I am considering studying Physics/Engineering Physics but right now I can’t decide between the three colleges. I already applied to Rutgers and Stevens, but I can’t decide which one should I go for if I get in. Any advice ?
Cost constraints? Net price calculator results?
By all means determine your cost constraints and finances and check out the net price calculator results for both schools. Rutgers, as all of New Jersey’s public colleges, is not particularly inexpensive. The majority of Stevens students receive merit and need based financial aid and find that they can attend for approximately the cost of attending a public university. Cost aside, from an academic and job placement standpoint Stevens is significantly stronger than Rutgers in engineering and physics in general. There is significant government and industry sponsored research taking place at Stevens in physics, particularly in the areas of quantum devices (a major research program is to develop room temperature quantum semiconductors, which will be a breakthrough in the field), communications, computation, and quantum information science. Undergraduates are involved in this research as well as graduate students and is really a unique opportunity.
If you go the engineering route, Rutgers has no ABET accredited engineering physics programs. They have an applied science program in the engineering school, but it is not ABET accredited as an engineering degree. Stevens has an ABET accredited engineering physics program specializing in optical engineering. There are also programs in nanotechnology, nanophotonics, and solid state physics which can be taken in the electrical, mechanical, and other engineering departments but can include a substantial engineering physics component.
https://www.stevens.edu/schaefer-school-engineering-science/departments/physics
I would recommend both Stevens and Rutgers over NJIT if you are interested in physics. NJIT’s physics department appears to be mostly a service department (giving the prerequisite foundational physics courses to engineering and science majors as opposed to high level research as is the case in the former two institutions). Their programs are advertised as applied physics, if you are interested more in theoretical physics Stevens or Rutgers have more in this area. Their physics offerings are in collaboration with Rutgers-Newark, which has more resources in the field and has a true standalone physics department.
I question that statement. US News ranks Engineering Programs in NJ as follow:
12 Princeton
49 Rutgers NB
75 Stevens
93 NJIT
USNWR is a joke, seriously. What do you think USNWR’s business is - is it to provide objective educational advice to prospective college students or is it to sell magazines and advertising? I posit that their business is to sell magazines and advertising, and their college rankings is a great marketing tool towards that end.
Apparently, industry puts a higher value on Stevens graduates, as judged by the salary and ROI ranking of Bloomberg Business Week/Payscale’s survey “What’s Your College Degree Worth, 2018”. USNWR’s ranking is based primarily upon name recognition and anecdotal opinions of college administrators. The actual proof of the pudding in my opinion is the career progression of the students once they graduate, in this realm Stevens is significantly more highly represented - even higher than Princeton by the way:
https://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/bachelors
In the group of engineering schools, Stevens graduates come in seventh in the US in terms of salary:
https://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/best-schools-by-type/bachelors/engineering-schools
I would be the last person to suggest the salary and money should be the sole criteria for choosing where to go to school, however, these are objective hard data whereas USNWR’s ranking is highly subjective. I wouldn’t put too much credence into it.
Is a Princeton engineering graduate 4.1 times (49/12) as “good” as a Rutgers graduate? Is a Rutgers graduate 1.5 times as good as a Stevens graduate? Is a Princeton graduate 7.75 times as good as one from NJIT? I worked with an MIT graduate who was ineffective and a Rutgers graduate who was a stellar performer for example. I’ve worked with many stellar Stevens graduates as well. These numbers really are meaningless, seriously.
There are many college administrators - even some from those ranked highly on USNWR’s list - who believe that this type of ranking does a disservice to potential college applicants. In my career I have worked with great and not so great people who attended both well known and not so well known colleges. The person is the key, not the school they attend.
- See where you get in
- See which schools are affordable
- Revisit the affordable options during accepted student day and then decide.
Second Happy1. That is good advice in any case.
thank you! you gave a very good insight to it, hope I make the best choice 