I mentioned this in the other college thread but a neighbor here in North County San Diego is sending his daughter to Fairfield this year. Their nursing school was the main draw, along with the small campus and family in the area
Why Did Rutgers Have to Rutgers?
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I can't speak for him, but he said with respect to the smaller schools: "All better nursing programs than the big schools, easier for clinicals and better connections for job placement."
That's actually three separate things: (1) better; (2) easier for clinicals; (3) "better connections for job placement."
Who cares what kids pay for in the end, and if the parents are paying and have the money, that's their choice and what they and their child value. You sound jelly that some parents made their kids' educations a priority and saved money to pay for their school.
As I had said in our own kid's choice for PA school, he wanted direct admission to the graduate program, smaller classes and a smaller school. To boot, the facilities were tremendous, and with respect to job placement, sometimes it pays to go where you know someone who put in a good word for you to ease the transition from school life to work life, or to have a group of people ahead of you who tell you a place is a great place to work. There are a lot of places in the medical profession that are not very good places to work.
Both of you are right. There is no one size fits all. Plenty of kids pick RU and succeed and same for kids that picked OOSS.
I also thought Tampa was better but was too embarrassed to include that on my list lol
We are filling out the applications now. Check back in February
I am glad that the rankings are showing a rise for RU and a decline for State Penn, but as much as I hate to admit it - the "feel" is just better there
Absolutely! Our oldest picked Rutgers, loved it, did extremely well, and is doing great as a software engineer for a huge software company.
Pulling for Tampa just to ruffle the feathers of some RU faithful!!!!
My son is going to Fairfield. Brought him to College Ave campus and downtown New Brunswick a few times and he had no interest. He wants leafy suburb.
Fairfield pitches finance, nursing, and education, and makes very convincing case Fairfield grads immediately get jobs in these fields that pay way above the national average, even though most jobs in Fairfield County and NY metro pays more than the average in the field. In other words, the message to parents is when your kid graduates, the kid will get a real job and not come back to live with mom and dad.
I got into suburban Catholic schools including Fairfield and Villanova but found Rutgers far more interesting. Everybody has their own tastes is what I realize now.
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One of the most important things that parents should look at, when comparing schools, is the graduation rate in FOUR years from each school!!!
Fairfield is a solid school. Lots to offer depending on major.
Correct there is a shortage on nurses, but if they want to get into a specific discipline, they need to go to a school with connections. For example, my daughter is NICU. Most hospitals will not take a new RN in NICU. She got in to start and is now a NP NICU.
Seems like you need more life experiences and have no idea what you are talking about. The small school doesn't have to be private. I just used those examples because that is where most of the RN students go in this area. I have been though the process with both my kids. Anyone can get an RN job if you pass your boards, but getting your preferred discipline takes talent and connections. If you want to be a general RN or Geriatrics, plenty of those jobs.
If Rutgers ever takes me up on my offer to market the school at Long Island college fairs, I'm going to pitch the breadth of the Rutgers course catalog. Could be the best in all of the Northeast.
I took it for granted at the time, but compared to Fairfield, a midsize school with 5,500 undergrads, Rutgers has far more academic options. That is important for a student who hasn't decided on a major.
I can't believe he typed that. My sister went to Middlesex County, spent idk...8k, got an associates and makes 85k her first year in nursing and they will pay for your bachelors. Not sure why someone wants to spend 40x for the same degree but wowzers.
Rutgers has all but given up on recruiting kids from upper middle class and wealthy towns. They keep beating their chest that we are a BMW and all they accept are Toyota Corollas. I have said that to their top fundraisers as well.
I go in homes in Westfield, Basking Ridge, Montclair, Mendhem etc, beautiful and I think to myself no chance on earth this middle school kid in here is going to Rutgers in 6 years.
Then we all scratch our heads on giving levels. Can't imagine why.
I go in homes in Westfield, Basking Ridge, Montclair, Mendhem etc, beautiful and I think to myself no chance on earth this middle school kid in here is going to Rutgers in 6 years.
Then we all scratch our heads on giving levels. Can't imagine why.
What do you think Rutgers would need to do to attract students whose parents are willing and able to pay out of state tuition at academically less strong schools such as Clemson? I don't think hereditary admissions will change who chooses to attend Rutgers.
NJ is the #2 state in the Clemson freshman class of 2025, ahead of New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia, all of which have more people than NJ.
NJ kids love Clemson like nobody else!
Clemson is a marketing machine. The school openly admits its strategic priority is, "Deliver the No. 1 Student Experience in the Nation."
Maybe Rutgers should build this where Brower used to stand and make it a freshman dorm exclusively available to students whose parents pay full tuition plus are donors.
The effort by Clemson to attract kids from wealthy families from NJ doesn't seem to be helping Clemson in the rankings though.
FYI - My sister, 10 years younger, went to Clemson. Don't know why but do know she paid in-state tuition by joining ROTC. She working in Boston a week after she graduated.
The question I would ask is if she had gone to Rutgers would she have been working in Boston a week after graduation. If yes, how does Rutgers broadcast that to potential applicants. If no, how does Rutgers make it happen
Boston was inevitable because her friends went to New England colleges and the only good jobs for new grads in New England are in Boston.
Rutgers talks about proximity to New York City but this doesn't mean much to New Jersey students who take it for granted. It means a lot for students not from the New York metro.
Rutgers is the only flagship state school outside of UCLA, Berkeley, and University of Maryland to offer commuting access to a global metropolis and New York is a bigger city than any of them.
Sorry to hear about your experience with the specialized RU school tour. Bergen County is the epicenter of self loathing New Jerseyians. Some Bergen county parents prefer sending their kid to South Carolina or Alabama before sending them to RU [where they probably wouldn’t get in anyways] thinking their educational experience will somehow be better.Backstory - Rutgers, despite it's good education, is not favorably looked upon in my area of Bergen County. The kids treat it like it's a school for lepers. So convincing one of my children to take a campus visit specifically for their major was a bit of a win.
(start of rant)
Theshow pretty much started immediately. During the registration process, Rutgers asked for almost no information like the dozen other college tours we've taken. After it was completed, Rutgers was the only school not to provide any parking information. For me, that wouldn't have been a big deal but I wasn't able to be there so it was a big deal for my wife and kid who were unfamiliar with New Brunswick and all the current construction didn't help matters.
When they arrived there wasn't a single person from Admissions or the Nursing school there. An alumni, likely in his 40s, was doing the information session. This immediately raised a red flag based on all the prior tours both general and degree specific that we've been on. This person couldn't answer half the questions, admitted he hadn't been around campus much since graduation and then proceeded to provide bad information like telling a family that Early Action and Early Decision were the same thing. IYKYK that is the furthest thing from the truth as the latter locks you in immediately to the school. He also told the group that they admitted 700-800 students last year even though he stated there were only 350 spots in the program each year.
On top of it all, they could not see the labs that they would be spending a lot of time in due to renovations. Why have an information session for the program without being able to show a key piece of the program? To boot, they were told that the program had relocated to two floors in the office building they were in (not an RU building) for the foreseeable future without much reason given even though there is a Nursing hall on campus, which they also did not see.
So Rutgers basically shot themselves in the foot in terms of any real interest now after I worked so hard to get my kid to give them a chance. Why Rutgers Why !@?#*
(Rant over)
Anyways, as someone posted every kid’s journey/path is different. My son was a smaller school environment type kid and goes to school at RPI in upstate NY. My daughter on the other hand wants a bigger school but be away from home. We visited U. Of Delaware today and got a tour. Nice smaller public university campus and only a couple hours away but Rutgers in my opinion offers more.
Good luck on your kid’s journey.
GO RU
Boston is as much, if not more, of a magnet among 22 year olds as NYC. If Rutgers established a reputation for placing grads there it would do nothing but help.
Your sister was not an RN when she graduated County College. She was maybe a med tech/assistant and used them for undergraduate tuition. Very smart. There are different ways to get the degree.
Not true. Sister went through the same program at Middlesex. After completion of the 2 year program she was an RN. She was not a BSN. Much like Skoolies example. My sister was offered a BSN program free of charge by her employer after 2 years of service.
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Guys I don't care what the letters are after her name. She spent 6k a year for 24 months to make 85k a year and the place of business will pay for her advanced schooling.
On no planet should people be paying a quarter million for a nursing degree. Save 200k of that, call me we'll buy a rental property. that makes you 15-20k a year and hell you can give it to the same kid.
On no planet should people be paying a quarter million for a nursing degree. Save 200k of that, call me we'll buy a rental property. that makes you 15-20k a year and hell you can give it to the same kid.
This is a blue collar mindset. The people sending their kids to $320K+ schools, already have $10M + in the bank. They spend $30K +/year on private school and it isn’t so they can send their kids to Rutgers or Middlesex or similar. NJ’s elite send their kids to Michigan, Texas, Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, UVA, North Carolina, Florida, Clemson, Miami, Boston College, Notre Dame, Stanford, and the Ivy Leagues. They need a brand so they can brag at the country club. Rutgers lacks panache. My friend offered to lease his daughter a Mercedes if she chose Rutgers. She still opted for Illinois, and the inconvenience of traveling all the way out there.
But See Section 124's post above. For someone who wants to go direct to NICU, or some other specific area, if parents can and want to spend extra $$$$ for their kid to go to school, that's a choice. It's their choice. This constant stone-throwing at other's choices (not you) on social media is so tiresome.
On the other hand, if the student's parents cannot afford to pay the tuition, room board, going the more economical route makes sense. No need to sink yourself in debt.
See response to kupuna above and what Section 124 said. Also, in addition to "getting the degree," some kids may want the 4 year college experience at a leafy green college. If that's what they want and the parents can afford to send them, that's their choice. Some people still relish their college experience, but some of us who survived Rutgers may not appreciate that experience. I made the choice to skip the private colleges that would have sunk me in debt because my parents could not pay the expensive tuition and went to Rutgers. I got it all-loved my experience at Rutgers, even though it was grittier and uglier than Lehigh. I also loved that I graduated with a small amount of loans that I paid off within 3 months of graduation.
Agreed. Not only does Rutgers do a horrible job of marketing to the best and brightest. But they do an even worse job of marketing to the parents of the best and brightest. As discussed much earlier in the thread. The only time many of these parents step on RU’s campus is during a tour. To royally screw up a tour is not the best way to put your best foot forward for attracting candidates. I haven’t been on an official RU tour. But I have visited most of our peers. Have taken tours (not new student) on many. I can tell you our peers have blown me away with their attention to detail. It also doesn’t hurt that our peers do a much better job with having viable merchandise offerings. Our bookstore is an abomination when it comes to branded items.
I never said it had to be private and was simply going off the schools you listed.
Parents / kids can make whatever choices they want when it comes to school.
I simply said if my kid was pursuing nursing I wouldn’t be suggesting or pushing any of those schools you listed for the reasons of them having better programs, clinicals or job placement strictly when it comes to nursing.
The ROI isn’t worth it IMO.
Now there’s probably other reasons for wanting to go to those types of schools (outside of the Nursing discussion) and that’s fine….but your post was more about Nursing and less about those other reasons.
Yes, but then in the long run what happens when they go under for alums?
Like, who exactly is going to be more impressed with a degree from Sacred Heart than not only RU but 99% of public schools?
I’m glad you changed your tune on “who cares what kids pay for in the end” which is what you said a few posts earlier lol.
I am really totally baffled at the idea that anyone is going to be more impressed at a degree from all but the Ivies and a few others, considering RU ranks about 40 nationally, and even for that, I am thinking it would be down to a few fields like finance and perhaps some grad school situations, particularly law and medicine, and even that, I knew people who went to Ivy law schools from RU. I went to a top 25 law school and RU was top 10 in placement there. Only other public school in the top 10 was Michigan, and certainly didn't include some of the small potato private schools or Clemson or Tampa.
RU has a top notch nursing program. Unless you wanted to be a nurse outside of the Northeast corridor specifically, going other than RU strikes me as very illogical.
I think you are cherry picking a portion of what I said-- the broader context is each kid/parent make a shared decision if both are paying (or if the parents are paying). Nobody should care about others' decisions. LOL. Learn to read in context.
Isn't better in the eye of the beholder? I know nurses from RU doing extremely well.
There is a cost of living crisis in the country. 2/3 of people say they can't afford groceries. So it's great for people in the 1/3, I just hope the people who think University of Tampa is a great college decision also don't complain about parking and concessions and are funding NIL.
This is inaccurate. I knew a ton of people from Chatham (just one example) including multiple people on just my freshman year floor, and this was before the economy imploded several times and the current crisis. You can look up feeder high schools, and while some of those high schools are smaller, you're going to see all the bigger high schools in wealthy areas at the top....Cherry Hill, JP Stevens, all of Freehold Regional, etc.
The people who think 75-85k a year for Sacred Heart or Tampa are justified are turning their nose at RU, but I'd consider that more than upper middle class. And I'd guess most of those people have trust fund or similar type finances where there is no such thing as a budget. And those people have always done, always will, and so do their equivalents in other states.
Although some on this board would never concede the point, a lot of the kids going to Clemson, probably most...did not get into RU. I see comments on this board and social media increasingly conceding that Biff didn't get in- and of course that's an outrage, because I pay taxes for that! We don't mention this enough, and it's actually a great thing.
Secondly, it's the Shop Rite line phenomenon, like I have said a bajillion times. And it remains both controversial and true. There is a mindset in the tri state area that if I am paying more for something, it must be better. There are a million non education examples for this too, real estate being a good one, where a similar home in a better school district will cost less in the town where the address has less cache, as an example. And part of this is type of kid who goes to the school. RU is known as a school for strivers- it's one of the best nationally at lifting kids who are first generation college students into the middle class and beyond. For some, disgustingly in my view, this is a frowned upon demographic. They know if they send Biff to Clemson, he will be surrounded by kids that look like him, he can rush a fraternity surrounded by his high school classmates that have parents with similar incomes, and most importantly today, that can be all over social media.
This isn't going to change, so I think may as well get those LI and Westchester parents who haven't been poisoned by the NJ iteration of this mentality but may feel it about Binghamton or Stony Brook like you said.
One anecdotal data point: My niece is enrolled at Rutgers for the fall. Coming from what I'd call an average Somerset County town. Didn't cast a wide net of applications; N.C. State was the real outlier, but otherwise, Delaware was the furthest location. I think her final three were, in order of preference, Rutgers, Seton Hall, and U. Del.
My brother and sister-in-law (both Seton Hall alums) were relieved at her choice simply (though not exclusively) because of the cost. She's close enough to commute, but will be living there.
My brother and sister-in-law (both Seton Hall alums) were relieved at her choice simply (though not exclusively) because of the cost. She's close enough to commute, but will be living there.
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I quoted exactly what you said in two separate posts.
I wasn’t trying to cherry pick and just wanted to point out the contradictory takes.
I actually agree with your second (and revised) take. Stating that we shouldn’t care what kids pay for when it comes to college is such an antiquated view and the reason why so any kids are in insane amounts of debt.
Yeah, Sacred Heart is like the catholic-version of Rider. LOL! Two high priced very mediocre schools. I took a look at Fairfield and once again.....solid school, but absolutely insane price tag.
We would be thrilled if our little one ended up at RU. Unfortunately, she is currently dead set on architecture (the major, not the B.ARCH option but RU has nothing in this field). Hoping her interest in business continues to grow so she can have more college options.
Agree.
When I asked a high school guidance counselor why so many top Long Island high school students go to Stony Brook, the answer was they got into Ivies or B1G/SEC/ACC schools and want to study medicine. Parents told kids go get an MD or other advanced STEM degree at Stony Brook at a fraction of the price of any other school. Parallel to point @RUskoolie describes about nursing.
Many of these Stony Brook-bound students would choose Rutgers if the economics were similar. Most Long Island kids prefer to leave Long Island for college.
The pay-more-its-better thing is very New Jersey. I like to call New Jersey the frivolous ornamentation state. People put a lot of time, effort, and money into looking flash when the same outcome can be had with a minimum of fuss.
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