Oh yeah, @TomSrOfBoston mentioned McGill.
Wonder why he didn’t apply there?
It seems well-esteemed in the Northeast and they have some degrees that still aren’t very expensive (even for Americans). It’s a giant public, but so is UW-Madison.
Time article- title says it all........"My son was accepted to a College he can't afford- now what?"
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d13/tables/dt13_309.10.asp lists the following:
Highest outward migration:
-29,237 New Jersey
-18,313 state unknown
-16,563 Illinois
-8,742 Maryland
-8,631 Texas
Highest inward migration:
24,107 Arizona
16,067 Pennsylvania
13,311 Iowa
11,090 West Virginia
9,199 Massachusetts
It is not clear that cost and financial aid are the main drivers of college student migration. Pennsylvania has the second highest inward migration, despite its state(-related) universities being expensive with poor financial aid, even for in-state students (and even more expensive for out-of-state students).
RU grad here. it is an excellent university. but i can understand why NJ residents would want to go elsewhere.
NJ is by far the most densely populated state and is heavily urbanized, including the area around RU. if you grew up in that environment and are tired of it, you might want a change. personally, i thought New Brunswick was an awful college town. many people might opt for a better campus / college town.
for many people, sports are a big part of the college experience and RU athletics are and always have been a joke. except for the brief window of the Schiano years, RU football is always bad. expect for the Final Four run in 1976, RU men’s hoops is bad.
I lived four years on College Ave and i had to bus to classes on Douglass, Cook, Busch, Livingston, and downtown to Mason Gross. having the various schools / campuses decentralized and spread out is very inconvenient.
so a similar university that offers a better college town, better sports, better weather, less urbanized environment, more centralized campus that is easier and more convenient to travel, might appeal to a lot of NJ residents.
if you don’t get into Rutgers, you might want to go to another State U, flagship or directional, that offers more nationwide name recognition.
school in NJ is expensive if you do not get FA or scholarships, so you might find a State U or LAC that is more affordable.
Thanks for the recent acknowledgements that it’s not just about “anywhere but Rutgers” haters… That said, I do think there’s a lot not to like about Rutgers that has nothing to do with snobbery. The high price and tendency to nickel and dime people with fees, poor maintenance of facilities (I know several parents who had to install their own locks on dorm rooms, for ex.), overcrowding and difficulty students have with accessing professors (long lines down the hallways of kids waiting and most of them never get a turn) and getting into classes, the high crime (muggings, stabbings, shootings) near College Ave., heavy duty party and drug scene and rape culture, the fact that some programs are housed at the Camden or Newark campuses which means the student loses the benefit of a flagship atmosphere with the football games etc…, and so on.
COA for In-State is $25K / yr. that really is not that much more than many State U’s charge for In-State, but still – if you don’t get any FA, that’s $100K for a 4-year degree. that’s 10x what i paid in the 80s. that would make me look to other states for affordable options.
and sort of off-topic, in the 80s they began playing their football games at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. what a terrible decision. we used to just take a campus bus to the 20,000-seat football stadium. going to a college football game on campus is fun even if your team is bad. driving an hour to see your bad college football team in an NFL stadium? why bother? it’s a completely different atmosphere that robs you of the unique experience of attending a college football game.
Maybe the author’s son should consider a gap year and a new application strategy for next year. The family is clearly not wild about Rutgers. They seemed to have been left with Rutgers at instate price or a bunch of other schools that ended up between $46 and 51, 000 dollars. The schools felt they could pay that, the author clearly thought they could not . They did not seem to have targeted any schools (beyond their instate flagship) that were actually within their budget . They may not have even communicated a clear budget/limit to their son before even going into this. The whole application strategy they seem to have come up with really didn’t seem to be very well thought out. It is especially baffling, given the background of the parents.
Most students on the college-bound path probably do not find a year working at a typical high school graduate job to be a particularly appealing prospect. Seems like gap years for students on the college-bound path mostly make sense for those who have something worthwhile to do during that year (perhaps work or volunteering in something related to future academic or professional goals), or if they need to earn some money first to pay for school, rather than as emergency options in case of a shut-out, financial shut-out, or not liking the safety college.
Rutgers costs $31,000 per year if you need to live on campus, which is not cheap by any means.
My kids went instate public in NY (SUNY is about $20,000/yr for room board and tuition); one of the positives was that the kids they hung out with were extremely aware of the cost of their education and inclined to do well in classes and obtain local internships.
I agree it would not be the best reason for a gap year. But the mother already is planting a seed that he could potentially want to transfer. If so, merit could be even more difficult to find at other schools. And they haven’t identified any other instate schools that they like either. I do wish the son the best and hope both mother and son will be able to feel more positive about Rutgers . She seems to think it’s filled with a bunch of “meatheads.” Not a good or very respectful way to start off . But, hopefully, things will turn around.
@ucbalumnus I find the figure for inward migration to Massachusetts unbelievably low.
All of the listed issues with Rutger are a part of the reason why TCNJ has become so popular. Similar level of academics, but a compact campus campus, with more usability, and very good students (no athletics to speak of, though.)
Rutgers tuition , room and board is 26, 184. (14,130 of it tuition). It bumps up when they add on personal expenses (3750), etc. that gets it up to about $31,000. UVa tuition is 14,476. It bumps up to 28, 856 with all the added expenses. Tuition is a little higher at UVa but Rutgers charges a couple of thousand more for Room and board and estimates more money for “personal expenses” which can be variable- 3750 vs. 2340. College is definitely not cheap these days, that’s for sure. SUNY Binghamton says $23, 167 for tuition, room and board, and fees. Personal expenses, transportation , etc. would bump the estimated cost up further. Many schools charge extra for certain programs as well, particularly engineering, but also sometimes commerce, nursing,etc.
Re #150
Should have specified that the numbers in #141 are net student migration numbers. Massachusetts has both high inward and outward migration, netting to the fifth highest net inward migration.
When I was a student at the University of Delaware in the 1980’s, we used to call it, “The University of New Jersey at Delaware.” 
The decentralized campus is a huge drawback. My daughter wanted to remain instate to study nursing and Rutgers only offers nursing on the Camden campus. Four years of living in Camden was a pretty unattractive option, so she opted to study nursing at our local county college. Saved a boatload of money and still ended up with a plum nuring job at the end of her time studying.
Two of my other children found that commuting to local private colleges in NJ where they were given scholarships (so that the tuition was more affordable - not more than Rutgers tuition) was a more attractive option.
Youngest is at a Service Academy, so he had to go out of state for that.
With my husband and I RU grads, we had thought that all of our kids would go to RU, but in the end, there were better options for them elsewhere. So no RU bumper sticker for our cars.
Hey, @kac425 - I get it - my husband left Jersey decades ago. But he didn’t engage in magical thinking to do it.
For TCNJ, it really depends on the major and what the kid wants to study. The engineering program is pretty limited. and RU has many more majors. Plus TCNJ limits the number of admits to certain majors (like biology). Rowan is also gaining popularity as an engineering school, especially with the influx of money from Rowan himself.
^^^Right or wrong, there are parents who choose not to discuss their personal finances with the kids’ guidance counselors. In this case it is too bad finances were not part of the equation in terms of where to apply – applying to colleges that offer merit aid may have given the student additional viable choices in the end.
Here’s another RU issue, not always recognizing good students. Now, this was almost 15 years ago, so it’s probably an aberration, but–my D was invited to the Honors Programs of BU, UDel, and UMich, but not Rutgers. (NM, 4.0 UW, Bloustein Scholar, through the roof test scores, etc etc). Way to dis the home team!
OTOH, her husband, met years later, graduated from RU and loved it. I have nothing against it as a school, but they certainly dropped the ball for her.