I'm not sure what this discussion is about any more. Rutgers is a fine choice for those who live in NJ. because of its relatively economical tuition. For those who can get into it, the Honors College is wonderful by all accounts. But some students don't want to go to a school as large as Rutgers. Some students want to go to a college with a religious affiliation, Catholic or otherwise.Some students want to re-locate (e.g. to the South or Midwest) and see going to college there as a good step in that direction. Some students can get into schools that, while more costly than Rutgers, are also sufficiently better or more prestigious than they are arguably worth the money (e.g. an Ivy League school). There is nothing that's right for everyone, and there's no reason to criticize those who make a different choice.
I don't know if there are meaningful statistics on this, but there is a sense that Rutgers is not as good as some other flagship state universities at keeping excellent in-state students from going elsewhere. That's inevitable to some extent because NJ is so small geographically. Being in a small state also means there is less weekend life than at many other schools. In addition, there are many more private alternatives in this region than, say, in the Far West. But Rutgers also needs to think -- and, I believe, knows it needs to think -- about how it can make its experience more attractive. SAT scores for the incoming classes are going up; but will this continue to happen as high school graduating classes become smaller, as they will soon? That depends on making students want to come to Rutgers.
A few things
- I think the percentage of students in NJ who "want" to attend a religious school is low. Among parents, probably not.
- I think the percentage of students who want to "re-locate" is similarly low. Historically three of the top schools for NJ students are UDel, Drexel, and NYU...which are closer to some NJ population centers than RU. I could get to NYU from my house in JC in two train stops, for example. Bergen County is way closer to NYU than RU, Camden and Burlington to Drexel, etc.
- No one is arguing against students going to Ivy League schools. But the schools you hear bandied about here as top destinations are not prestigious. Clemson is not prestigious. University of Tampa is not prestigious. Etc
- The average SAT at RU being 1367 is proof positive that more than enough "excellent" students are staying in NJ. That's a score that is higher than all but the Michigans and Berkeleys of the world.
The *real* NJ phenomenon looks a little something like this: parents want to impress their peers. What they think impresses them is spending money needlessly, for example, on a school that is less prestigious than not only perhaps Rutgers but maybe even Rowan. Maybe even Montclair. But they do it because they can. NJ is a wealthy state, perhaps the wealthiest in some categories, and that includes people who have kids that couldn't get into Ivy Leagues and couldn't get into RU, and even lower echelon schools.
And the national polarizing environment is present here in NJ. Now sending your kids to a religious school or a school in a state with certain polarizing reputation is just brownie points to "trigger" your opposition or signal to your allies that you are together. Again, that seems moronic and it is, but people throw money away.
These are dying phenomenons as Gen X tends less towards this nonsense than Boomers, and increasingly NJ parents may be from abroad or other states where this stuff would come across as ridiculous. Which is why in the last 10 years or so, RU's numbers have shot up and past some of our peer schools. But for some reason some of our fans and alums are obsessed with the contingent I'm referring to, even though it seems obvious to me we really don't need to pursue them.
