From Paul Mulcahy Twitter

[e5fdny]

I think, and those numbers show it, the perception of Rutgers inside of NJ is improving. Anecdotely I am seeing it too.

I started seeing it a about 6-7 years ago when my now freshman in college son was looking at HS. Some of career academies (Allied Health, Biotech, High Tech) in the MCVSD would list not just what colleges their kids were accepted at but where they were actually enrolling. I was surprised to see back then how many from these really, really good high schools we’re going to Rutgers.

My son was accepted to Engineering, SEBS and SAS but chose a different college all together as the fit at his present school was much better for him.

As an aside, lots of kids heading to Seton Hall this year also. They offered free applications and are throwing a lot of money at the good students. Wonder if this is an attempt to raise their own academic profile.

Ridiculous amounts of money from Shoe that we started seeing last year. That might be their attempt but from my son’s classmates who ended up going who were also offered lots of aid...let’s just say I don’t know about that. LOL

 

[RUnTeX]

Jon, once the new RWJ Barnabas Center is opened, will you be having anyone from the Sports Medicine on your podcast to talk about the benefits to RU athletes and current and future benefits to the growth of Sports Medicine programs for RBHS students. I would think there will be more interest from high school kids thinking of Sports Medicine and undergrads considering Rutgers for those types of Health careers.

Heaven, I think you mean to refer to RUJON, not jonS, when you reference the Jon Newman (and Danny Breslauer) podcast but I could be wrong.

 

[HeavenUniv.]

Tex,yes that is who I meant. Now everyone named Jon needs to start a podcast to make things easier.

 

[HeavenUniv.]

Tex,don’t know what part of Texas you live in, but I much prefer the Red Dirt country music that comes from Lubbock and other parts of Oklahoma and Texas than the stuff on mainstream country radio stations. I have no idea how Keith Urban has made a zillion dollars and is classified as country music. By the way, for those interested there are a bunch of Red Dirt stations you can get through the internet.

 

[RUnTeX]

Tex,don’t know what part of Texas you live in, but I much prefer the Red Dirt country music that comes from Lubbock and other parts of Oklahoma and Texas than the stuff on mainstream country radio stations. I have no idea how Keith Urban has made a zillion dollars and is classified as country music. By the way, for those interested there are a bunch of Red Dirt stations you can get through the internet.

Actually I don't live in Texas anymore and it's been many years since I moved, but that's where I was living when I first joined the old rutgersfan.com message board, predecesor to scarletnation.com, so that's the origin of the handle.

As far as country music, I never really got that much into it while I was down there so I'm not an authority on it.

 

[jonS]

Jon, once the new RWJ Barnabas Center is opened, will you be having anyone from the Sports Medicine on your podcast to talk about the benefits to RU athletes and current and future benefits to the growth of Sports Medicine programs for RBHS students. I would think there will be more interest from high school kids thinking of Sports Medicine and undergrads considering Rutgers for those types of Health careers.

You may be confusing me with another "Jon." I'm a Rutgers College '73 alum and retired senior counsel with Siemens Corp living in Massachusetts for the past 40 years or so. But I do believe the med school merger has helped with the USNWR ratings ....

 

[sct1111]

We were third among RU, PSU and UMD not too long ago. I’ll take second and trending up in a heartbeat.

I don't think we were ever behind PSU in terms of SAT scores. We were always at least slightly better. Maryland was usually slightly better.

 

[MorrisAsh]

We are still behind regional public schools like UMD, Pitt and SUNY Binghampton. Currently we live in the UConn, PSU, Baruch and Stony Brook SAT neighborhood- yes it is true (look it up). More work to do.

 

[MorrisAsh]

I think college has gotten so expensive and the “future of work” somewhat unclear that it’s made state schools a hell of a lot more appealing — even to upper middle class parents. That might be contributing to this up-tick in competitiveness.

RU also has a lot more mainstream visibility now due to the football program’s solid 10-year run & establishment of the Block R as a “identity” for the RU brand.

Well you can pay $35K at RU or $65K at Villanova for comparable educations so....

 

[RUChow]

Actually I don't live in Texas anymore and it's been many years since I moved, but that's where I was living when I first joined the old rutgersfan.com message board, predecesor to scarletnation.com, so that's the origin of the handle.

As far as country music, I never really got that much into it while I was down there so I'm not an authority on it.

 

[RUChow]

We are still behind regional public schools like UMD, Pitt and SUNY Binghampton. Currently we live in the UConn, PSU, Baruch and Stony Brook SAT neighborhood- yes it is true (look it up). More work to do.

Based upon SAT scores of incoming students we have been ahead of PSU for a long time now.

 

[e5fdny]

We are still behind regional public schools like UMD, Pitt and SUNY Binghampton. Currently we live in the UConn, PSU, Baruch and Stony Brook SAT neighborhood- yes it is true (look it up). More work to do.

Maybe more work to do with regard to the SAT number but in the neighborhood you mentioned we still have the nicest house on the block.

 

[sct1111]

We are still behind regional public schools like UMD, Pitt and SUNY Binghampton. Currently we live in the UConn, PSU, Baruch and Stony Brook SAT neighborhood- yes it is true (look it up). More work to do.

I think our incoming freshman classes are much larger than those schools you listed so those smaller schools have the luxury of being more selective. Smaller schools will have higher SAT acceptance scores. It's not a perfect indicator of the quality of education or quality of students.

 

[RUChow]

I think our incoming freshman classes are much larger than those schools you listed so those smaller schools have the luxury of being more selective. Smaller schools will have higher SAT acceptance scores. It's not a perfect indicator of the quality of education or quality of students.

There are a zillion schools smaller than us with much lower median SAT's.

 

[Jim_from_RU]

A 1319 average is really, really strong.

 

[TonyLieske]

I think our incoming freshman classes are much larger than those schools you listed so those smaller schools have the luxury of being more selective. Smaller schools will have higher SAT acceptance scores. It's not a perfect indicator of the quality of education or quality of students.

The recent news on SAT's brought this up in a discussion I had elsewhere, I thought it was interesting that high school GPA is actually a better indicator of student success than SAT's...SAT's have a pretty weak correlation to student success when you look at the data.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/presto...high-school-gpa-beats-sat-score/#1ca4293f4b09

"Using a sample of students who attended a group of less selective four-year public colleges and universities, Chingos calculates a student’s likelihood of graduation based on both her high school GPA and her SAT or ACT score. While better marks on both measures predict a better chance of completion, the relationship between high school GPA and graduation rates is by far the strongest.

For instance, a student with a high SAT score (above 1100) but a middling high school GPA (between 2.67 and 3.0) has an expected graduation rate of 39%. But students with the opposite credentials—mediocre SAT scores but high GPAs—graduate from college at a 62% rate.

Put another way, the expected graduation rate of a student with a given GPA doesn’t change very much depending on her SAT score. But the expected graduation rate of a student with a given SAT score varies tremendously depending on her GPA."

 

[RUChoppin]

The recent news on SAT's brought this up in a discussion I had elsewhere, I thought it was interesting that high school GPA is actually a better indicator of student success than SAT's...SAT's have a pretty weak correlation to student success when you look at the data.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/presto...high-school-gpa-beats-sat-score/#1ca4293f4b09

"Using a sample of students who attended a group of less selective four-year public colleges and universities, Chingos calculates a student’s likelihood of graduation based on both her high school GPA and her SAT or ACT score. While better marks on both measures predict a better chance of completion, the relationship between high school GPA and graduation rates is by far the strongest.

For instance, a student with a high SAT score (above 1100) but a middling high school GPA (between 2.67 and 3.0) has an expected graduation rate of 39%. But students with the opposite credentials—mediocre SAT scores but high GPAs—graduate from college at a 62% rate.

Put another way, the expected graduation rate of a student with a given GPA doesn’t change very much depending on her SAT score. But the expected graduation rate of a student with a given SAT score varies tremendously depending on her GPA."

I was curious about the report mentioned in that link, and found it: http://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/What-Matters-Most-for-College-Completion.pdf

One thing it doesn't touch on is the correlation between GPA and SAT/ACT score... that is, how strongly do higher SAT/ACT scores reflect higher GPAs? With only one number to go on, one can assume that an average SAT score of 1319 would also mean a higher overall HS GPA than an average SAT score of 1100 (and therefore, a higher graduation rate)... but the study didn't look at that connection.