Ranking of Ramapo College of NJ?

College Search & Selection
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<p>Hi, I recently got a huge scholarship for Ramapo. I was honestly excited about this because it meant that I could go to college with little to no debt. Also, it has bioinformatics and seems to be the size of a college I want to attend. However, my friend recently got the same scholarship and she scoffed at the idea of going there. She seems to believe that Ramapo is a horrible school that is not worth going to and it's unlikely that she'd get a job or get into a graduate program if she goes there. Her brother said the same. This makes me nervous because it's likely the college I'm going to go to due to expenses. So I was wondering if Ramapo really is not that great of a college. Is it honestly not good, or is that just her wanting a name brand school on her applications? </p>

<p>Any information of opinions would be greatly appreciated.</p>

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<p>Don’t listen to others; follow what you want.</p>

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<p>Agree w/ arkhaik. If Ramapo is the right college for you, you’ll do fine.</p>

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<p>yes I know I shouldn’t look at what other people think. I still plan on enrolling if my top choice rejects me or doesn’t give me a very big scholarship. It’s just I need to know how good the school actually is. The way sh said it was as if it were the worse school on earth. I just want to know what I’m getting myself into and whether or not I will get into my dream (graduate) school, MIT, when going to a college that may not be ranked highly. Also, how well Ramapo will prepare me for such a prestigious college. </p>

<p>The college raves about how two bioinformatics majors got into UPenn seven years ago, but since then there doesn’t seem to be any more seriously successful students. I just want to find out if it’s honestly good and the college just isn’t updating, or if it was just a fluke that those two got in.</p>

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<p>I assure you Ramapo is not the worst school on earth. </p>

<p>Ask the career center at Ramapo to share with you statistics on graduate school acceptance and to provide you with the names of the graduate schools that Ramapo alumni have attended. The latter is available to them through the National Student Clearinghous, so if they tell you it’s not available, suggest to them that it is.</p>

<p>MIT grad school is going to be tough for anyone to get into. One thing you may discover by the time you’re ready for grad school is that MIT isn’t the best choice anyway. You’ll discover that your match with professors’ research interests, funding, program focus, GA/TA opportunities, etc. are more important than the name of the school.</p>

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<p>Hi MaybeLater,</p>

<p>I don’t post much on this as I am an alumna and now work for my college in admissions, but I saw your post and felt compelled. I graduated from Ramapo in 2009 and was a presidential scholar. I was admitted to very competitive regional schools including NYU and Boston University. I chose Ramapo because of my scholarship and had a fantastic experience there. I studied International Studies, studied abroad, was an active student leader, participated in Greek life, tutored, was a peer facilitator, and worked on campus. My experience was so impactful that I decided I wanted to build a career in higher education. After graduation I attended Columbia University where I earned my Master’s degree in Higher Education. Now, I am back as an admissions counselor. However, I am posting this as an alum and as someone who went through what you are going through (to some degree).</p>

<p>Because of my background, I felt compelled to respond to your post. When I was in your shoes, my guidance counselor told me, “Apply to Ramapo College - you need another safety school, and this one is not just beautiful, but very up and coming. You will probably be offered a great scholarship.” He was right on the money. I was offered the Presidential Scholarship which I jokingly refer to as “The Godfather” - because it is an offer I felt I couldn’t refuse. I figured…well if I don’t like it there, I’ll transfer. As you can tell, that never happened. Additionally, every year this college has become more competitive to get into than the year before it.</p>

<p>Jobs and graduate school are important. Within my circle of friends, I know people who have attended or are currently attending UPenn, Harvard, Columbia, Brown, NYU, Vanderbilt, John Hopkins, UMDNJ, Syracuse, Seton Hall, Fordham, University of Virginia, and Drew for law, medicine, dental, veterinary, journalism, education, and academic doctoral degrees. I have friends who work for the federal government, state government, Big Four accounting firms, Warner Music, American Diabetes Association, Michael Kors, Chanel, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, JP Morgan Chase, and various other companies.</p>

<p>Now, the admissions counselor in me comes out. This year is Ramapo’s most competitive year in the history of the college. We have 30% more applications over last year, the highest ever. We have accepted less than 35% of applicants. We have been and continue to be one of the most competitive public college in New Jersey. You will find great faculty here who teach and mentor you, especially in a smaller program like Bioinformatics. You will find other students who are passionate about their futures and are looking for research, internships, and co-op opportunities, with graduate school on many of their minds. You will also find many who are looking to make the most of their time here by getting involved in multiple activities.</p>

<p>I wish you great luck in making your decision. For me, I always knew graduate school (at the time I thought it would be law school) was in my future. I knew having no undergraduate loans would free me up to pursue graduate work, no matter the cost. If I did not have the scholarship from Ramapo, I would be drowning in my loans from my Master’s from Columbia. I would not be able to work in admissions here if I did not truly believe in the college as a place to live at learn.</p>

<p>If you have any specific questions that you want to talk about, from either/or an alumna/admissions perspective, I would be happy to discuss.</p>

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<p>lynxinsider: Thanks, I’ll d othat. I’m visiting again next week to make sure I really do like the college.</p>

<p>jerseygirl7: Thank you so much. This is the type of information I was hoping to receive. I feel so much better now. Ramapo is likely still going to be the college I’ll be attending, but it feels good to have some reassurance on the successes of the college.</p>

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<p>I’m seriously considering just sending in my acceptance card right now. I just need a little reassurance. I was offered the Presidential Scholarship, 18000 per year, when the college total with tuition, room and board and other expenses is about 23000. The other college I was considering would be 53000 and it’s unlikely I’ll get any other scholarship. My EFC for fafsa is roughly 12000 per year, but I don’t know if the other college will reach that full amount. I feel that these two colleges are the only ones out of the eight that I applied to that are worth going to, that I feel connected to. </p>

<p>So here’s my question: Should I send in my acceptance card for Ramapo right now and be done with it? Or should I wait to get financial information from the other school and risk being in debt for many years? I really like Ramapo, but something is holding me back. I need someone to guide me. My parents obviously want me to go to Ramapo, but I feel they’re too close to the situation to offer any real advice.</p>

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<p>When do you have to let Ramapo know? If you are ambivalent, wait until you have heard from other places. If you are a good enough student to get this huge scholarship, other places may also offer you some merit aid. Wait and compare offers.</p>

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<p>Hello MaybeLater8!</p>

<p>Let me see if I could help- I am a freshman Bioinformatics student at Ramapo College. My experience concerning ACADEMICS in Ramapo College thus far have proven to be above average and frankly better than expected! Like you, I was offered the presidential scholarship as I excelled at a competitive high school. The money and the bioinformatics program is ultimately what made me choose Ramapo, which I resented at first since I came in the school with the same expectations as you. I feared I wouldn’t be challenged enough, I would eventually lose interest in school, I would be much smarter than my peers, etc… but thankfully the opposite became true!
One thing I do HIGHLY recommend is to speak to the convener of the major- Dr. Bagga. He is always eager to have more students become Bioinformatics major as he started it himself a couple of years ago. Email him, as far as I know, he’s quick with emails. The Bioinformatics group is pretty small, mostly because students did not hear about it and/or are unsure of what it really is. This major will prepare you for both Medical(frankly much better than plain old bio) and Graduate schools. In fact, I just attended a club meeting in which one of the Ramapo grad students who is now at Albert Einstein College of Medicine speak of his experiences at the college and say that Ramapo prepared him well for studies beyond. He also got accepted to UPenn and other amazing schools which I do not remember at the time. Another point to bring up is that Ramapo has amazing ties with some excellent grad schools. It is not surprising to hear people going off to UMDNJ, Rutgers, Columbia, Cornell, UPenn, etc. In fact a great deal of professors(95+ % pHDs) come from such big named schools. My professors this semester come from Rutgers, Columbia, Princeton, Lehigh, NYU, and Stanford… and they can teach… and it will look good if you get LOR for grad schools from them! Professors really do take the initiative to teach the students. For the most part, they will know your name, especially if you show interest to the subject matter. There are no student aides and you will usually leave the class(usually 20-40 students) learning something.
Even though it is “only” a state school- you will be meet lots of interesting people. The Bioinformatics major is an obscure major for undergrads but you will come out knowing more than the average Bio or Biochem student than from the 50K private school. Since the group is particularly small, you will be able to get close with your professors, get research opportunities, etc… Also, the students aren’t competitive and getting A’s in A-‘s so far has been relatively easy.
My last thoughts: My friend goes to a big named private school and is studying Bioinformatics for close to 70K a year, including room and board. WE ARE LEARNING THE SAME THING! In fact, I feel that I am learning more than her because I actually get to interact and know my professors and my professors actually teach. Her professors find that teaching undergrad is (dare I say) a waste and often cancel classes or have student aides teach the subject matter. This basically means my friend is teaching herself something. Even though she is a very smart individual, there are just some things that she needs assistance with and at a big named private school with lots of competition, it is hard to find. Just something to think about—if you attend Ramapo, you will study a major that will make you highly lucrative among employers and medicine/grad schools, you will most likely come out debt free, you will be able to interact with great professors who come from excellent schools and eventually end up with a kick-ass Letter of Recommendation or you could brag to your friends how you went to a private school and came out with 50k + in debt.</p>

<p>Keep in mind that I am only speaking from the academics viewpoint. If you have any questions, I am more than happy to help! Just message me!</p>

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<p>Junior at Ramapo now- looking at my post and chuckling.</p>

<p>Keep in mind, I wrote my post as a freshman when the notion of college was still fairly new to me. As I am in my Junior year of college, I take back a lot of statements. I’m now a Bio major, partly because the courses needed to obtain a Bioinformatics degree were not offered and I feared not graduating on time. Plus, I developed a passion for Biology. My passion for Biology is ultimately when I began finding the downfalls of the school and it was fairly easy to pinpoint. Biology, being on the largest majors in the school, only had ~2-3 upper level electives that were regularly offered(Microbiology, Anatamony and Physiology). As a student interested in “pushing my boundries”, like my college wanted me to do so, I found it hard to do so. As a student looking for academic challenges in a school \where students seem indifferent to an education, I found it hard to do so. As a student looking to prepare myself for grad school, I found it hard to do so. As I approached my sophomore year of college, I figured out that simply doing good in a course(Getting an A) was simply a result of showing up to class and memorizing notes. This was something I also did outside of my Bio courses, such as in Organic, Physics, and heck- even History. Students seemed indifferent to the idea of receiving a decent education. I don’t why this was so- maybe it was the fact that Ramapo IS a commuter school and everyone there is trying to be somewhere else. When I started attending club meetings more regularly, I couldn’t help but realize that I was constantly seeing the same few faces and that at times, there would be more EBoard members than actual members. When I got involved in research, I realized what a joke Ramapo was. First off, you PAY to do research when traditionally schools pay YOU. Secondly, other than the Bioinformatics research done on campus, don’t expect much… I know it wasn’t a research based school, but I felt that I needed to gain SOME practical lab skills since I AM a bio major… I didn’t gain any practical lab skills, from Ramapo at least.</p>

<p>Overall, the longer I stay in the school, the more I get upset with it. If all you want is a degree, come to Ramapo. If you are looking to challenge yourself, be around like minded students, AND be prepared for grad school, PLEASE apply somewhere else especially if you are a good student. Though I was a good student in high school, I felt comming to Ramapo made me lazier, more apathetic, and simply wanting to get out. Yes, yes college is what you make it, but please take my advice into account and see what you are truly looking for. I know what I was looking for was definately not offered at Ramapo!</p>