I am senior from NJ and have narrowed down my college choices to TCNJ and Villanova. In both I will be majoring in Bio on a pre-med track. I want to attend medical school after college, would one choice be better over the other? I heard that both have the same med school acceptance rate, around 70%.
What about socially? When I visited, I liked that both were in secluded suburbs (I’m not looking for a city school), but I really enjoyed the fact that Villanova was very close to Philly. Being close to a city might be better internship-wise. I feel that with TCNJ being 40 minutes away from a major city, there might not be a lot to do on weekends. I am also concerned about Greek life. I am not planning on joining, but will I feel pressured at either school to join?
Another thing I am wondering about is the environment and type of students at each school. When I visited both, I felt that both schools had a great sense of community, with Villanova slightly better than TCNJ. However, I felt that at TCNJ, the students seemed more down-to-earth. I guess it’s also worth mentioning that I am very academically motivated, and I want like-minded peers at whatever school I choose.
@NJgirl398 One thing you never mention is the cost difference.
Villanova cost of attendance (COA) is $66,000 a year
TCNJ cost of attendance (COA) is $33,000 a year (in state)
multiple that by 4 years (if you are lucky enough to graduate in 4 years, which a large percentage of students are not able to do)
264,000 vs 132,000 over 4 years
How are you and your family going to afford that? Yes, you can squeeze down some of the COA by not traveling, or spending as much on entertainment etc. but the fact is just tuition at 'nova is $49,430 and TCNJ is $15,794. You have to pay that and it isn’t reducible by living frugally.
All the other stuff you are worried about pales in comparison to the money issue. Who wants to wind up with 100K in loans at the end? If you want to go to medical school it is even more crucial to not have debt, because you WILL have to incur significant debt to go to medical school.
Did you apply for the honors program? That is definitely where you will find intense, like minded peers at TCNJ. You can hop a train five minutes from campus and get into Philly in an hour for $4. You can hop a train in Hamilton and be in NYC in an hour for about $6. There are shuttles you can use or Uber. See other threads in the TCNJ forum that I’ve commented on. I graduated from TCNJ and live in the area, it was a great experience, and not only because I came out of it with ZERO debt. I have friends who are doctors (both MD and PhD) who graduated with me from there. Totally possible.
They were my daughter’s last two schools too! She plans to major in secondary education, and felt that Villanova was not as known for education, and that the program was not as good as TCNJ. She was also accepted into the honors program at TCNJ, making that a plus. We are very middle class, and she felt more comfortable, at home with TCNJ vs. Villanova. As far as the financial aspects, with the generous financial aid given from Villanova, it was actually only $5,000 difference for the year. My fear, however was that since it was not scholarship,but need based, that could disappear in the following years, and we would have to make that tough decision whether to continue or transfer.
TCNJ is the clear choice. What if you don’t get the same aid year to year? What if you fail to pull the minimum gpa and you lose any merit aid? It’s a foolish risk to take when TCNJ is arguably the clearly better school academically. Unless the major you choose clearly has a superior program at Villanova over TCNJ, your choice is easy especially if you go on to grad school
I recently committed to Rowan for engineering over TCNJ and some other more expensive private schools. I agonized for awhile before making a decision. I had initially looked at Rowan as a safety before doing more research and learning that Rowan has one of the top ranked undergrad engineering programs in the country. Then my parents and I visited Rowan and were surprised to see the brand new dorms and engineering building and learned more about graduate outcomes---- and then compared Rowan to TCNJ, Rutgers, Lehigh and Stevens. After factoring in cost, Rowan came away the clear choice. None of the private schools were worth thousands in debt to attend and Rutgers campus and buses sucked. While TCNJ overall is the more selective school, its engineering program pales against Rowan, so my choice ultimately was easier. So with respect to your Villanova/TCNJ debate, if you’re majoring in bio, I say go for TCNJ. TCNJ is opening its new stem building in the fall and there is no clear advantage on a program to program comparison with Villanova. I would go to TCNJ over Villanova hands down. No one that I know in high school would view Villanova as superior to TCNJ, I think it’s the other way around now unless basketball is important to tou