OT: College enrollment and financial issues?

[bigmatt718]

OK well I think it is safe to say there is no other country in the world where someone is going to look at the offerings at RU versus a Clemson or Missouri or Univ of Tampa on paper and say, "well, I mean Brayden will get a better education for less money at RU, BUT he won't get Southern culture and campus beauty!" That is as inexplicably upper middle class American as it gets, and it doesn't exist in the rest of the world, and I would say it doesn't exist in a lot of other states even.

Going to a HS where a lot of kids were first generation Americans or immigrants, any of my friends with that background were told "RU, TCNJ or Ivy" and my friends at RU with that background, same. Cut across income too, some were from wealthy families and some not.

Most of my friends from abroad also generally went to their local college or their ivy equivalent. Only Canada has a system like ours, and even there, you probably have a better cultural argument with Quebec for example but you're not going there from Ontario unless you're going to McGill. Europe has Erasmus, but it's different as maybe you're paying some fees. My friend's cousin goes to a college in Rotterdam and he's from Poland, and I'm sure this board being what it is will tell me that's analogous to going to South Carolina from NJ.

I definitely feel like first gen immigrants in NJ go either Ivy or Rutgers because their parents couldn't give 2 ***** about keeping up with the Joneses like many upper middle class families do, thinking their kid failed by having to stay in state for college.

 

[Rutgers Chris]

There's really two main things at play here:

1. A lot of NJ kids think they're too good for Rutgers for various reasons, when in reality, the school is tremendous academically. Others just don't want to go there b/c of the campus layout, lack of sports success, not liking downtown Easton Ave, etc.

2. Conversely, a lot of kids want to go to school down south for a myriad of reasons (SEC culture, women, better weather, fanatical sports, parents drilling into their kids heads that the North sucks, etc.)

We've already told our daughter we're moving south the day she graduates HS - now, if she gets into Princeton (which is extremely unlikely to happen), or if my wife's parents get sick (they're older, so who knows what will happen), then that plan will be delayed

WTBS, she can go wherever she wants, as long as the price tag warrants the cost (e.g., Princeton for 80k yes, Syracuse for 80k year no). I do understand the shop rite thing as a lot of parents like to brag on their kids.

Not that we're better than anyone (bc were not), but I don't give a damn where other kids are going, or what other people think of my kid, as they're not paying our bills or dictating our future in any way, shape or form

It's society today putting it in these kids heads (and parents alike) that they have to do this or that to impress people. Truly weird stuff IMO

So you’ll go the shop rite route but doesn’t seem like you consider yourself a shop rite parent. I’m going to assume @RUTGERS95 is in the same boat. @Knight Shift paid to send his kid out of state, so he’s a shop riter who doesn’t consider himself to be.

Is it at all possible that those who everyone thinks are shallow shop riters have valid reasons of their own too? Or is it just Rutgers message board posters who can send their kids to more expensive out of state schools for good reasons?

 

[Knight Shift]

So you’ll go the shop rite route but doesn’t seem like you consider yourself a shop rite parent. I’m going to assume @RUTGERS95 is in the same boat. @Knight Shift paid to send his kid out of state, so he’s a shop riter who doesn’t consider himself to be.

Is it at all possible that those who everyone thinks are shallow shop riters have valid reasons of their own too? Or is it just Rutgers message board posters who can send their kids to more expensive out of state schools for good reasons?

I missed the Shop Rite connection. We only shop at LIDL and ALDI, because we wasted our money on a fancy private college out of state.

 

[RUTGERS95]

I may be misreading your posts, but you seem to be looking down your nose at Clemson and Missouri. I may have mentioned above (I have CRS disease, so I don't remember) that picking a college can be very major specific for some kids. That's what our son did. Wound up at a small, expensive private college that has an excellent reputation and placement for his major. As for Clemson and Engineering, and I am loathe to use USNWR but here goes. I am quite familiar with Clemson, and Clemson has some outstanding engineering programs:

Here are U.S. News 2026:

• Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering
  • Clemson: #12 clemson.edu
  • Rutgers: #26 Rutgers University
• Civil Engineering
  • Clemson: #21 clemson.edu
  • Rutgers: #45 Rutgers University
• Mechanical Engineering
  • Clemson: #33 clemson.edu
  • Rutgers: #46 Rutgers University

I didn't know what crs disease was so looked it up. sorry to hear this and hope all is well (as well as can be) with it

 

[RUTGERS95]

But you’ll begrudgingly pay the money to send them to Miami, right? Do you shop at ShopRite?

it was an example but that said, I did mention program specific there.

reading is fundamental

 

[RUTGERS95]

So you’ll go the shop rite route but doesn’t seem like you consider yourself a shop rite parent. I’m going to assume @RUTGERS95 is in the same boat. @Knight Shift paid to send his kid out of state, so he’s a shop riter who doesn’t consider himself to be.

Is it at all possible that those who everyone thinks are shallow shop riters have valid reasons of their own too? Or is it just Rutgers message board posters who can send their kids to more expensive out of state schools for good reasons?

see my post to you about reading being fundamental

try harder, you'll get there

 

[RUTGERS95]

I missed the Shop Rite connection. We only shop at LIDL and ALDI, because we wasted our money on a fancy private college out of state.

do not dis on LIDL! lol

I love LIDL and ALDI and Trader Joes!

 

[CollegeSenior]

I would say it's the opposite. Immigrants and transplants don't grow up as self haters and don't automatically hate anything NJ, and are wiser with their money.

A transplant, unless they're from South Carolina, isn't going to be wowed by a Clemson degree. Nor is someone from the most affluent towns in NJ. It's not turning heads in Rumson or Alpine.

And, let's not fool ourselves again by believing a kid that summered in Paris is longing to spend time in rural Missouri.

I’ve never seen data that breaks out the percentage of students who go out of state vs in state and correlates it to parents who are NJ transplants or immigrants. But I do have empirical data from a large number of students and parents over decades. And I’ve lived for 30 years in one of the towns you often make assumptions about and I can say with complete confidence that your assumptions are wrong. Parents don’t puff up their chests over Chad or Buffy going to X university whether it’s Harvard, Delaware or Arizona but they do carry smiles when talking about how proud they are that their kids are happy and doing well, wherever it is that they’ve gone.

 

[RUTGERS95]

There's really two main things at play here:

1. A lot of NJ kids think they're too good for Rutgers for various reasons, when in reality, the school is tremendous academically. Others just don't want to go there b/c of the campus layout, lack of sports success, not liking downtown Easton Ave, etc.

2. Conversely, a lot of kids want to go to school down south for a myriad of reasons (SEC culture, women, better weather, fanatical sports, parents drilling into their kids heads that the North sucks, etc.)

We've already told our daughter we're moving south the day she graduates HS - now, if she gets into Princeton (which is extremely unlikely to happen), or if my wife's parents get sick (they're older, so who knows what will happen), then that plan will be delayed

WTBS, she can go wherever she wants, as long as the price tag warrants the cost (e.g., Princeton for 80k yes, Syracuse for 80k year no). I do understand the shop rite thing as a lot of parents like to brag on their kids.

Not that we're better than anyone (bc were not), but I don't give a damn where other kids are going, or what other people think of my kid, as they're not paying our bills or dictating our future in any way, shape or form

It's society today putting it in these kids heads (and parents alike) that they have to do this or that to impress people. Truly weird stuff IMO

agree and good post as it comes down to more than one thing. I can tell you from my experience across a ton of kids and families that the single biggest driver of where a kid goes is , 'this is what they want' which more than half the time is sports/scene choice.

Parents in the NE have more options as the wealth dynamic factors in as well as the value of the educational school system to colleges.

How the parents pay is interesting as NJ ranks higher than the national avg for PLUS loans, 2nd mortgages/HELOCs and it coincides with college age kids. Students loans distribution is also higher in NJ than the national average for out of state. NJ is also higher than the national average for retirement fund distributions for college

the data is quite fascinating

at the end of the day, it comes down to value, choice, want and which of the 3 you favor more.

 

[mdk02]

Historically some of the most popular colleges for NJ kids were U Del, Drexel or NYU. I live in NJ and can get to NYU faster than RU. And no one is going to say with a straight face those places will have meaningful cultural differences.

The Southern thing is a totally new phenomenon correlated to internet culture. Again, otherwise, you'd see a lot more NJ kids at elite Southern institutions, or colleges in other regions, maybe even other countries. But we don't. It's definitely an opportunity for say, University of Hawaii though. As a millennial if you told someone at my upper middle class snob HS that you wanted to go to USCe or Clemson or Missouri they'd have laughed. UF though would have been OK, low tuition with grandma and grandpa.

I wonder, with more Americans now getting foreign passports are we going to see Clemson hemorrhaging NJ kids to Europe and Canada? After all it's about the culture and distance...

This goes back a long ways and may no longer be true, but NYU used to be generous giving credits for courses taken at NJ community colleges. NJ kids would transfer over after 2 years and get the degree. Saved a hell of a lot of money.

Vermont seems to have declined in popularity, possibly because skiing is not as big a thing as it once was.

 

[JL23]

Yeah. First gen immigrants understand the value of RU and don't have the pervasive self-loathing that many NJ residents have.

Crazy how OOS people, by and large, consider RU Ivy/borderline Ivy
Yet here in state, a lot of people rag on it like it's the 13th grade

 

[JL23]

So you’ll go the shop rite route but doesn’t seem like you consider yourself a shop rite parent. I’m going to assume @RUTGERS95 is in the same boat. @Knight Shift paid to send his kid out of state, so he’s a shop riter who doesn’t consider himself to be.

Is it at all possible that those who everyone thinks are shallow shop riters have valid reasons of their own too? Or is it just Rutgers message board posters who can send their kids to more expensive out of state schools for good reasons?

Unless I'm reading it incorrectly, I'm considering Shop Rite to mean sending your kids OOS for bragging rights at a BBQ / social event
Hence, I don't consider us Shop Riters, bc we aren't sending her to X school for our own selfish reasons

Our daughter can go wherever she pleases (in state, out of state, cosmetology school, military, etc.) as long as the juice is worth the squeeze $$ wise, regardless of what anyone else thinks

 

[mdk02]

Crazy how OOS people, by and large, consider RU Ivy/borderline Ivy
Yet here in state, a lot of people rag on it like it's the 13th grade

I don't know about by and large, but the rep is certainly better. Confirmed by my relatives in Texas. But few in that state would come north if they got into UT Austin because the in-state tuition is so damned cheap.

 

[bigmatt718]

Crazy how OOS people, by and large, consider RU Ivy/borderline Ivy
Yet here in state, a lot of people rag on it like it's the 13th grade

Rutgers isnt a total clown college like some of those folks think it is. It's Top 20 nationally and #1 in the Northeast academically amongst publics in US News. Maybe because I'm from South Jersey I appreciate RU-NB more because that to me felt like going away to college unlike going to Rowan or RU-Camden where I wouldve ended up commuting.

 

[Rutgers Chris]

it was an example but that said, I did mention program specific there.

reading is fundamental

I read it exactly how you meant it. Program specific and you’ll do what you consider is best for your kid, nothing to do with bragging rights.

 

[Rutgers Chris]

Unless I'm reading it incorrectly, I'm considering Shop Rite to mean sending your kids OOS for bragging rights at a BBQ / social event
Hence, I don't consider us Shop Riters, bc we aren't sending her to X school for our own selfish reasons

Our daughter can go wherever she pleases (in state, out of state, cosmetology school, military, etc.) as long as the juice is worth the squeeze $$ wise, regardless of what anyone else thinks

You’re reading it right. My point is when you talk to individual people (those in the thread, people in real life) there’s always a reasonable story for why their kid chose a particular college. But when we talk about the “people we see in line at shop rite” (strangers) they are always people that sent their kids out of state for bragging rights.

 

[Rutgers Chris]

agree and good post as it comes down to more than one thing. I can tell you from my experience across a ton of kids and families that the single biggest driver of where a kid goes is , 'this is what they want' which more than half the time is sports/scene choice.

Parents in the NE have more options as the wealth dynamic factors in as well as the value of the educational school system to colleges.

How the parents pay is interesting as NJ ranks higher than the national avg for PLUS loans, 2nd mortgages/HELOCs and it coincides with college age kids. Students loans distribution is also higher in NJ than the national average for out of state. NJ is also higher than the national average for retirement fund distributions for college

the data is quite fascinating

at the end of the day, it comes down to value, choice, want and which of the 3 you favor more.

Your last sentence is agreeing with the point I’ve made all along

 

[Knight Shift]

I didn't know what crs disease was so looked it up. sorry to hear this and hope all is well (as well as can be) with it

Dammmit acronyms! Not THAT CRS, this one!!! I'll be fine if I start mainlining Prevagen and Ginko Biloba!

Urban Dictionary: CRS

CRS: Can't Remember ****

www.urbandictionary.com

 

[Knight Shift]

do not dis on LIDL! lol

I love LIDL and ALDI and Trader Joes!

Many years ago, while living in Indiana when ALDI had not moved East to NJ, we were in an ALDI in rural Indiana. It was frightening. This part of Indiana was not far from Kentucky Hill country. My better half was almost eaten alive by a 300 pound hill-dwelling woman with more facial hair than me. It took us a while to go to an ALDI again.

 

[Knight Shift]

I’ve never seen data that breaks out the percentage of students who go out of state vs in state and correlates it to parents who are NJ transplants or immigrants. But I do have empirical data from a large number of students and parents over decades. And I’ve lived for 30 years in one of the towns you often make assumptions about and I can say with complete confidence that your assumptions are wrong. Parents don’t puff up their chests over Chad or Buffy going to X university whether it’s Harvard, Delaware or Arizona but they do carry smiles when talking about how proud they are that their kids are happy and doing well, wherever it is that they’ve gone.

And THAT part at the end, in bold is ALL THAT MATTERS. Making sure you kids are happy, doing well, and also doing good for this world. At the small college our son went to, he went on a summer public health fellowship in several countries in South America. It was a fantastic and broadening experience for him.

 

[RUTGERS95]

Dammmit acronyms! Not THAT CRS, this one!!! I'll be fine if I start mainlining Prevagen and Ginko Biloba!

Urban Dictionary: CRS

CRS: Can't Remember ****

www.urbandictionary.com

haha..good! whew

Many years ago, while living in Indiana when ALDI had not moved East to NJ, we were in an ALDI in rural Indiana. It was frightening. This part of Indiana was not far from Kentucky Hill country. My better half was almost eaten alive by a 300 pound hill-dwelling woman with more facial hair than me. It took us a while to go to an ALDI again.

lol well it is different!

 

[Knight Shift]

Rutgers isnt a total clown college like some of those folks think it is. It's Top 20 nationally and #1 in the Northeast academically amongst publics in US News. Maybe because I'm from South Jersey I appreciate RU-NB more because that to me felt like going away to college unlike going to Rowan or RU-Camden where I wouldve ended up commuting.

To the Top 20 nationally and #1 in Northeast academically-

Sounds like some folks want to JUSTIFY their decision to send their kids to the state school while saving money. To many parents, choosing a college is all about fit for each particular kid/student, starting with what they want to study (if they know), going to a large or small school, location, and perhaps less important where some of their friends may be going. The overall ranking, unless it is an IVY or Berkeley or UCLA really does not mean much in the real world if the program the kid majored in was awful at that school and the kid was miserable for 4 years.

 

[RUTGERS95]

some interesting numbers here

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/rankings

 

[NotInRHouse]

So why do you think NJ people are statistically so much more likely to send their kids out of state?

A few reasons:

- A lot of NJ people are self loathing and hate anything that comes across as "Jersey", which obviously the flagship state school does

- A lot of NJ people (and in general in the tri state) feel like "if it costs more it's better" and RU is cheaper than most OOS schools

- Some wealthier people thumb their nose at RU's economic and racial demographics as well as how many first generation college kids it has

I would say those are the big 3 historically. Catching up is the TikTok phenomenon, where it's "look at me I'm on social media by a pool or fancy frat/sorority house in the South" which also has some of my 3rd point imbued in. As a millennial we had this a little bit but it was more word of mouth with Cult and some others.

Again- IF it was "I want to be far from my parents/HS friends" the popular schools wouldn't be so close and the idea of parents retiring to where the colleges are would hold no water.

And if it was academics we'd hear more about Emory and Vanderbilt and less about turf management and how beautiful the U of Tennessee is.

And and if it was culture we'd see a lot more NJ kids in the rest of the country and the world, not just the South. We don't. I'll throw out some examples. I have very rarely heard of NJ kids at say, Oregon- huge sports school, academics very run of the mill. I don't hear of NJ kids at U of San Diego, which is a Catholic school which NJ parents often love with lots of great opportunities for tiktoks at the pool. This is a very specific phenomenon.

 

[NotInRHouse]

I may be misreading your posts, but you seem to be looking down your nose at Clemson and Missouri. I may have mentioned above (I have CRS disease, so I don't remember) that picking a college can be very major specific for some kids. That's what our son did. Wound up at a small, expensive private college that has an excellent reputation and placement for his major. As for Clemson and Engineering, and I am loathe to use USNWR but here goes. I am quite familiar with Clemson, and Clemson has some outstanding engineering programs:

Here are U.S. News 2026:

• Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering
  • Clemson: #12 clemson.edu
  • Rutgers: #26 Rutgers University
• Civil Engineering
  • Clemson: #21 clemson.edu
  • Rutgers: #45 Rutgers University
• Mechanical Engineering
  • Clemson: #33 clemson.edu
  • Rutgers: #46 Rutgers University

It is very rare that I hear of an 18 year old picking a college for a major (except of course the NJ high school rage of turf management). I am not saying it doesn't happen. But most of what I hear in these threads is what I've seen so far. I know Missouri has a great journalism program, but that wasn't mentioned. The "campus beauty", "culture" and sports are the main mentions.

 

[NotInRHouse]

So you’ll go the shop rite route but doesn’t seem like you consider yourself a shop rite parent. I’m going to assume @RUTGERS95 is in the same boat. @Knight Shift paid to send his kid out of state, so he’s a shop riter who doesn’t consider himself to be.

Is it at all possible that those who everyone thinks are shallow shop riters have valid reasons of their own too? Or is it just Rutgers message board posters who can send their kids to more expensive out of state schools for good reasons?

I didn't read that from what they said, and I don't want to put words in people's mouths, but having read what those posters have said before, they have not said the schools had better "culture" or "beautiful campuses".

One has a grad degree from a Southern school in FL which is generous with grandparent tuition. One said his kid selected a program with grad school admission. And Miami, I think they give Northern kids a lot of money. I'd still go with RU but that is me. But it's not Tampa or Missouri.

 

[NotInRHouse]

I’ve never seen data that breaks out the percentage of students who go out of state vs in state and correlates it to parents who are NJ transplants or immigrants. But I do have empirical data from a large number of students and parents over decades. And I’ve lived for 30 years in one of the towns you often make assumptions about and I can say with complete confidence that your assumptions are wrong. Parents don’t puff up their chests over Chad or Buffy going to X university whether it’s Harvard, Delaware or Arizona but they do carry smiles when talking about how proud they are that their kids are happy and doing well, wherever it is that they’ve gone.

RU is on every list in America about first generation college students and is by far and away #1 in the B1G in that regard.

I went to HS in "one of those towns" and being a millennial in Hudson County I see the Gen Zs coming in. It's a worse version of the same crap, because now you have to compete with the internet whereas our boomer parents struggled to turn the computer on.

 

[NotInRHouse]

This goes back a long ways and may no longer be true, but NYU used to be generous giving credits for courses taken at NJ community colleges. NJ kids would transfer over after 2 years and get the degree. Saved a hell of a lot of money.

Vermont seems to have declined in popularity, possibly because skiing is not as big a thing as it once was.

I would not begrudge NYU, I wanted to go there. I think with the new generation cities and skiing are less sexy because those are outdoors and not buried in your phone.

 

[mdk02]

A few reasons:

- A lot of NJ people are self loathing and hate anything that comes across as "Jersey", which obviously the flagship state school does

- A lot of NJ people (and in general in the tri state) feel like "if it costs more it's better" and RU is cheaper than most OOS schools

- Some wealthier people thumb their nose at RU's economic and racial demographics as well as how many first generation college kids it has

I would say those are the big 3 historically. Catching up is the TikTok phenomenon, where it's "look at me I'm on social media by a pool or fancy frat/sorority house in the South" which also has some of my 3rd point imbued in. As a millennial we had this a little bit but it was more word of mouth with Cult and some others.

Again- IF it was "I want to be far from my parents/HS friends" the popular schools wouldn't be so close and the idea of parents retiring to where the colleges are would hold no water.

And if it was academics we'd hear more about Emory and Vanderbilt and less about turf management and how beautiful the U of Tennessee is.

And and if it was culture we'd see a lot more NJ kids in the rest of the country and the world, not just the South. We don't. I'll throw out some examples. I have very rarely heard of NJ kids at say, Oregon- huge sports school, academics very run of the mill. I don't hear of NJ kids at U of San Diego, which is a Catholic school which NJ parents often love with lots of great opportunities for tiktoks at the pool. This is a very specific phenomenon.

Yes. those are reasons that account for it to a large extent. But there is also a matter of fit. Rutgers is a LARGE flagship state university. Princeton is a top tier private school. Smaller and incredibly selective. But there is a drop off after that among NJ choices. There really no small universities or colleges that are near as selective. Schools I'm talking about are:

Small university examples:

Colgate
Lehigh
Lafayette
RPI

College examples:

Williams
Middlebury
Swarthmore
St. Lawrence
Amherst

There are no equal to those schools in NJ.

 

[NotInRHouse]

To the Top 20 nationally and #1 in Northeast academically-

Sounds like some folks want to JUSTIFY their decision to send their kids to the state school while saving money. To many parents, choosing a college is all about fit for each particular kid/student, starting with what they want to study (if they know), going to a large or small school, location, and perhaps less important where some of their friends may be going. The overall ranking, unless it is an IVY or Berkeley or UCLA really does not mean much in the real world if the program the kid majored in was awful at that school and the kid was miserable for 4 years.

Unless the state school is really unimpressive (say a WVU) or extremely hard to get into (UM, UVA, UNC) shouldn't it kind of be the default? In RU's case, there's a ton of top programs spanning the sciences and liberal arts. The location is awesome. No matter your personality or interests there's a bajillion clubs and outlets for your needs. I know people from RU who grew up in the Brunswicks and who grew up in Bolivia, and I know people who live in Metuchen now and who live in Latin America and London. It has literally everything except the absolute top sports programs, and unless the kid is an athlete, they can root for RU and then bandwagon the top pro teams all they want.

If someone is miserable at RU...that is on THEM. And I knew a lot of kids that transferred to RU from the Shop Rite schools then (like Cult) and I am sure it is the same now.

I could almost get the "small school" thing but RU is 10x the preparation for the real world than being coddled at a private school. Having gone to a private law school the private school kids are 10x less adjusted which may work in the frequent cases where their parents have jobs for them lined up but will work less for the kids that have to earn it.

What "misery" is like for a lot of NJ rich kids is "oh my god I had to take a bus" and not dad's beamer. Oh my god Sofia and Isabella are at the pool at University of Tampa and someone from Newark spilled jungle juice on me at a party. Welcome to the real world. I guess if the kid won't ever be in the real world it's great but I wouldn't want that for mine even if I was a billionaire.

 

[Rutgers Chris]

A few reasons:

- A lot of NJ people are self loathing and hate anything that comes across as "Jersey", which obviously the flagship state school does

- A lot of NJ people (and in general in the tri state) feel like "if it costs more it's better" and RU is cheaper than most OOS schools

- Some wealthier people thumb their nose at RU's economic and racial demographics as well as how many first generation college kids it has

I would say those are the big 3 historically. Catching up is the TikTok phenomenon, where it's "look at me I'm on social media by a pool or fancy frat/sorority house in the South" which also has some of my 3rd point imbued in. As a millennial we had this a little bit but it was more word of mouth with Cult and some others.

Again- IF it was "I want to be far from my parents/HS friends" the popular schools wouldn't be so close and the idea of parents retiring to where the colleges are would hold no water.

And if it was academics we'd hear more about Emory and Vanderbilt and less about turf management and how beautiful the U of Tennessee is.

And and if it was culture we'd see a lot more NJ kids in the rest of the country and the world, not just the South. We don't. I'll throw out some examples. I have very rarely heard of NJ kids at say, Oregon- huge sports school, academics very run of the mill. I don't hear of NJ kids at U of San Diego, which is a Catholic school which NJ parents often love with lots of great opportunities for tiktoks at the pool. This is a very specific phenomenon.

Thanks for the insights. Perhaps I’m a bit blind to the self loathing aspect as where I lived that didn’t really exist.

If my daughter goes out of state Oregon is at the top of my list. Fingers crossed it makes hers

 

[RU206]

Attending college can be the biggest financial decision in someone’s life and they need to make that decision at 17/18 year olds. Most don’t understand the economic impactdecision can have on the rest of their life.

My older daughter is entering her senior year at RU. She has friends who have recently graduated or are going into Junior or Senior year at different schools.

A friend who is a recent grad from Tampa has a lot of student loans and told her mom she liked Tampa but wish she said in state because it’s going to take her a long time to pay back the loans.

2 friends from HS she was talking to the other day were also talking about loan debt. One goes to a private school in CONN and the other a private school in Philly. Both like the schools but are now understanding the amount of money they will need to pay back.

Another is entering senior year at PSU. She will go for a masters degree most likely at RU because she can’t afford another year of OOS costs.
All of there kids come from upper middle class families. But when schools cost $60k + per year and you have more than 1 kid the costs add up quickly.

 

[RUschool]

Attending college can be the biggest financial decision in someone’s life and they need to make that decision at 17/18 year olds. Most don’t understand the economic impactdecision can have on the rest of their life.

My older daughter is entering her senior year at RU. She has friends who have recently graduated or are going into Junior or Senior year at different schools.

A friend who is a recent grad from Tampa has a lot of student loans and told her mom she liked Tampa but wish she said in state because it’s going to take her a long time to pay back the loans.

2 friends from HS she was talking to the other day were also talking about loan debt. One goes to a private school in CONN and the other a private school in Philly. Both like the schools but are now understanding the amount of money they will need to pay back.

Another is entering senior year at PSU. She will go for a masters degree most likely at RU because she can’t afford another year of OOS costs.
All of there kids come from upper middle class families. But when schools cost $60k + per year and you have more than 1 kid the costs add up quickly.

Unless the parents are paying 75% of the tuition and can afford it, the parents shouldn’t allow them to go there. It’s their responsibility to explain it to their kids who may not be mature enough to understand the outstanding student loan balance when they get out. It’s ridiculous to have more than $50,000 student loan balance when you graduate. If they can’t afford to have only a $50,000 loan balance they should be commuting to school.

 

[jordkap]

My personal opinion is Rutgers does a poor job of recruiting their average applicant. I loved Rutgers sports in high school, but knew very little about the actual university until my Senior year.

I was very close to not attended RU, and it would have been a mistake to go elsewhere. Rutgers Business School is a machine on setting you up for success in life. The amount of companies based in NJ and NY is unmatched in my field.

We have all heard the bs about Rutgers, but sending your kids to a place like Arizona State, South Carolina, or Indiana is just poor judgement on the parents and kids. I can understand wanting to leave the state and going to Maryland, Penn State types, or even a Wisconsin or UNC, but some of these mid tier state schools in random parts of the country seem like a complete waste. The lone exception is if you plan on staying there after graduating.

 

[bigmatt718]

My personal opinion is Rutgers does a poor job of recruiting their average applicant. I loved Rutgers sports in high school, but knew very little about the actual university until my Senior year.

I was very close to not attended RU, and it would have been a mistake to go elsewhere. Rutgers Business School is a machine on setting you up for success in life. The amount of companies based in NJ and NY is unmatched in my field.

We have all heard the bs about Rutgers, but sending your kids to a place like Arizona State, South Carolina, or Indiana is just poor judgement on the parents and kids. I can understand wanting to leave the state and going to Maryland, Penn State types, or even a Wisconsin or UNC, but some of these mid tier state schools in random parts of the country seem like a complete waste. The lone exception is if you plan on staying there after graduating.

Spot on. Rutgers flat out refuses to market itself to the residents of NJ. They should be blasting info to all the HS counselors in charge of guiding HS students towards college.

 

[RUTGERS95]

Attending college can be the biggest financial decision in someone’s life and they need to make that decision at 17/18 year olds. Most don’t understand the economic impactdecision can have on the rest of their life.

My older daughter is entering her senior year at RU. She has friends who have recently graduated or are going into Junior or Senior year at different schools.

A friend who is a recent grad from Tampa has a lot of student loans and told her mom she liked Tampa but wish she said in state because it’s going to take her a long time to pay back the loans.

2 friends from HS she was talking to the other day were also talking about loan debt. One goes to a private school in CONN and the other a private school in Philly. Both like the schools but are now understanding the amount of money they will need to pay back.

Another is entering senior year at PSU. She will go for a masters degree most likely at RU because she can’t afford another year of OOS costs.
All of there kids come from upper middle class families. But when schools cost $60k + per year and you have more than 1 kid the costs add up quickly.

poor parenting and I've touched on this in other posts.

Unless the state school is really unimpressive (say a WVU) or extremely hard to get into (UM, UVA, UNC) shouldn't it kind of be the default? In RU's case, there's a ton of top programs spanning the sciences and liberal arts. The location is awesome. No matter your personality or interests there's a bajillion clubs and outlets for your needs. I know people from RU who grew up in the Brunswicks and who grew up in Bolivia, and I know people who live in Metuchen now and who live in Latin America and London. It has literally everything except the absolute top sports programs, and unless the kid is an athlete, they can root for RU and then bandwagon the top pro teams all they want.

If someone is miserable at RU...that is on THEM. And I knew a lot of kids that transferred to RU from the Shop Rite schools then (like Cult) and I am sure it is the same now.

I could almost get the "small school" thing but RU is 10x the preparation for the real world than being coddled at a private school. Having gone to a private law school the private school kids are 10x less adjusted which may work in the frequent cases where their parents have jobs for them lined up but will work less for the kids that have to earn it.

What "misery" is like for a lot of NJ rich kids is "oh my god I had to take a bus" and not dad's beamer. Oh my god Sofia and Isabella are at the pool at University of Tampa and someone from Newark spilled jungle juice on me at a party. Welcome to the real world. I guess if the kid won't ever be in the real world it's great but I wouldn't want that for mine even if I was a billionaire.

it should be the default but Rutgers does Rutgers. I've given examples as to why many kids want to go away but do not discount the diversity angle. People get mad at that view but it's real and it's been expressed many times.

Yes. those are reasons that account for it to a large extent. But there is also a matter of fit. Rutgers is a LARGE flagship state university. Princeton is a top tier private school. Smaller and incredibly selective. But there is a drop off after that among NJ choices. There really no small universities or colleges that are near as selective. Schools I'm talking about are:

Small university examples:

Colgate
Lehigh
Lafayette
RPI

College examples:

Williams
Middlebury
Swarthmore
St. Lawrence
Amherst

There are no equal to those schools in NJ.

some terrific schools there but they too present their own issues for graduates looking to go right into workforce.

My personal opinion is Rutgers does a poor job of recruiting their average applicant. I loved Rutgers sports in high school, but knew very little about the actual university until my Senior year.

I was very close to not attended RU, and it would have been a mistake to go elsewhere. Rutgers Business School is a machine on setting you up for success in life. The amount of companies based in NJ and NY is unmatched in my field.

We have all heard the bs about Rutgers, but sending your kids to a place like Arizona State, South Carolina, or Indiana is just poor judgement on the parents and kids. I can understand wanting to leave the state and going to Maryland, Penn State types, or even a Wisconsin or UNC, but some of these mid tier state schools in random parts of the country seem like a complete waste. The lone exception is if you plan on staying there after graduating.

not following the logic of lumping IU into the poor decision with Carl's Jr and arizona st but adding MD and PSU in the good bucket. IU has some of the best programs in various fields and it's a great college experience with an incredible alumni network.

 

[Jtung230]

Spot on. Rutgers flat out refuses to market itself to the residents of NJ. They should be blasting info to all the HS counselors in charge of guiding HS students towards college.

Our high school counselors make every kid apply to Rutgers.

 

[NotInRHouse]

Yes. those are reasons that account for it to a large extent. But there is also a matter of fit. Rutgers is a LARGE flagship state university. Princeton is a top tier private school. Smaller and incredibly selective. But there is a drop off after that among NJ choices. There really no small universities or colleges that are near as selective. Schools I'm talking about are:

Small university examples:

Colgate
Lehigh
Lafayette
RPI

College examples:

Williams
Middlebury
Swarthmore
St. Lawrence
Amherst

There are no equal to those schools in NJ.

Stevens and RPI are probably not that far off, but yeah.

Again, I am not, and I don't think anyone is saying don't go to Amherst or Middlebury...but those are very very small schools. I don't think the 7 Sisters are some NJ phenomenon.

I could also understand the kid who doesn't get into RU going OOS.

The issue is the idea that going to USCe or Tennessee over RU is brilliant...it isn't.

 

[NotInRHouse]

Thanks for the insights. Perhaps I’m a bit blind to the self loathing aspect as where I lived that didn’t really exist.

If my daughter goes out of state Oregon is at the top of my list. Fingers crossed it makes hers

Like I said I don't see it most other areas outside of the Northeast.

I understanding going to Oregon over a non-top UC school, and the finances might be similar.

 

[NotInRHouse]

poor parenting and I've touched on this in other posts.

it should be the default but Rutgers does Rutgers. I've given examples as to why many kids want to go away but do not discount the diversity angle. People get mad at that view but it's real and it's been expressed many times.

some terrific schools there but they too present their own issues for graduates looking to go right into workforce.

not following the logic of lumping IU into the poor decision with Carl's Jr and arizona st but adding MD and PSU in the good bucket. IU has some of the best programs in various fields and it's a great college experience with an incredible alumni network.

Somehow, everyone in states as varied as Texas and Florida and California and Illinois seeks out the top public schools, no matter where they come from in the state, their income, and their background.

This is a weird Northeast thing. I would say it extends to LI as well. But it cuts both ways because I know of people from less diverse states that came to RU for the diversity.