Offering valedictorians and salutatorians in the region significant merit aid, including free rides, would attract a new class of high quality students to Rutgers. Rutgers should throw itself open to 4* and 5* high school mathletes.
The "diversity angle" is an advantage for Rutgers. New Jersey's white population has been in free fall for decades (minus 1.5 million since 1970). The positive news is immigrants have poured in and these family generate a lot of bright college bound students and many attend Rutgers. California's flagship universities, Cal Berkeley and UCLA, enjoy a similar applicant pool and have been moving up the academic rankings for years.
Here is the historical academic ranking of NJ's public universities along with New York peer Stony Brook. I included Stony Brook because the Long Island valedictorian and salutatorian list came out last week and dozens are headed to Stony Brook; none to Rutgers.
I had a long conversation with a 30-year guidance counselor about why so many top Long Island students head to Stony Brook. Answer is these students are often accepted at Ivy League schools but Stony Brook is very strong in STEM fields (former math professor donated $500 million to the school for this recently) and Stony Brook is affordable for students not eligible for financial aid, so Stony Brook captures a surprising number of Long Island's brightest.
Rutgers is doing well but can do even better. Merit and diversity are not mutually exclusive. One Long Island high school announced 21 co-valedictorians (silly, I know). None are white.
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