I am deciding between OSU and Rutgers Honors. I live in NJ, so I’m paying in-state tuition, and after scholarships, that amount has been sliced in half. OSU, on the other hand, has offered me no scholarship, but a place in the ACES (Advocates for Communities and Education Scholars) program. I am planning on studying either pre-med or economics (or both). OSU is a better school according to US News (#54 compared to Rutgers at #71), and it also offers more vibrant student life and a better campus. Does anyone have any suggestions as to which way I should go?
@pratikbanala As much as I love Ohio state, I have to say it’s not worth it for you to pay $43,000 without any scholarship, especially if you will need money to go to med or graduate school afterward. Seems like you have a great deal at Rutgers with the scholarship(s) offered to you. For pre-med, Rutgers (and most other schools) are fine. The pre-med courses are the same everywhere. The difference in ranking for undergraduate is not of much significance. Go to the school that is the least cost, as long as you are comfortable there.
Money talks here. There is nothing wrong with Rutgers, cousin was a graduate of Pharm D there and she had been around the country and no one had looked down her degree. And her husband, from the same school, was managing a lots of plants globally.
Don’t look at the USNews Ranking, go Rutgers.
I grew up in Ohio and went to OSU. In-state tuition (plus a scholarship) was an incredible bargain back then. It’s a pretty campus. That said, I wouldn’t choose it at full price over Rutgers (where I have a current sophomore). I do love the cohesive campus there over the broken up pieces of the NB campus, but everyone learns to manage. Rutgers is an excellent school. Rankings are not everything. They’re somewhat arbitrary at the numbers you’re comparing and tell only a piece of the story.
Rutgers gets killed by its yield since it does not play games like U Mich & it is the only real/ranked option for most NJ students, therefore it is a default choice for nearly every NJ student, whether it be a target or safety option.I cannot speak to pre-med but I have hired many Supply Chain students from RBS, Penn State and other state flagships. The Rutgers students are almost always the best prepared. Drilling down into the politics of academia and another reason the business school dropped in rankings, the former dean wanted to mask the poor performance of Rutgers-Newark ( 38% job placement per Poets & Quants vs 82% at NB) so he combined it with NB, the flagship, for reporting to US News/WR & others. Now that a new Dean has been hired, NB will jump 40-50 slots back to where it previously was ranked. What impact this will have on the overall ranking is unknown to me.