Indeed. Us outsiders are just critical of the ‘anywhere but Rutgers’ mentality of the instate residents, of which the author is one, that seems to permeate cc.
Time article- title says it all........"My son was accepted to a College he can't afford- now what?"
New Jerseyans who put down New Jersey are the worst! I love my state and wouldn’t ever consider living any where else! 
The mother needs to get herself a Rutgers sticker and proudly put it on her car. And stop feeling sorry for herself. She knew Wisconsin was going to be substantially more than the Rutgers $26,000 sticker price she mentions. She says other schools gave them a similar response as Wisconsin- 46,000 to 51,000 for her son to attend their schools. I hope her son is getting excited about Rutgers and has a great time there.
Funny, my Rutgers grad friend from Harvard Law is married to our classmate who is a Louisiana Tech grad. And he loved Rutgers.
New Jersey – marketing tip, you just need more palm trees. Kids here in Hawaii desperately don’t want to go to their flagship either, but you never hear about it! Maybe it’s because if you whine about having to stay in Hawaii, the rest of the country wants to pelt you with lava rocks.
University of Hawaii vs. Rutgers:
Acceptance Rate: 78.8% vs. 60.5%, SAT Range: 1450-1760 vs. 1630-2000, Top 25% of HS Graduating Class: 60% vs. 74%, 6 Year Graduation Rate: 56% vs. 79%, Salary Post-Graduation: $41,000 vs. $50,000
Rankings: US News - 161 vs. 72, ARWU - 151 vs. 64, Forbes 430 vs. 146.
But the one thing we can hang our grass skirt on… Average Winter Temperate: 74 vs. 33
So, New Jersey, stay home and save those plum OOS spots for good-looking surfer kids from Hawaii – they need them more!! 
My son did not like Rutgers but loved that he graduated with zero student loans. He never had Rutgers sticker on his car even though they helped him find internships and the first job.
He had a dream school - all he wanted was to study economics at the University of Chicago. But UChicago deferred and then rejected him and he said that he did not care about any other college and would go where it would be cheaper. After he started his second job he called me to tell that he sits next to the economics major graduate from UChicago. I guess it was a closure for him. I did have a Rutgers sticker on my car. At that point I actually removed it.
Talking about stickers. Rutgers logo is plain proletarian. Rutgers is 240 years old. It could have a logo with lions, swords, fleurs-de-lys, scrolls and other good stuff. Applications would go through the roof.
You talkin’ to me??
ETA: never mind; apparently the hosting site can be previewed but is replaced with asterisks if you try to post it. It was a picture of Rutgers, Yale, Skidmore stickers in the rear window of my new Tesla.
nobody is bashing NJ–i was answering the question as to why kids leave in droves and have little desire to go to rutgers.
while there are a myriad of reasons, the majority of brain drain stems from the high costs of schools here. its a perpetual problem in the state. most of the articles cite space, but i’m pretty convinced the main reason is flat out money. kids are lured away with better packages and better college “experiences” that other places have to offer.
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/campus_inq/Report-New-Jerseys-brain-drain-persists.html
That wasn’t you, @kac425 , but was my main impetus. However you posted this:
While that quote doesn’t include the word “sucks”, it does seem like a shot at an entire state. I understand it might not have been your intent, but that is how it read to me. And for the record, I was trying to respond and point that out with good-nature, forgive me if I failed. I was not educated in NJ.
i must be speaking swahili. i give up. i thought i was pretty thorough in my explanations, i guess what you read was my jersey accent coming through, rather than my intent.
but let me ask this…
why werent YOU educated in NJ? is it just a coincidence or did you get better merit and opportunities elsewhere?
just curious and all that.
Actually Rutgers is 250 years old this year, which is why the president is speaking at commencement.
Because I moved away when I was nine and didn’t move back until I was 34.
Regarding the migration issues cited in the article above in #128. . The historical tables actually show that NJ kids have been leaving for other states for college for years so I doubt it is just about money. Many flagships have gone up in price but kids do not seem to be leaving in “droves” the way they seem to be in New Jersey. Sure, lots of kids are looking for merit aid, or a better financial package and many kids are leaving their states, but most states don’t seem to be having kids leaving at the numbers that New Jersey does. In fall 2012 , New Jersey had 30,878 students leave the state, and 4201 come into the state for college. I randomly picked another year and found that in fall 2004, NJ had 25,259 go OOS, and 3,072 come in to NJ for college.
Most other states do not have this high a level of migration going on.
Interesting migration numbers. Looking at the net flow of students, you’d think Arizona had the best schools in the country. But maybe it’s weather + reasonable costs? From what I’m reading here, one difference is that merit scholarships to in-state students in AZ are, comparatively speaking, very good. Top students easily get near-full tuition to the state schools.
Yes, I noticed the Arizona numbers too. That really jumped out.
So you think this phenomenon is due to Jersey folks simply being ignorant or unappreciative of the wonderful benefits of Rutgers, or some silly snobbery? I’m sorry, but there has to be more going on. NJ is a region with a highly-educated population, so it’s not reasonable to presume 30,000 people are all ungrateful fools.
Well, for one, the state schools are pretty full, so where the heck would those 30,000 people go? Part of the problem is, we simply don’t have the room. Almost all the students in state schools are from New Jersey, so it’s not like they’re not attracting in-state students. They’re honestly full of them (out of my 4 classes this semester, I believe I have one OOS student.) So it’s partly a lack of seats issue.
Draw a three hour drive time circle around New Jersey. I’m willing to bet there are more seats in classrooms outside of New Jersey than inside. You probably have more seats in top 50 and top 100 schools outside New Jersey than inside. If you live in New Jersey, it is not a big deal to go to New York or Pennsylvania. The imbalance is less a comment about New Jersey and more a comment about supply and demand.
I doubted the high migration numbers were all or mostly about the money . Thanks for the added insights from those of you in New Jersey