<p>Musicmom–come down here to S. Jersey-- (no, farther south then our shared home town). Much lower taxes, much more space and quiet, same real (not TV-version) Jersey shore. You won’t find that in Tennessee.</p>
<p>Rider has good business, teachers, and music performance programs. Many teachers at my HS went there for undergrad or grad schools and it is pretty popular in Hunterdon County as I see long lists of kids making the Deans List in the local paper weekly I still receive. Pretty good merit aid. I think all NJ schools except Princeton are weaker on weekend life but I believe Rider has quite a few dorms and is not mostly commuters.</p>
<p>MomofWildChild-Thanks for the tip of Tenn towns to check out near Nashville.
We’re always asking folks for places to consider.</p>
<p>garland, we would both love to be able to stay in nj.
Glad that you’ve found a good fit down south…it sounds wonderful.
I love the idea of proximity to the shore…biking down to Sandy Hook as a kid is fondly remembered!</p>
<p>I have lived near Rider and TCNJ for nearly 30 years. Rider’s business program has always been well regarded, but it is not known for much else. Campus and dorms unattractive, but facilities are being upgraded. H and I have relatives and friends who have taught there and graduated from there. We know a number of successful business folks with Rider degrees. Both TCNJ and Rider are suitcase schools. TCNJ is more selective than Rutgers now and Rider is not difficult to get into. As others have said, if the $ works out and if business/accounting are the areas of focus, Rider could be fine.</p>
<p>What MOWC said 
Williamson County (home of both Franklin and Leipers Fork) is directly South of Nashville, so you have proximity to professional sports (Titans & Predators…AND you can actually get tickets which are affordable,) high quality music venues, and excellent medical services (Nashville is one of the nation’s health care hubs; my 80 year old mom gets much better and more seamless medical care here than she did in NJ.) Couple this with no state income tax and low property taxes. We do have a winter but it is milder. Money Magazine named Franklin one of the best places to retire in 2003; it makes all kinds of “best of” lists: [Did</a> you know that Franklin, Tennessee and Williamson County are on the Top of Many Lists?](<a href=“http://franklintnrealestatenews.com/franklin-tennessee-and-williamson-county-top-lists/]Did”>http://franklintnrealestatenews.com/franklin-tennessee-and-williamson-county-top-lists/)</p>
<p>RobD- I do think I would miss my Yankees on YES…too expensive to go see live…but otherwise, Franklin looks interesting. Thanks!</p>
<p>Actually, if I wanted a more isolated life, I would like to get a teaching job (or coaching or something) at Webb School in Bell Buckle, TN (about an hour out of Nashville in horse country) and live there.</p>
<p>One other thing to consider is, if it matters to you, financial aid. Rider is very generous, whereas Drew is absolutely not. My D1 was a similar profile to Rider and received a huge merit award. My D2 was several hundred points above Drew’s median and got zippo.</p>
<p>We did not have the same experience with Drew’s aid as zoosermom. Drew was by far not my son’s best package, but they did end up offering something in the middle of the pack. They start out with a pretty sticker price, so for this school to work for the middle or upper middle class, you need to get a lot of aid. I don’t recall the exact package, but I do recall that just before decision time my son was awarded an additional scholarship of 5,000 for community service and by then we had gotten my son’s financial aid package. They did NOT reduce any of the grant money after he got the 5,000 award. That 5,000 just help close the financial aid gap, as the financial aid package was not good. To give you some reference, this school would not have cost us any more than our instate public Us for freshman year.</p>
<p>Does anyone know anything about Rider’s honors program? It sounds good from the website, but has anyone had any firsthand experience with it?</p>
<p>Rider is not a state school so the funding cuts do not apply there. However, everything others have been saying about its academics, etc is true. </p>
<p><em>The exception</em> is if you are interested in the Westminster Choir College, which due to financial problems has joined with Rider. That is the Princeton Campus another referred to. If your career goal is to be a choir director, church organist, music teacher, etc, then this is one of the best places in the country, period. And, you get to live in Princeton near that univ (and go to games, concerts, lectures, etc that are held there), enjoy being near NYC, etc.</p>
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<p>All honors programs sound good on the websites.</p>
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<p>Oh, the funding cuts absolutely do apply! NJ’s private colleges also received funds from the state (though not as much as the public colleges). Last we heard (middle of 2010) from a NJ private college president, that funding was cut completely. The private college presidents were trying to get at least some of it restored, but we haven’t heard that they were successful.</p>