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<p>No, I think “anywhere but Rutgers” is the more accurate view. In enormous numbers, New Jersey kids of all ability levels will go just about anywhere to avoid going to Rutgers. </p>
<p>In the Fall of 2010, 234 New Jerseyans enrolled as freshmen at the University of Michigan; 80 enrolled at UVA; 257 at VaTech; 69 at William & Mary; 335 at James Madison U (VA); 70 at George Mason; 25 at Old Dominion; 21 at Mary Washington; 50 at UNC Chapel Hill; 24 at NC State; 74 at East Carolina; 27 at UNC Charlotte; 21 at UNC Greensboro; 33 at UNC Wilmington; 576 at UDelaware; 393 at U Maryland; 386 at West Virginia; 792 at Penn State; 188 at Pitt; 404 at Temple; 52 at Indiana U of Pennsylvania; 269 at West Chester U of Pennsylvania; 239 at Bloomsburg U of Pennsylvania; 225 at Kutztown U of Pennsylvania; 33 at Shippensburg U of Pennsylvania; 140 at UConn; 237 at UMass-Amherst; 149 at U Vermont; 32 at UNH; 145 at SUNY Binghamton; 43 at SUNY Buffalo; 64 at SUNY Stony Brook; 60 at Ohio State; 47 at Miami U (OH); 24 at Ohio U; 40 at Michigan State; 70 at Purdue; 79 at Indiana; 37 at Illinois; 59 at Wisconsin; 85 at Clemson; 128 at the University of South Carolina; 43 at Georgia Tech; 46 at Alabama; 20 at Auburn; 26 at Florida State; 33 at U Central Florida; 25 at U South Florida; 28 at Texas; 16 at UCLA; 33 at UC Berkeley; 93 at Colorado. Those are just jaw-dropping numbers.</p>
<p>At that’s just the publics. Another 1,265 New Jerseyans enrolled as freshmen at Ivy League schools (well, why not?). But on top of that, 67 went out-of-region to enroll at Chicago; 74 at Northwestern, 85 at Notre Dame; 26 at Case Western; 23 at U Dayton; 73 at WUSTL; 92 at Duke, 54 at Vanderbilt; 85 at Emory; 37 at Stanford; 46 at USC; 24 at Rice; 57 at Wake Forest; 94 at Tulane. In-region, New Jersey was the second-largest source of freshmen (after New York) at Johns Hopkins (158), Georgetown (149), and George Washington (298), and third-largest (after PA & NY) at Carnegie Mellon (127). New Jersey was the largest source of freshmen at Villanova (347), Lafayette (183), Lehigh (271), and American (198), and the second-largest (after MD) at Catholic University (152). New Jersey was the third-largest source of students (after NC & MA) at Elon (110), and (after FL and NY) at Miami U (152), and (after MA & NY) at Boston U (419), Boston College (254), and Northeastern (237). Another 102 New Jerseyans enrolled as freshmen at Providence; 296 at Fordham; 237 at St. John’s (NY); 607 at NYU; 100 at RPI; 57 at U Rochester; 126 at RIT; 394 at Syracuse; 611 at Drexel; 43 at Duquesne; 389 at St. Joeph’s ¶; 230 at La Salle; 272 at Quinnipiac; 156 at University of New Haven; 144 at Fairfield U; 238 at Pace; 103 at High Point U. Not surprisingly, hundreds more New Jerseyans attend LACs, both in-region (e.g., 143 at Bucknell, 125 at Gettysburg, 101 at Franklin & Marshall, 87 at Ursinus, 197 at Ithaca College, 108 at Manhattan, 191 at Marist, 36 at Williams, 39 at Bowdoin, 29 each at Swat and Middlebury, 40 at Wesleyan, 52 at Vassar, 48 at Hamilton, 93 at Colgate) and out-of-region (48 at Oberlin, 25 at Kenyon, 88 at U Richmond, 27 at Washington & Lee).</p>
<p>Now many of these are fine schools; others are no better than Rutgers, or in some cases not as good. Many are in-region; many clearly are not. Many are private, but many are also public. I think it’s too charitable, as well as misleading, to say that it’s only the top New Jersey students who avoid Rutgers in favor of more attractive private options in the region, or the “expanded region,” because these numbers suggest very large numbers of New Jersey students of widely varying abilities avoiding Rutgers in enormous numbers in favor of public as well as private alternatives, in-region and far afield. If Rutgers could find a way to capture even a fraction of the talent that it’s presently losing to out-of-state competition, its selectivity would soar and its student body would be much stronger. It become a vicious cycle when year after year most of the top talent leaves the state, leaving the public flagship with its reputation in the dumps and an unattractive option for the next round of applicants.</p>