<p>Anybody have any thoughts on TCNJ? I know it isn't the most reliable source but when I was searching through PR.com, I came across TCNJ. I read the 'Students Say' section and really liked what they had to say (not everything though--could deal without the massive preppy-ness, but whatev, I'll deal with it, because I sometimes dress preppy as well). I've heard that it helps incredibly if you are from out of the NY/NJ area--any truth to that?</p>
<p>With my experiences I have encountered that the school is heavily an in-state school with only about five percent of the student body coming from out of state [I would assume mostly NY, PA, and DE], though they are attempting to diversify the school. Though it's definitely one of the best public schools in the northeast IMO, though you will definitely see a major decline as of next year now that merit scholarships will not be given [thanks Corzine :p], so it probably wouldn't be a problem starting next year if you were an out of state applicant. Though the typical student in attendance is mostly as you describe it, generally preppy [A&F, AE, Gap, Express, J. Crew, etc.] and the school is comprised of mostly middle- to upper-middle class catholic caucasians.</p>
<p>we looked at tcnj a couple of years ago and also found it really interesting though it ended up not being right for my d. </p>
<p>one thing you should be sure to look in to is the effect that recent NJ budget cuts will have on the school -- $100 million was cut from the state's public colleges in the budget that was finally passed - though less than originally feared, this is still a big hit, and tuition increases will be high. here's a link to an article about the issue in general. <a href="http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MDYmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY5NjAyMjYmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2%5B/url%5D">http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MDYmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY5NjAyMjYmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2</a></p>
<p>so just be careful and ask a lot of questions about what the impact of this will be on TCNJ if you otherwise determine that it warrants your interest. most information you will get will be about how the school was before the budget cuts -- ask about how things will change, if at all. you don't say what year you are in, but even if you are a rising senior, you should have time before you would make a final decision to explore this issue.</p>
<p>have you posted on the forum for the school itself?</p>
<p>Good answers and advice thus far. The higher education situation in NJ has never been great and will certainly get worse because of the dithering and outright harm done by the NJ legislature. You need to ask TCNJ admissions office lots of questions. Aside from that, TCNJ is by all accounts a really fine school and great for state residents.</p>
<p>TCNJ is a good school for people who want a smaller school than Rutgers for a decent price.</p>
<p>It's actually not that preppy, about 90% of the students come from public schools last time I checked. I would think it's a lot better to be from the NJ area if you want to go there seeing as it has an extremely high percentage of people from NJ</p>
<p>Oh, NJ isn't that boring, well for the most part it is yeah, but how many other states can boast of having the best Six Flags with Kingda Ka, Superman, and Toro. But yeah, it's either Six Flags or the beach, other than that we pretty much have nothing to offer but Princeton, Rutgers, TCNJ, Stevens, and a few others, but yeah, but I know campus life is pretty awesome on TCNJ from what I hear [unless you're hardcore into politics and pretty much everyone could care less.]</p>