<p>I have heard that Seton Hall was in a bad neighborood with lots of crime </p>
<p>Anyone know if this is true?</p>
<p>No it is not quite true. Serton Hall is in South Orange, which is an affluent suburb. It is however on the eastern edge of South Orange and therefore very close to the Newark border. That part of Newark is not a good area, so if you go east from campus the neighborhood does go downhill pretty fast. In other directions though Seton Hall is surrounded by quite attractive and quite safe neighborhods. You need to be careful and sensible, just as you would be at other urban schools such as Trinity (Hartford) or even Columbia.</p>
<p>I definately would not call South Orange an "affluent" area... it's not horrible, but I wouldn't want to live there. Newark is very ghetto, I wouldn't want to even walk around there.</p>
<p>I have a friend who lives about four blocks from Seton Hall. Her neighborhood (in South Orange) is nice, but yes, it's on the edge of Newark. I get the impression you're trapped on campus--it's not like other campuses where even if the town-gown relationship isn't great, you can still walk around, go to stores, eat at restaurants. Things get pretty tough (and I went to Rutgers New Brunswick back when New Brunswick was politely called "gritty") about four or eight blocks in the other direction.</p>
<p>It's definitely a place you should visit before applying to see if its strengths overcome its weaknesses.</p>
<p>sapphire 07 you must have extraordinarily high standards of affluence; there are several neighborhoods in South Orange taht look very much like Scarsdale, Winnetka, and Summit. You may hvae experienced a very small part near the Newark or Irvington line, but I assure yu you sound either very snobby or very ignorant.</p>
<p>All I can say in response to some of he the opinions in this thread are "what rot" and "nonsense." True, Seton Hall is situated at South Orange's eastern border, fronting Newark. That section is problematic for a young person who doesn't keep their wits about them. However, in the main and just a short walking distance away from campus (literally across the streeet as well as a few blocks away in downtown), South Orange is quite upscale. And yes, there is much affluence.</p>
<p>Not the most ideal of town-gown situations because not a lot of bars or restaurants and no nearby movie theater. But the commuter train to NYC is less than 10 blocks away through the affluent downtown. And there is a small collection of nice shops, including the latest overpriced indulgence, Stone Cold Ice Cream.</p>
<p>LW, it is Cold Stone Creamery, but your thoughts are in the right place:)</p>
<p>Sorry, I didn't mean to seem snobby. I may be a bit ignorant as to what some people feel is affluence? but I feel like areas such as Madison, where Drew University is located, are much more likely to be considered "affluent". South Orange used to be pretty nice, but most people I know feel that it has been going downhill for a while. I would not feel comfortable walking around the town by myself.</p>
<p>Sounds more racist than snobby to me now that you clarify. Whenever people talk about how South Orange has changed they mean it has a larger minority population than the Morris County suburbs. That is true. Some of those "scary" nonwhite people are very affluent, very well educated, and live in houses a lot nicer than almost anything in Madison. And that is not even to mention the non-minority (that is, white, and some cases Jewish) population, about which the same could be said. Yes, South Orange is near Newark adn ethnically diverse. No, that does not make it less "nice" than the rather white-bread Madison.</p>
<p>Well... okay... I'm not racist at all, probably the opposite, but I'm just being honest in saying that I would feel uncomfortable walking around South Orange by myself. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who would be uncomfortable walking around Madison, and I'm just using that town as an example.</p>
<p>There is a nice downtown section in South Orange, with a nice park. As I said, my friend's neighborhood near Seton Hall has many beautiful homes and tree-lined streets, and the houses are quite expensive now. But her house has been burglarized twice and she has been threatened several times as she walked down the street in her own neighborhood. A couple of times men followed her home and tried to push in her front door behind her; she ended up running to her neighbor's house for help. </p>
<p>Two weeks ago, her front doorbell rang. She went to the door and opened it (very dumb, she admitted) and three police cars were stopped in the street and a bunch of policemen came running up her front walk to handcuff the guy who had rung her bell. </p>
<p>I have another friend who lives farther from Seton Hall, still in South Orange, and her neighborhood is much fancier. I don't think she's got problems like the friend near Seton Hall does. </p>
<p>So although yes, South Orange looks very gentrified, and parts of it are very gentrified, you still have to be careful in the area around Seton Hall at least. It's not the place for a kid who's not streetwise or able to learn to be streetwise quickly.</p>
<p>South Orange is a very nice town in most of its parts. The nicest parts of the town are on "the hill"(Referred to by Zach Braff in Garden State) but Seton Hall is not on "the hill"</p>
<p>The campus is pretty enclosed and if you were to leave the campus there is no reason to head down the road towards Newark because there is nothing there for college kids.</p>
<p>Seton Hall is not a school that dominates the town. In fact, if you didn't know it was there you probably wouldn't know South Orange has a college. </p>
<p>Personally I do not think it is a real college town. Not much for 18-22 to do off campus. The bars around are too strict on Id's and its not really the type of place to go to a house party off campus.</p>
<p>Saphire07, I did not think you sounded snobby or racist in your posts. I feel very comfortable walking around Drew U. , but certainly not around Seton Hall. Btw, I was parked outside Convent Station Post Office (near Madison) for 1 hour, and over 25% of the customers were nonwhite. :)</p>
<p>"Garden State" was an absolutely horrid movie. I kept waiting for a point. Now back to the thread; Sapphire, I think you should apply for admission to these select schools of distinction, saving yourself the terror of urban infernos like South Orange;</p>
<p>Boise State University
U of Wisconsin-Green Bay
Brigham Young University
Bob Jones University.</p>
<p>SMILE.</p>
<p>thanks for the suggestions, i'll look into them.</p>