seems that many of NJ students have turned out to be many of the best and brightest students in the nation.
Coming from NJ and/or staying in NJ is a great thing.
The New Jersey college system has the benefit of having three solid schools in different categories. It has a top all-round university that’s ranked among the nation’s best, a top state university, and a top regional university. However, since student success is determined more by the student’s dedication and work ethic than the reputation of the college he or she attended, it could be said that every state has produced successful individuals. Where they came from and possibly remained was incidental.
From my local “Patch”
Only one New Jersey school made the top 100 in Forbes’ 2016 college rankings, which put an emphasis on return on investment.
Princeton University was ranked No. 3, trailing only Stanford University and Williams College nationwide. Otherwise, you have to go all the way to No. 141 for the next Garden State school, where Rutgers University checks in.
Here are the New Jersey schools that made the list, which included 660 schools nationwide, with their national ranking in parentheses:
Princeton University (3)
Rutgers University (141)
College of New Jersey (179)
Stevens Institute of Technology (248)
Drew University (274)
Seton Hall University (299)
New Jersey Institute of Technology (386)
Montclair State University (470
Rowan University (471)
Rider University (488)
Stockton University (489)
Fairleigh Dickinson University, Metropolitan Campus (503)
Princeton…thats it
My takeaways from the new Forbes list:
- Princeton is the only New Jersey school that's typically ranked in the top 100. Rutgers comes close, but its statistics are affected by it being a flagship institution with a large student body instead of an elite few.
- About half of the New Jersey schools have gone up from last year. In the 2015 list, Princeton was #4, Rutgers was #146, TCNJ was #182, Drew was #277, Seton Hall was #345, Montclair was #488, and Stockton was #544. Going down are Stevens (#226), NJIT (#370), Rowan (#454), Rider (#485), and FDU Metropolitan (#494).
- Despite quite a few schools falling in the rankings, the order of the top 7 colleges in the state remains the same. Princeton, Rutgers, TCNJ, Stevens, Drew, Seton Hall, and NJIT are still ranked as the seven best New Jersey schools in that order. The changes don't appear until you reach the lower end of the rankings.
- It's interesting that Montclair now ranks above Rowan and Rider when it's currently below the two on the US News' ranking. This makes me wonder where these three schools will end up when US News updates its ranking.
- The continued absence of Ramapo and Monmouth fuels my suspicious that Forbes only looks at a select number of schools and simply rearranges their list instead of adding and removing entries. Ramapo and Monmouth currently rank higher than Stockton and FDU and Ramapo ranks higher than Montclair on the US News list. I know there are other regional universities in the north that are ranked by Forbes, but are below Ramapo and Monmouth on US News. Notably, the College of Staten Island is on the Forbes list at #477, but doesn't have a published rank on the US News list, meaning it ranked among the bottom tier of regional universities in the north.
Drew, Seton Hall, NJIT and Montclair (and CSI) were also all ahead of my school. I don’t think anyone should really take Forbes seriously at all.
What I find intriguing is that the University of Mary Washington is ranked noticeably higher than your school at #275 on the Forbes list, but they’re tied on the US News list. I can’t make an accurate comparison between the lists right now because US News won’t update theirs until September, but the same discrepancy existed in Forbes’ 2015 list; UMW was at #260 and UNCW was at #473. To be fair, the US News ranking was only counting regional universities in the south, but I find it hard to believe that none of the 212 schools in between them were southern regional universities.
Alongside US News and Princeton Review, Forbes has the most straightforward ranking, but their list is also the most questionable due to the inclusions, exclusions, and other issues. At least US News and Princeton Review have entries for the colleges they don’t consider to be the best. Forbes doesn’t, which is one of the reason I question their methodology.
Princeton Review will post their list next month; we’ll see where they stand on New Jersey schools.
@ExpertOnMistakes right?? I think we’re better than UMW tbh. Rowan are also ahead of us (another school we’re a bit better than), and App State (our academic equal) are quite a bit higher as well. JMU and CNU, two schools with which we are also on par, are also far ahead. And of course, Rutgers, TCNJ, Stevens, and UMass Amherst are four schools that I feel we’re equal to, but we lag behind them also. UNCW is also better than the likes of WVU, Ole Miss, and UAlaska Fairbanks, but all three are ranked higher. And then there’s the likes of Pace, which is a total joke. Makes no sense to me.
USNWR>Princeton Review>>>>My ratings>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Forbes
Bloomberg Businesweek Rankings are admittedly a little weird, especially for students considering a career in financial services or management consulting
@yikesyikesyikes I don’t agree at all with that ranking either - thank God they’re discontinuing it after this year.
@LBad96 Forbes only focuses on the outcomes of graduating from a certain college. While the outcomes carry the most weight at the end of the day, they’re heavily determined by the motivation and work ethic of the graduates, as well as luck and timing. It’s important to know what types of students are being accepted into these schools to see how they performed in the past, which Forbes doesn’t appear to take note of.
There is an inherent problem on focusing on the outcomes - and that problem is ironically that it does not do a good job of measuring the outcomes.
An example:
School A is highly ranked school, with a great engineering program which 20% of the student body belongs to.
School B is a mediocre school with a mediocre engineering program, but 80% of the students belong to it.
School A’s Engineering School’s Bachelor recipients receive an average salary of $80,000
School B’s Engineering School’s Bachelor recepients receive an average salaery of $68,000.
School B has an overall Bachelor recepient starting salary because they have a higher percentage of their population as engineering students, although school A’s engineers do much better financially.
Uh, Princeton is tier one. Tier one refers to top schools. Also, this thread seems like it is meant to anger people.
@ExpertOnMistakes well, they should also focus on graduation rates.
@yikesyikesyikes To me, the key problem with focusing on the outcomes is the college an individual attended is not the be all, end all factor in where he or she ends up. My analysis is as follows:
Success is based more on timing and luck than credentials.
Connections increase the chances of being the right place at the right time.
The wealthy have the most connections.
The wealthy typically attend the elite colleges.
The wealthy end up having better outcomes by having a better chance at success, bolstering the rankings of the elite colleges.
The final outcome is ultimately determined by what the student was able to do, regardless of how good his or her alma mater is supposed to be.
@LBad96 I believe Forbes does factor graduation rates into their ranking, but they do not look at GPA and SAT score averages. Like I said, I’d argue it’s important to know what the students coming into these colleges are capable of and how the colleges handled them.
@ExpertOnMistakes well, the fact that they don’t look at incoming freshman stats explains their futility. At least my own ranking took everything into account.
@LBad96 As a business magazine, Forbes’ specialty is finance, not education. So it’s only fitting they focus on the money aspects of college.
We gave Princeton “Top Tier” for a reason to distinguish it from high ranking state universities & privates. Its emphasis as Top Tier instead of Tier 1 is because it simply isn’t comparable to anything else, & is one of the top schools in the nation.
Once again, The point of this thread is not to anger people say that “X college is better than Y” but to see what colleges are similar to each other overall, that way a student knows that there’s more options available to them & that some schools are better than they think.
@ASJackson923 - I am curious as to which students you are trying to reach. Are these strictly New Jersey residents or OSS as well? My understanding is that, with the exception of Princeton, NJ state residents receive discounted tuition and COA rates. Presumably, as in other States, at certain levels there is no reason to look out of state when a state college or university will do as well. As the parent of OSSs who looked at elite private and public and specialized colleges and universities, our experience was that only Princeton and Stevens Tech hold any substantial reputation outside of NJ. I am not persuaded at all by fringe, biased or limited rankings and ratings with flawed survey models. What is your sense of the value of NJ schools outside of the economic and admissions benefit to New Jersey residents?