We haven’t had the opportunity to visit yet but will in April if the financial offer is equitable. I’m curious how the distance between dorms and class buildings and libraries are. Touring visitors may easily be misinformed by the actual distances because they are traveling from building to building in the closest bee-line possible but when a student has to get from one actual class to the next, it may reveal actual difficulties that are unseen.
I wonder if a current or past student would answer the question for me. Could you tell me how bad the distances are? I hear the campus is big, but is it as big as Rutgers in which students have to grab a shuttle bus between classes?
Parent to two current students who both live on campus in the newer dorms, which are further away than the older dorms from the academic buildings. My daughter lives in the current furthest dorm from the newest academic building (Business) where most of her classes are. She walks to class and it takes her 15 or so minutes. My foster son rides his bike from a similar area, and it takes him about 5 minutes. The campus is no where close to Rutgers size, the class sizes are also much smaller. That may be good or bad, depending upon your perspective. (my kids both love it)
All easily walkable, even for us old men. Shuttles are available but not necessary. Freshman dorms (Mimosa, Mullica) are right in the pack of things. RoBo and new freshman apartments are maybe 5 minutes farther. Others (Chestnut, etc.) in between. Academic buildings & library & Student Center are close to each other. Library/Student Center/Rec Center (the three places students spend the most time - and that’s a good thing) are right next to each other.
“Dormitory” is Latin for “a place to sleep”. If you do college right, that’s exactly how you should use it.
It’s not like high school, where 6-7 classes are stacked against each other and there’s a mad rush between classes. Might just have 1 class one day, 2 classes another, 3 classes/day at most. It’s unusual for a freshman schedule to have back-to-back classes - they are usually spread out. Might even have an 8 AM class or an evening class. Depending on the major, lab classes are double sessions. In most majors, freshman year is core classes, most of which are in Robinson Hall, right smack in the middle of the academic buildings.
No sweat. More likely to mosey than to rush to class.
I found a youtube video which may be of concern. Can anyone provide input on this?
/watch?v=vyWFKkrG9m0
@reformedman It’s true, especially when it was made. Since then, the new freshman apartment building has opened.
Did any of the students in the video complain? Not really. I’m assuming it’s because they’re only in the dorm to sleep, which is how it should be.
One thing that the video didn’t mention is that there’s a price break for tripling, and a premium added for A/C apartments. And it might be good training for life after college, where many (who don’t move back with parents) will be sharing small apartments.
It’s probably more concerning for parents, and I understand if it’s a dealbreaker for some. I’ve seen far worse - like frat houses in my day.
@reformedman, Very walkable campus…did your DS apply to the Honors Program? The Whitney Center is incredible! Beautiful building…spacious rooms and central air…which we don’t have at home!
Unfortunately no. For many colleges you are automatically entered into Honors College if your stats show you can handle it, and then upon acceptance, you may take the offer of honors college upgrade or just accept the regular college. Since you said honors ‘program’ I had not looked into it and your message is the first I’ve heard of it. Hopefully they will make the offer and I hope registration for it is not required in order to be considered for it.
edit @tpcrd66
@reformedman Your student would need to apply for the Honors Program - there are essays to write. It is something they can come to after the freshman first semester though, so if it isn’t done now, you aren’t out of luck.
@reformedman did you get to visit Rowan? My husband & I took our daughter yesterday. Very nice campus grounds, mix of older & new architecture. There were lots of students out & about, & there was some outside event where there were teams doing a tug of war. We also saw many upcoming event posters in the student lounge. Lots of places to eat too. We were able to meet with computer science dean, very down to earth & seems like he genuinely cares about the success of the students, also seemed proud that companies come to him looking for interns. D very well may be enrolling, just over one week to decide
@mommabear67 From stalking his other threads it looks like he has decided to go to RPI and needs to come up with 23K a year to do so, which will need to be in loans, in addition to the 5,500 loan he already had as part of his FinAid package. In my opinion this is a really dumb choice (100K in loans?) but I don’t have to pay them, so why do I care? 
You shouldn’t make assumptions. I didn’t care to mention where the money was coming from but no where did I say I wouldn’t have the loans paid off before graduation.
@mommabear67 he decided on RPI because it turned out the most affordable amazingly. Even Rowan turned out more expensive so we didn’t visit in the end.
What did you and your dd decide?
@reformedman Congrats on RPI! That was one of the schools my son considered but in the end it wound up being too expensive.
My son settled on Rowan, he received a nice merit award which made it very cost effective. In fact, we gave him a set amount of $ per year asked him to choose knowing at some schools he might need to work/take out a loan at others he could bank a nice nest egg and start off his career in the black.
I think he made a good choice. Can I ask how did Rowan turn out to be more expensive than RPI for you?
Congrats on Rowan as well.
Rowan was more economical than RPI per year for us as well. To give exact numbers it was a free ride with NJIT so
Njit $0
Rowan $15k
Rpi $36k
And everything else far too expensive.
Having agreed that rpi was our pick, we filled their financial aid Appeal Form. They reduced our out of pocket from 36k to 19k. So it wasn’t so much that RPI was less expensive, it was close. But we visited rpi, it is rated super high in CompEng, starting salary comparison was a huge factor etc. One of the biggest deciding factors though is that you can get your master’s covered by financial aid by following a certain course sequence that he decided he wants to do.
So with the Master’s included RPI works out to be cheaper than Rowan for us.
So reforedman you are actutuly paying 19,000 for RPI? No loans?
I will be paying 16k for the first two years and taking the other 3k for two years in loans. I will have all loans paid off soon after the third year. The third and fourth year I will pay it all with no loans. Son will have a few thousand in loans that will be up to him to pay, nothing too difficult for him.
@reformedman Awesome! That’s an incredible deal for RPI.