<p>professors? students? social life? food? all that good stuff...
i'm applying to tcnj in the fall and i was curious what its like to be a student here :)</p>
<p>TCNJ is great. All classes are small. The largest class I have had is about 48 students, broken down to 24 for lab- this is for all the general bio, chem, and physics classes that the majority of science/engineering majors are required to take. The rest of my classes were around 15-20 people (a heck of a lot better than the 300+ people in some of my friend’s classes at Rutgers IMO). All of my professors knew me by name . They were very helpful and very approachable. For the most part I liked them (there was one exception but even then it was not an extremely bad situation, just more an issue of personal taste lol). If you are interested in doing research in your field there are numerous oppurtunities. Because TCNJ focuses (almost) entirely on their undergraduates you get access to everything. </p>
<p>The students I have met are kind, driven, and passionate. There will be some exceptinos to this, but then every college has them 
There are always on campus events going on- free movies, bingo, cultural events (last year there was a Bollywood night, the Pan-Asian groups put on several shows throughout the year, Latin events, etc.). While there really isn’t anything within the immediate area of the campus that you could walk to, I never felt trapped or anything like that. If we didn’t want to go to anything on campus, my friends and I would order Chinese or Italian and sit in our rooms and watch movies or TV marathons. If we did feel like going out there is the free loop bus that goes to Quakerbridge Mall, the movie theatre, train station, nearby strip malls that have EVERYTHING- Starbucks, Verizon, restraunts, shopRite, Walmart, etc). Also there will be lots of bus trips. NYC, Philly, museums, broadway shows, skiing, the beach, etc. are all examples of trips that are fun. A lot of these are sometimes free or at a low cost. College Union Board (CUB) also brings lots of speakers and performers. At the end of each semester there is a concert. Last December I saw Motion City Soundtrack and Cartel. </p>
<p>The food is decent. It’s typical college food. They added a new salad bar and sandwich bar last year and this summer they are finishing the renovations. From what I understand, there’s going to be a lot more “made-to-order” food. We are getting a stir-fry station, mexican (quesadillas), the usual “homestyle” stuff, made to order omelettes, etc. They offer lots of options, but you will get tired of it after a while. The great thing is that there are other eateries on campus: T-Dubs (a smaller dining hall in the basement of Travers/Wolfe open at night that serves not as healthy stuff as the dining hall lol), the Rathskellar (aka the Rat) is restraunt-like and serves chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, etc., the food court in the student center, and the Library Cafe (Starbucks coffee =D). we have something called meal equivalency which allows you to purchase $6.25 worth of food from any place besides the dining hall without them deducting it from your points. </p>
<p>Hope that answers some of your questions lol if you want ot know anything more specific ask :)</p>
<p>@hazeleyes thank you soso much for your answer 
i was wondering if you knew anything about the education department? i know its a very popular major there, but i heard mixed things–that the students are horrible teachers (ofcourse very intelligent but not good teachers) and i’ve had teachers (now retired,however) that went there and were good teachers</p>
<p>I have a few friends in the education department and they seem to really love it. From what I understand it’s a lot of work because it’s almost as if you are a double major (i.e. someone who is going for secondary education biology has requirements for both the education half and the bio half). I also had a few teachers in high school who had gone to TCNJ and they were all very good teachers (I didn’t necessarily like them on a personal level but as teachers they were excellent lol). TCNJ used to be known as a “teachers college” so I’m sure it is still a quality program.</p>
<p>ooh i see! thanks for your help :)</p>
<p>All of those new places to eat on campus, where are they putting them?</p>
<p>I know Eikhoff (sp?) is getting it’s renovation finished up and I think T-Dubbs was new last year, are there other new places?</p>
<p>Nope that’s it (unless they are secretly building another one LOL). T-Dubs isn’t really “new” it was just renovated and renamed.</p>
<p>I just visited TCNJ after seeing UDel. Udel seemed amazing, like living in a vacation town with a vibrant main street right in the middle of the school. Can anyone give me hope that TCNJ is as fun? I may not be able to afford UDel, and want to have options, I thought TCNJ had a lot of advantages, but really hard to compare a very depressed suburb to a hopping Delaware town! Help</p>
<p>I transferred from Rutgers to TCNJ. I felt that TCNJ was very boring and there’s not much to do. Frankly, it’s about the size of a Rutgers parking lot. While I think Rutgers is a bit too big, there are tons to do.</p>
<p>Academically, TCNJ is much easier to make connections but it also lacks high level research. So your decision depends on what you’re personally looking for.</p>
<p>Hey I was just wondering how are the on campus activities at TCNJ? Is there always something going on or does the campus sometimes get boring? I have talked to a girl that goes there now and she said that she joined a soriety her sophmore year cause the campus started to become boring. I would never want to join a soriety, so is there alot of other things to get involved in other than greek life?</p>
<p>I’m not sure what the deal is with reddinosaur - BUT there is alot to do on the TCNJ campus - we really aren’t that small (6,000) students and the campus is certainly not as large as Rutgers (thank god) but it’s beautiful and spacious. I’m active on campus and never feel bored.</p>
<p>Im a junior in greek life on campus so I think I know a fair bit about the social life here. It’s not Rutgers, but then again if you wanted Rutgers, you’d be there and not here.</p>
<p>Do NOT be worried, there is always something to do, especially as a freshman student, people are going to be throwing parties all the time if that’s what you’re into its easy to make contacts to get into parties since its a small school, again if that’s what you’re into. Besides that they offer school trips to various locations and you can always chill outside on beautiful days, I would match TCNJ’s campus against Delaware’s anyday…I mean, have you even seen our lake in the Fall? People love to do tons of different things for fun here, im sure you’ll meet people that will share your interests!</p>
<p>If you have any questions I’d be happy to help :)</p>
<p>TCNJ is amazing. If you are a fun loving person you will love TCNJ and if you are a boring and miserable person of course you will hate it (and everywhere).</p>