<p>You can certainly promote Rutgers without trying to do it at TCNJ's expense. Methinks thou dost protest too much.</p>
<p>To my knowledge, no one has ever intimated that TCNJ was a graduate-level institution. What has been said is that it provides a first-rate undergraduate education. TCNJ is more akin to an LAC, despite being a public university. In this thread itself, distinctions were made between the two colleges.</p>
<p>Students that choose TCNJ are often seeking a more intimate experience. With an undergraduate population of 6000, it is 1/4 the size of Rutgers. A very high percentage of students at TCNJ will experience classes of less than 20 students. Whereas at Rutgers, as is true of many large public institutions, a signficant percentage of classes will contain 50+ students, usually for introductory classes. And often, these classes are taught or assisted by TA's.</p>
<p>TCNJ is a very attractive, self-contained 290-acre campus, with a mix of older and newer Georgian Colonial buildings. 250M has been pumped into the infrastructure over the past 15 years and it shows. This is not the "Trenton State" that your mom attended. Rutgers is a larger, much more widespread campus. In fact, there are five separate and some may say, disparate campuses that form the college community. A shuttle bus is required to traverse the campus, even to attend dinner in most cases. Rutgers is also a diverse and vibrant community and has some very attractive and historic buildings. Students will often make their choice based on intimacy versus the bustle of large university life.</p>
<p>Let's not even bring up New Brunswick. If Newark and Camden are high risk cities, New Brunswick is medium risk +. The student comments alone can give you all the information you need to make a decision about New Brunswick.</p>
<p>You cannot take away the fact that TCNJ is rated "Most Competitive", one of 75 institutions with that categorization. The only other school in New Jersey with that classification is Princeton. TCNJ can be proud of that but certainly has much more room for advancement. William & Mary is a model that TCNJ would like to follow. Not coincidentally, W&M is often cited as one of the public Ivies. TCNJ aspires to that level but is not there yet.</p>
<p>And for those who state that TCNJ simply manipulated their application pool the past few years to raise their selectivity, that is being quite disingenuous. There is a significant and increasing population of competitive, high-achieving students entering the college annually. Most are in the top 10% of competitive NJ high schools with commensurately high SAT results. Highly motivated students require challenges. If TCNJ was a cakewalk, I guarantee you that the retention rate would reflect an exodus from the campus, yet the retention rate is 95%. Additionally, the Princeton Review rated TCNJ students as the "6th Happiest" in the country. There might be something to that retention rate.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that Rutgers and TCNJ offer students distinct college experiences. Both provide great educations at a reasonable cost and are situated in locations convenient to major metropolitan areas.</p>