Campus is buns. It is HUGE. You cannot walk from one of the colleges to another on campus, have to take buses. And campus doesn’t have its own identity, it sort of blends in to the area.

For as much as people here clown safety of certain schools like UMD, they must never have been to New Brunswick. All the safety issues of a rough city neighborhood and none of the useful cultural amenities and none of the cleanliness or accessibility.

Not to mention, there’s far more public high schools like W schools in NJ so it’s a numbers game for in state admits.

No one in my DD’s rigorous NJ private wanted Rutgers. New Brunswick stinks and disjointed campus. And not exciting if you can afford OOS. But happy to go to Michigan, Wisconsin, Texas, UCLA etc. Can’t get excited about Rutgers. It’s too bad.

My kid applied to NB - theater major, OOS, program is very strong, 45min away from NYC/Broadway/NY internships, junior year whole cohort studies together in London theater.

For their major, it’s a very appealing option mixed in with the other more obvious schools which are also in play.

I would not send my kid unless in state tuition and kind of commuting from home in NJ. Most people are from NJ and hang out with their highschool friends. I think as like a commuter school it could make sense. New Brunswick can be pretty dicey. The off campus housing/slumlord situation is not safe feeling. Walking home from some of the more remote locations for classes can feel very very unsafe. Taking a long bus ride to the disjointed different areas of the 'campus' is draining. Again, if I had a kid from NJ who wanted to come home a lot on the weekends, hang out with high school friends, and all for a great price, okay. Or a kid who blew it in high school and as an in state kid is able to get in as a transfer after a year elsewhere, great deal again. That kid is at a reach school for a great price. Otherwise, no. And yes NJ is not that proud of Rutgers. It's the kind of place hardworking kids go to just get their education and move on with life. It's not a college experience.

Anonymous wrote:Where do slin-state students go if not their NJ flagship?

NJ exports high school grads probably more than any other state. There are a ton of high performing high schools in NJ, and while there are other in-state options, most people have never heard of them. (see the poster who didn’t know there is an actual college called The College of New Jersey). And while Rutgers is mostly comprised of in-state students, most leave the state. Something like 87% of my kids’ high school Class of 2025 went out of state. UDel, Penn St, IU Kelley, Purdue Engineering, UMD, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, South Carolina, CU Boulder, among others are chock full of NJ students. Many of these students could have gone to Rutgers, they just chose not to. And their parents can pay for them to go out of state so they do.

Just checked the Senior Instagram page for Class of ‘26 at kids’ HS. Early Days but 85 kids have posted where they have committed. Of the 85, four are going to in-state NJ publics (none of them to Rutgers). The early postings tend to be heavy with ED admits and recruited athletes so definitely the Rutgers commits will be there by May, but there won’t be that many.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the notable things about the best public universities is how much love these school get in-state - UC Berkeley and UCLA, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Virginia. People in those states take a lot of pride in their public universities.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of love for Rutgers within New Jersey. I figure the people of New Jersey know best.

Why tho?

Is it because there are tons of options nearby/neighboring states?

I suspect there’re enough wealthy families in NJ (many families whose parents have very well-paying jobs in NYC live in NJ) that don’t need the in-state tuition help and would choose the best college with full pay.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rutgers is on par with UMD in terms of overall quality. But it’s surprisingly easy to get into with decent grades!

Is the acceptance rate comparable to UMD?

I think the overall acceptance rates are similar (pretty high, close to 50%!). But if you’re from MoCo with all the good high schools, both private and public, then the difficulty is night and day difference: anyone with decent grades in MoCo could pretty much treat Rutgers as a safety! I always say Rutgers is better safety than Pitt or Penn State promoted on this forum.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the notable things about the best public universities is how much love these school get in-state - UC Berkeley and UCLA, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Virginia. People in those states take a lot of pride in their public universities.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of love for Rutgers within New Jersey. I figure the people of New Jersey know best.

Why tho?

Is it because there are tons of options nearby/neighboring states?

Marylanders also for UMD

Anonymous wrote:One of the notable things about the best public universities is how much love these school get in-state - UC Berkeley and UCLA, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Virginia. People in those states take a lot of pride in their public universities.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of love for Rutgers within New Jersey. I figure the people of New Jersey know best.

Why tho?

One of the notable things about the best public universities is how much love these school get in-state - UC Berkeley and UCLA, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Virginia. People in those states take a lot of pride in their public universities.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of love for Rutgers within New Jersey. I figure the people of New Jersey know best.

Anonymous wrote:Rutgers is on par with UMD in terms of overall quality. But it’s surprisingly easy to get into with decent grades!

Is the acceptance rate comparable to UMD?

Anonymous wrote:Rutgers is on par with UMD in terms of overall quality. But it’s surprisingly easy to get into with decent grades!

New jersey is higher IQ than states like Virginia. Very private school oriented like Maryland. Should change to University of New Jersey so nationally understood / marketable and increase state pride.

Rutgers is on par with UMD in terms of overall quality. But it’s surprisingly easy to get into with decent grades!

Rutgers has good outcomes because of it's huge east Asian, super academic population. I am saying this in a positive way. I grew up in central Jersey and these kids are SMART, even 30 years ago, this was a NJ thing, and even more so now. All of the Princeton area is east Asian and come from super smart tech parents who work for Bristol Meyers or J&J. I would worry about beating those curves at Rutgers, it's a strong peer group. They occasionally send their kids to other publics like CAs and Michigan or GT or UIUC, but that's it.