<p>Anyone read the NJ Star-Ledger column (Braun) about Rutgers and why it is unloved by NJ residents? Braun says that NJ politicians, business and community leaders, i.e. the affluent or upper middle class, have no history and no allegiance to the public higher education system.</p>
<p>The same thing goes for New York. It seems at least, to me, that in the West,Midwest,and South, people have more love for public schools. In the Northeast, it seems most people regard public schools as a last option if you can't make it into a good private school.</p>
<p>Call it superficial, but Rutgers doesn't scream "public" school for some reason.</p>
<p>Perhaps, its due to the fact that it is actually such an old university (8th oldest) - old as some Ivies in fact and people just assume it's not a public institution (same goes with William & Mary to a certain extent).</p>
<p>Perhaps, it's just as simple as its name, for instance:</p>
<p>University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
University of Virginia</p>
<p>what do all of the above have in common that Rutgers doesn't? A: the lack of "University of" title... perhaps if Rutgers was named:</p>
<p>University of New Jersey</p>
<p>it might have had a different history... (just as long as they didn't name it University of New Jersey, Piscataway)</p>
<p>If you have ever been there you might not even ask the question. The rapid expansion of the 60's and 70's yielded a scattered hodge-podge of campuses around New Brunswick which itself is no peach. They are now undertaking remedial efforts to unify the school but the physical layout will be hard to overcome. Also some of the typical programs are not in NB like med, business and law schools.</p>
<p>But anything can be fixed with $$$ and they are going for it with the alums now.</p>
<p>Prestige, that is actually one of the arguments in the opinion piece; if Rutgers leadership had opposed the de-emphasis of state oversight a few years, the political environment (in the state legislature) and public opinion might have been more likely to have supported the re-organization plan that would have led to a new "University of New Jersey."</p>
<p>"The same thing goes for New York. It seems at least, to me, that in the West,Midwest,and South, people have more love for public schools. In the Northeast, it seems most people regard public schools as a last option if you can't make it into a good private school"</p>
<p>what about Penn State in the Northeast?</p>
<p>oops. Should have typed..."a few years ago.."</p>
<p>THe discredited governor Jim McGreevey proposed merging Rutgers, the public NJ Medical Schools and the NJIT into a 'Universitiy of New Jersey."</p>
<p>And Christie Whitman, the old tax-cutter herself, eliminated the NJ Board of Higher Education, which some feel actually helped further erode legislative support for Rutgers et al.</p>
<p>Lake Washington,</p>
<p>It's almost a day late and a dollar short.</p>
<p>I mean you don't overcome that brand weakness overnight... the UC schools, UVA, UMichigan, have had decades to build up brand strength. Rutgers is coming from a position of existing brand weakness already, even with a name change to "University of New Jersey" its gonna take a while. </p>
<p>But you gotta start somewhere I guess, look at The College of NJ for example, infinitely better name than Trenton State College.</p>
<p>"What about Penn State in the Northeast?"</p>
<p>Still, although it may be looked upon as good by above-average students, it isnt that amazing. When people start turning down UPenn for Penn State, I will accept that. Look at Georgia, for example. I know people who turned down MIT for Georgia Tech due to Georgia having some great scholarship benefeits, and just GA tech being a great school.</p>
<p>Rutgers wasn't always a public school. Back when it was founded during the time of the Ivy League schools, it was a private university. The school Duke would have never existed if rutgers said it was OK to change its name to Duke for the price of a large donation. Prideful Rugters declined. But when NJ said, hey we could use a state university, but we dont feel like founding one, lets take already prestious rutgers and give them a poop load of money, and they can keep their damn name. Rutgers was like ok. So everyone knows that as you let in more of the public your reputation goes down. Can you explain how a school like Umich, which has amazing programs in every feild is not a top 20 school? NJ is a rich state, which produces a large multitude of prestigous college bound seniors every year, in the private high schools, and the well funded public high schools. NJ does not fun its colleges as well as they fund thier High Schools. The super competitve senoir class that is from NJ realizes that Rutgers is "beneath them" espcially as of late, as thier admission standards have been going down. Rutgers still gives off the name value of a private school founded in the time of the ivys, but the residents of NJ know that it should be going down, as it is losing funding and losing high quality students. This explains why as opposed to most schools, Rutgers reputation gets better the FURTHER you get away from it. Rutgers wanted to be that hybrid public/private mix, but instead became a football/basketball driven school that is most years a cellar dweller.</p>
<p>Rutger's President's plan for the new RU.</p>
<p>The website below is the RU sports board where they have a group that discusses RU and its strengths and weaknesses rather honestly. I am not sure if you need to register to read the coments.</p>
<p>I grew up in New Jersey and had never met a Rutgers grad until we moved to the Southeast. For some reason there are tons of them down here!</p>
<p>The noble state of New Jersey and its fine residents have an edge, an attitude, and an accent that make them a little tough to take even when you run into a small pocket of them at colleges hundreds of miles from New Jersey. With the thousands of higher-education options in this country, to voluntarily decide to dive into the belly of the beast--Rutgers, with a MAJORITY of students being from the Garden State--is not an attractive prospect.</p>
<p>^^^ ok now I'm scared to go visit rutgers</p>
<p>tourguide obviously has no idea what he's talking about.</p>
<p>I don't have an accent. But the NJ edge--you bet.</p>
<p>Yeah, nobody thinks that he himself has an accent.</p>
<p>jags, you agreed with me on the same topic about 5 months ago. You even disdained your typical NJ "Guidos." And your comments would carry much more weight if you weren't FROM NJ. Lets hear it from all you folks from other states that just can't get ENOUGH of the New Jersey folks. Like you're at Wake Forest or Vandy or Penn State or U of Maryland, and on a Saturday afternoon you're thinking, "You know, this place is ok, but what it really needs is MORE people from New Jersey to keep telling us: everywhere is a dump except NYC, that we're all hicks, that lots of really rich people live in NJ, tales of the North Ward, and quotes from the Star-Ledger."</p>
<p>Just a side comment... I think Rutgers is a billion times better of a name than the "University of NJ."</p>
<p>I know very little about Rutgers. In NY we have reason to be concerned about the State U's. Funding has been marginal for many years. The student:faculty ratio at most of the SUNY's is about 20:1. Based on that measure alone, Rutgers appears pretty decent at 14:1.</p>
<p>University of New Jersey, Piscataway </p>
<p>Mascot: The Guidos (with the obligatory mullet haircut, members only jacket driving a TransAm blasting Bon Jovi)</p>
<p>what's not to love?</p>