<p>Penn State, Maryland, and Delaware seem to be odd choices over Rutgers for large numbers of New Jersey resident students, since none is particularly inexpensive for out-of-state students. Nor do they stand out much (if any) ahead of Rutgers in terms of “public ivy” perception like Michigan and the like.</p>
<p>Close, good (better?) rep in region, nicer campus, better social scene, better “full college experience”. NJ is a high income state. Most of the higher income areas are quite nice, thank you very much. As a NJ resident all my K-12 years I can attest to the fact the NJ kids have always gone away to college. Probably a higher % back in my day–late 60’s than now. NJ has a much greater instate today.</p>
<p>If “rep in region” is similar to USNWR ranking, Penn State and Maryland are a little higher, while Delaware is a little lower – the differences do not seem to be too great overall or worth the price difference (although there may be some specific subject reputations like Delaware for chemical engineering and Rutgers for philosophy that are significantly different from the general reputations).</p>
<p>But then it does appear that Rutgers’ actual reputation among NJ residents is much lower than one would expect based on the USNWR rankings.</p>
<p>I do not think price is the driving factor in many cases. I think the overall experience is. PSU, UD and UMd all have great reps for weekend fun kids staying around campus. NJ schools tend to be suitcase schools. Just walk around NB on a Friday night and then go to State College, Madison, Ann Arbor, etc etc. Night and day.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So do I understand you to be saying that if you’re from New Jersey and you want the full on-campus college experience, you either need to get into Princeton (which is only going to happen for a lucky few) or go out of state?</p>
<p>If so, that’s sad.</p>
<p>According to Rutgers’ common data set, section F1, 90.6% of the freshmen and 44.7% of the total undergraduate students live in university owned residence halls. Do most of them (and those living in nearby off-campus places) pack up and go back to their parents’ houses each weekend?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[The</a> Most Popular National Universities - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2012/01/24/the-most-popular-national-universities]The”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2012/01/24/the-most-popular-national-universities)</p>
<p>Sparkeye7, The yield at Rutgers-New Brunswick (the main campus) is 34.6% according to the link you provided. That is not bad . The 14% yield is for the Newark campus-totally different.</p>
<p>Sparkeye, those stats are for Newark and not New Brunswick. Rutgers’ flagship campus is New Brunswick.</p>
<p>The reason why Rutgers used to lag behind in the rankings was due to an absence of a medical school. Last August, Rutgers took over University of Medicine and Dentistry of NJ (UMDNJ) and its Cancer Institute. This merger would propel Rutgers from top 60 to top25 in terms of total research funding of all universities in US.</p>
<p>Absolutely BC. Many NJ kids still hang with their HS friends at home on weekends. Rarely over an hour away.</p>
<p>barrons, No offense, but am curious as to what the more current intel is about Rutgers, as opposed to info from the 60’s. Coll— Pr— does not seem to paint a totally dismal picture.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>My bad!! :\ I know the main campus is located in New Brunswick… lol</p>
<p>I consider Rutgers overall academic reputation similar to that of Michigan State (MSU). :)</p>
<p>In the eyes of some high school counselors:</p>
<p><a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/high-school-counselor/page+3[/url]”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/high-school-counselor/page+3</a></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Michigan State also has three established medical schools (M.D., D.O. & V.M.D.), and F-RIB is currently under construction. :)</p>
<p>MSU has long been under the shadows of the nearby Michigan, Notre Dame, Chicago, Northwestern,…etc., while Rutgers under the shadow of nearby private elite schools of the east coast. Similar size in terms of number of student body as well. I believe State is traditionally stronger in hard science and Business School, while Rutgers in others. Athletic-wise, MSU is certainly more established than Rutgers. Endowment-wise, State has over twice that of Rutgers. Nonetheless, I perceive them as equal in terms of undergrad academic quality and overall reputation. Campus-wise, most would certainly pick East Lansing over New Brunswick for its natural beauty. Yet, Rutgers is only about an hour away from the vibrant NYC which is certainly a huge plus compared to Capital Lansing imho. Last but not least, both schools have law school (although Rutgers Law School is located in Newark Campus I believe) and while State does not have a Pharmacy School, it has a D.O. school which Rutgers does not. Pretty even there as well in terms of Professional schools if you ask me. I short, both are certainly heavily underrated in terms of academic reputation imho! :)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.top-law-schools.com/rankings.html[/url]”>Law School Rankings;
<p>
</p>
<p>OK, but this presents a classic chicken-and-egg problem. Do RU students prefer to hang with their HS friends at home on weekends because there’s nothing to do in New Brunswick, or is there nothing to do in New Brunswick because RU students prefer to hang with their HS friends at home on weekends? And more broadly, do top-performing NJ kids elect not to attend Rutgers because it’s not a place where you’ll find other academically talented and motivated kids (as reflected in its entering class stats), or do you not find many academically talented and motivated kids there because most of them decide to go elsewhere? </p>
<p>I realize this all becomes a vicious cycle at a certain point: a school develops a certain reputation, and that reputation tends to perpetuate itself. But I think we still haven’t gotten to the bottom of what caused that reputation to arise in the first place. Clearly many NJ kids are looking for the full, 24/7 on-campus experience, to the point they’re willing to pay substantial sums of money to attend private colleges and universities or not particularly inexpensive OOS public schools to get that experience. More power to 'em. But I suspect that if only a fraction of those heading out-of-state could be persuaded to give Rutgers a chance, they could form a critical mass that starts to make Rutgers a more vibrant and attractive place.</p>
<p>So why doesn’t this happen? The answer can’t just be geographic proximity to the state’s population centers. UCLA is in Los Angeles and UC Berkeley is in the East Bay, just across a bridge from San Francisco. Michigan is 40 minutes from Detroit and 20 minutes or less from some of its western suburbs. Wisconsin is in the heart of the state’s second-largest population center, and, what, 90 minutes from Milwaukee, less from its western suburbs? And you have all these NJ kids saying they want a full, 24/7 campus experience, and they’re all going out of state to find it? Still puzzling.</p>
<p>MY NJ daughter refused to apply to Rutgers. Rutgers, like many public universities is receiving less and less state funding. Medicare is siphoning off money that used to go to K-12 and college.</p>
<p>Neighbors’ kids attend Penn State, Del, UMD, UMass, and Miami of Ohio.
I think what they are looking for is a better laid out campus, and more of the college experience. The academics at Rutgers is good to very good. The class size and attention to individuals isn’t great. </p>
<p>Attending TCNJ or getting into a public with a great honors college, would provide more of that small school attention.
Please remember that NJ is 2nd or 3rd in affluence and SAT scores are extremely high.
The state cutoff for NMF is 221; the same score as NE Boarding Schools and MA.
NJ doesn’t have the quality of colleges as does MA or PA.
NJ also has a massive Indian population, that is highly educated and ambitious for their kids.
NJ also has many people who work on Wall Street, and many others who graduated from Columbia or Princeton. Northern NJ is similar to Westchester and Fairfield County, CT for the percentage of people commuting to the city for highly paid positions.</p>
<p>Thirty thousand is a lot to pay for an education that you aren’t excited about.
If you can afford to pay more, you can attend a private school that gives merit scholarships.</p>
<p>My older daughter applied to Pitt, Binghamton and UVM. She also applied to privates that give merit aid. She now attends a selective private that offered her a merit scholarship.</p>