<p>Jerseykid96, we did not get any email before the letter today.</p>
<p>ahh ok I gotchu, so i’ll probably find out way later because they haven’t even touched my app yet </p>
<p>@jerseykid96 D got the email as well…it was a follow up from the letter we received yesterday. I guess we’ll have to wait!</p>
<p>S got no letter or email but his PAWS account says he’s been accepted - not much other information. I suppose it will come in the mail. </p>
<p>Good morning all! DS was accepted yesterday! Disappointed, but not surprised, at no mention of a merit award. Based on what I’m seeing on the thread, if merit was awarded it came with the acceptance. Perhaps something will follow? Good luck to those still waiting!</p>
<p>Good Morning all, my son received acceptance letter yesterday as well as merit scholarship of 12k over 4 yrs. Even Rutgers offered more than that, was quite disappointed. Son has a weighted GPA of 5.3 and SATs of 2230. Is there a breakdown anywhere as to how the merit amount is calculated. Rutgers at least identifies their programs, even identifies minority scholarships as well (a qualification we do not possess). At the moment, looks like RU is our choice. I was also suprised there was no mention at all of Honors program…</p>
<p>jerseykid96: got the same email on Feb19th – heard nothing since</p>
<p>@njparent225, based on what I’m seeing sounds like fierce competition for merit from TCNJ!! Your DS has incredible stats and I’m sure some great options! Congrats! </p>
<p>FAST FACTS about The College of New Jersey’s In-State Merit Scholarship Program:</p>
<p>• There is no separate scholarship application for NJ residents.</p>
<p>• In 2012, over 40% of admitted students received merit aid.</p>
<p>• In 2012, TCNJ offered more than $30 million in freshman in-state merit scholarships.</p>
<p>• Award amounts typically range between $2,000 and $10,000 per year.</p>
<p>• Average SAT (math + reading) of in-state merit scholars = 1385</p>
<p>• Average class rank of in-state merit scholars = Top 6%</p>
<p>Thanks tpcrd66, we are beyond proud of his accomplishments… he is looking at pre-med, so we started at RU/tcnj to keep under grad costs down. UMDNJ has a solid Md program… most of his other choices were ivy/private, so there will be no merit forthcoming there. Options… yes there are options, but I have to admit, this is extremely frustrating to have numbers like these, and barely see any merit. We went into this process believing that he’d see some serious offers… Taking the ivy’s out of the equation, it is extremely discouraging when there are a number of other factors offering higher scholarships… than the merit… Rutgers has a 10 k scholarship… he more than qualified merit wise… was shut out because of other issues.</p>
<p>I understand your frustration! Our NJ schools are higher than most in-state…I’ve lost way too much sleep over the whole process. I just keep telling myself it will work out somehow…it has to! Good luck!</p>
<p>Hi guys! TCNJ accepted student here (very excited and relieved). I was notified yesterday on my PAWS account and received my folder in the mail today with all the other info. I applied for open option engineering and was accepted into the honors program with a $22k merit scholarship over 4 years. </p>
<p>S got acceptance package in the mail today - no mention of merit award. </p>
<p>NJparent225 - If your son is interested in keeping costs down and doesn’t mind going out of state, there are lots of good options for kids with his stats. At U of Alabama he would get full tuition and room and the percs of being in the honors college. My son who has lower numbers than your qualified for full tuition and a $2500 engineering stipend but had no interest in Alabama so he didn’t apply. There is a thread on CC that lists all of the schools that offer good guaranteed scholarships.</p>
<p>Thanks HockeyDad, good luck with your S. We looked at a few out of state, and realized that RU has a medical program that really makes the most sense financially and program wise. With his AP scores and the classes he will be able to score out on, in theory he could be in Med school while others are finishing their Jr year. The only thing left to consider would be the handful of privates he submitted… personally husband and I are on the fence about sending him to a school where the admission req’s are very high, vs sending him to one where they are not… and of course there is the $$$$ side to it all… As of yesterday, there is one additional slot available at TCNJ</p>
<p>TCNJ isn’t known for giving too much merit money. I think I was able to get around 8.5k per year while I was there (applied in 2009), but it might have changed since then. If you’re interested in med school, just go with the cheapest option, provided it still has a decent reputation (Rutgers is more than enough), get good grades, and kill the MCAT. Med school is expensive enough without having to worry about undergrad debt.</p>
<p>S wil have to decide between Rutgers and TCNJ. We are also waiting to hear from other places.</p>
<p>We really liked the TCNJ campus, staff seemed friendly etc. Manageable tution! And I have heard horror stories of the Rutgers bureacracy 
. </p>
<p>But - this is a big BUT, apparently TCNJ is not really what it claims to be. I heard son talking to neighbor’s neice who goes there - quite awful freshman experience for a bright girl (top of Dean’s list etc.) </p>
<p>"Intellectually not a mature or challenging place to be. Kids breeze through the programs with minimal effort not because the college is so selective!. (grade inflation???) Professors aren’t that great - friendlly but not great. My classes were taught by a high school teacher who moonlights there in the evening - he was just joking around and filling class time. This was for a hard science course! Lots of such low wage, temp teachers floating around. </p>
<p>Practically zero diversity (the other extreme of Rutgers); The wifi really, really sucks. </p>
<p>I have one great professor in mind to do my internship with - I hope to get it"</p>
<p>So I think S will go to Rutgers if we manage to keep him in state - DH thinks the exposure to a big place will do him good.</p>
<p>Having graduating from TCNJ a few years ago, I can honestly say I enjoyed my time there. Of course, different people prefer different environments so I recommend visiting and sitting in a few classes of your desired major before making your decision.</p>
<p>In response to bn2ba1, it’s unfortunate that your neighbor’s niece has not had a good experience, but i’ll share my own.</p>
<p>Whether a class is challenging/impossible or not depends a lot on the professor (orgo in my case), so as a student, it’s a real good idea to ask people who have already taken the class who are the “good” and “bad” professors. In my major (bio), plenty of people failed out of the intro science classes, and I found the subject material to be sufficiently challenging, although definitely not impossible, but then again, this most likely depends on professor and department to a certain extent (some majors are known for being less rigorous than others). I really liked all my professors in the bio dept; for others, it was a mixed bag.</p>
<p>In terms of diversity, yes the majority of students on campus are white. Of course, there are exceptions (the hard sciences have plenty of Asians and Indians) but for almost all other majors, you are generally right. Also in my experience, cliques tended to be divided into white/non-white.</p>
<p>I though the wifi was decent. I can’t remember ever having a problem with it, and this probably shouldn’t be a major factor in anyone’s decision. Good luck to your son.</p>
<p>Thank you for your persepective, Glacius. It sounds like you loved your college and that’s a great thing to hear when you are making a decision. I was planning on sending s to visit before even thinking of putting down deposit anywhere (just in case). </p>
<p>Since he didn’t apply for medical program I dont know if your good experience is typical there. The lack of racial diversity is worrying on how well he (he is a good kid but the sensitive type) is going to do.</p>
<p>But I did hear that students ask around about good professors but there is hardly any choice it seems. May be the good classes are just a few and get filled up very quickly . And apparently the good teachers keep leaving and the bad ones are the same ones teaching over and over & you get what you get. </p>
<p>Another thing bothered me after I talked to her again was the classes are not really that small at all and in her freshman classes there were routinely 45+ students in the room(Since my brother went to rutgers I have warned son about sitting in HUGE classes)</p>
<p>We were told while touring there that avarage class size is 22 or something. So this doesn’t make sense at all to us</p>
<p>Have you ever sat through a Bio or Chem lecture at Rutgers? 45+ is nothing. </p>
<p>Sorry I misread your post… Just warning you, some of the Fresh/Soph general science classes a HUGE! The downside is that you hope for a good Teacher’s assistant to help one day a week, and most have an extremely tough time speaking English… </p>
<p>where can i find my username for my PAWS account…?</p>