<p>I really need to know how good of a school Rutgers is. I guess living in NJ it feels like people understimate it a little bit. I got accepted and am now considering it as my first option. Is it competitive to get in? Are there ways to grow as an educated individual? Help!!</p>
<p>There was a previous thread about how Rutgers is more well respected outside of NJ than in. Rutgers has an excellent reputation as a research University especially in engineering and the sciences. The Pharmacy school is also highly regarded and the most difficult of the schools to get in to.</p>
<p>There are definitely ways to grow as an individual. As a parent, I was most impressed by the research opportunities available to undergraduates. </p>
<p>As far as competitive, it is definitely less difficult to get in to than, say, Princeton but more difficult than many others. You can go on the website and see what percentage of applicants get in and what the average GPAs and SATs/ACTs are for admitted students.</p>
<p>I really don’t think you could go wrong with Rutgers. Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>Rutgers is an outstanding flagship public university and it has a number of very highly regarded departments especially in the traditional arts and sciences. Nationally, it is probably a notch below Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, UVA, and UNC, but certainly in the next tier. The recent addition of a medical school and – believe it or not – its recent inclusion in the Big Ten will probably further increase its stature nationally. </p>
<p>Nationally, I find that the Rutgers name has a considerable cachet, and I have always found that having a Rutgers degree has personally been an asset in my career (I have a BS and MS in Industrial Engineering from RU). As for the reputation in the within state of NJ, we’re kind of a self-loathing bunch of curmudgeons [I’m a lifelong Jersey resident, so I’m allowed to say that], so I wouldn’t take the instate reputation of Rutgers terribly seriously.</p>
<p>That said, like any college, it is not a school for everyone. If you are motivated and can seek out opportunities on your own (campus leadership, research, internships and coops, study abroad, take advantage of the assets in the NY/Philly corridor), you can get a world class education that will give you access to any graduate school or employer you seek. But, unless you’re in one of their Honors programs, these opportunities will not be served up to you – you will have to seek them out.</p>
<p>If you would like to have more personal attention and a faculty that is truly dedicated to undergraduate teaching, a smaller more compact campus, an urban environment, or a fully integrated-coop program, a uniformly motivated and hardworking student body [it is a public university, so it attracts everyone from slacker to genius], or a football team that doesn’t curl up into the fetal position when presented an opportunity to will a championship [sorry, still a little testy after watching the Russell Athletic Bowl yesterday], then probably Rutgers is not a great fit.</p>
<p>Simply put, you can get an exceptional education at Rutgers, or a very mediocre one. It’s up to you – and the effort you make both in your classes and in building your network while you’re there.</p>
<p>I highly appreciate both comments. Thank you for taking your time to answer my concerns. I have always believed that is up to each person to move on and succeed or stay with the rest. Knowing that Rutgers does have different opportunities is a relief and I will probably start there next fall.</p>
<p>Once again, thank you!</p>
<p>Best wishes (and happy New Year), iheartmath26. Do make sure you visit the campus of RU and some of your other choices. One nice feature of Rutgers is the multi-campus footprint which provides a substantially different feel, depending on your campus of residence. That seems to be a major plus for some (my son), and a huge negative for others.</p>
<p>My son, who has applied to Rutgers and 12 other colleges, is facing the same kind of choice. These colleges include other AAU research-intensive public universities (Minnesota, tOSU, Stony Brook), a research-focused private university (Case), public universities focused on undergraduate teaching (TCNJ, UMBC), co-op schools (Drexel, RIT, Kettering), a tech-focused schools (NJIT), and Catholic universities with a strong liberal arts core (Loyola MD, CUA). Currently Rutgers is his lead choice (half of his wardrobe is scarlet and has a block R), but only by a slight margin. Frankly, he says he could see himself happy at any of these, but for very different reasons. </p>
<p>It will be interesting to see how this works out for him. It’s ultimately going to come down to this subjective, difficult to quantify, right-brainy thing called FIT.</p>
<p>mtown is right and I agree with everything he/she mentioned in her post. My son applied to a lot of the schools mentioned and decided on Rutgers Business School. His choice came down to location to the city for internship opportunities, distance to home and reputation outside of NJ. I also agree that you should visit all the schools you get accepted to so you get a feel of where you would fit best. Rutgers is huge and many people get intimidated by the size of it so you should visit before you make up your mind.</p>