway my opinion of it; whether people use that in their own judgment is completely up to them). In general, us Northerners are massive snobs when it comes to our state flagships, lol!
In NJ, our best schools are Princeton (obvi 5), Rutgers/Stevens/TCNJ (4 stars), and NJIT/Rowan (3.5 stars). Any NJ school outside of those six is, at best, an average 3 star rating. Pretty poor if you ask me.
I feel that one of the things that attracts New Jerseyans to Penn State (and other surrounding flagships like Delaware, Connecticut, etc.) vs Rutgers is because those schools are known to have more college student-friendly towns. I defiantly see Rutgers trying to make its space more college friendly with their new “downtown” areas in Livingston Campus and in New Brunswick, although it’s still going to take more to beat out Penn State’s and UDel’s college towns. I’m going elsewhere for college for personal reasons, but people that I care about are going there.However, I can still see a Rutgers student who’s not from the area of NJ that Rutgers is in be satisfied in it since there’s public transportation to NYC and Philly and to smaller cities (like North and East Brunswick) nearby NB that have things for college students to do. From now til Rutgers has whatever college students are going to call “a great college town”, everyone is just going to have to look at RU’s town a little deeper.