<p>pros and cons</p>
<p>My son and I toured Rowan in Spring of 2005 when he was just starting his college search. He wanted to focus on schools in NY and NJ, and Rowan was one that intrigued me after reading some of the guide books. Back when I attended HS in NJ -- way back in the 70s -- Rowan was known as Glassboro State and was primarily a teacher's college for kids from south Jersey. Living in north Jersey, I can't say I knew too many kids who attended Glassboro.</p>
<p>But it looks like they've had a HUGE infusion of money over the past decade (the Rowan family made a significant donation at one point, hence the name change) and they are doing some really neat things with their money. They've built a new facility for the Communications Dept., a Science building, rec center and lots of dorms. It's been considered a Best Buy for a few years.</p>
<p>Still, we toured it knowing that it was a safety for my son -- and because it was on the way to other schools we were touring in NY and northern NJ. </p>
<p>We arrived early so we grabbed a quick lunch at a nearby KFC. It was a pretty seedy area -- so seedy, that S wanted to ditch the tour. We were already there, so I insisted we go through with it.</p>
<p>Once we got on campus, S and I were very impressed! Of all the tours we did as part of his research, I have to say that our Rowan tour guides were the most enthusiastic about their school. Nice, down-to-earth kids who clearly had a lot on the ball. For a state school, it seemed much smaller and not at all congested. At the time, they were just finishing construction on new town house dorms that I would have died for when I was in college! They had opened a new student center and cafeteria that same week. S was wowed by the rec center (he's a kid who will definitely use the rec center at college) and the new commuications building (his expected major). The new science building looked impressive, but we didn't tour it. The library looked okay, but we weren't offered a tour of it (in fact, none of the tours we did included the library...what's up w/ that?).</p>
<p>We left Rowan that day with S saying he could definitely see himself there. We stopped for dinner in another part of Glassboro that was much nicer than where we had stopped for lunch! The school offered him a very generous merit scholarship (since we aren't NJ residents, that was significant), but in the end he decided to go elsewhere. The fact that Rowan isn't terribly well known outside of NJ played a part in that decision, I think. He did write a lovely note telling them how much he loved the school and how hard it was to decline their offer of admission. I'll admit that I had a hard time dropping that letter in the mail!</p>
<p>In the end, Rowan was his third choice --ahead quite a few more prestigious schools. This is definitely a case where the kid loved his safety!</p>
<p>The only thing I'd be wary about now are cuts in higher ed funding that NJ just announced. I think Rowan and TCNJ will weather the fiscal crisis much better than, say, Rutgers. Probably because they are smaller and better managed.</p>
<p>Rowan and Stockton are the local state schools for us.</p>
<p>Rowan's reputation has grown considerably in the last 10-15 years, since the Rowan family's donation. I think it was on the order of 100 million which is staggering for a smallish school.</p>
<p>Among other things, the donation helped establish a school of engineering that I understand is pretty good and fairly selective because of the price. There's now even grad engineering degrees possible. </p>
<p>Still TCNJ is more selective and better known at least in NJ. Rowan used to be hard NOT to get accepted into...that's changing too. Many of the kids I know at Rowan are education majors.</p>
<p>I should have something to say here because I've driven past/around/through this school thousands of times, literally. I would say about 70-80% of the kids that graduate my high school and actually go to a 4-year college end up at either Rowan or Stockton, and I certainly would not be surprised if like 90% of the kids that go there grew up 45 minutes away or less. I would also not be surprised if it was largely a commuter school...</p>
<p>I think you're probably going to run into a situation of, people outside of south Jersey haven't really heard of it and people in south Jersey just think "oh, Rowan, you want to be a high school teacher then?"...regardless of what the actual quality of education is there now (I don't honestly know). I think its reputation is going to be playing catch-up for a long time.</p>