Also, I hope I’m not beating a dead horse, but just remember there are a LOT of bright students everywhere, and I think you’re just a point where you need validation, whether that be someone with a higher GPA than you, higher ACT/SAT, better ECs, or whatever, from Rutgers to tell you that they go there.
I understand you, really, and I’m not just saying this to make you feel better. You probably feel like all your hard work went to waste, sleeping 4 hours a day, sacrificing your social life for grades and ECs. But at the end of the day, there are hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of students doing the same thing, fighting for the same spots you fought for the past few months, and some things just didn’t line up at the schools that didn’t take you. Now that doesn’t mean you weren’t good or that you weren’t that great of a person, it’s just…there’s not enough room.
Also, I realized that graduate school (at least for me as a PreMed) will cost a LOT, and really the “three pillars of Graduate school” is your undergraduate GPA, your test (MCAT, BAR, DAT), and your research experience. Based on the stats you’ve given and all the hard work you’ve put in, you can knock the GPA and Test out of the park with the same work ethic and diligence you put in during High School. The research is there for you to do and figure out during your next four years at Rutgers - and you know what? Rutgers is KILLER for research - I’m not even buffing this; probably even better than UPenn not going to lie.
So chin up, and nay nay on your neighbor school, telling them the Scarlet Knights have kicked the Tigers’ arses since Day 1.