Rutgers University - New Brunswick

First, some good things about Rutgers. The English program is very good and most of the profs I had were really good. I don't know about the other programs, but most of the gen ed classes I took were pretty bad. This could be because they were intro classes, though. Some teachers are very nice, but even still, the classes are very big and very often the prof doesn't even know who you are because there are 300 people in the class. For me, that was a bad thing, but some people like that. Parts of the campus are pretty, like College Ave (specifically Vorhees Mall) and Douglass campus. Even though parts of campus are pretty, you still can't get away from constant traffic noise and views of a run down city. There is a lot of history at Rutgers which is cool, but it can also lend to people being somewhat arrogant.

Okay, now for the bad. I had trouble making friends here, and it is for a lot of reasons. One, I don't like to go to parties, and there are a lot of parties at Rutgers. Two, I lived on Douglass and all of the extracurricular clubs I wanted to go to were on College Ave. It takes 30 minutes to get there on the bus (and you don't want to drive because traffic and parking are awful!) and by the time all my classes are done with for the day, I don't feel like traveling to get to a club. I did go to one club for about 2 months, but it was so big that nobody even knew who I was. The people on a whole are not very friendly and even my neighbors refused to socialize with me or any of roommates.

Oh, and by the way, it takes a LONG time to get to class by bus... 30 minutes to College Ave from Douglass, 45 minutes to Livingston or Busch. If you live on College Ave, it might be better. I think it is easier to make friends and everything is closer on College Ave. (But you WILL have a class on all the campuses during your years at Rutgers.)

I would compare Rutgers NB to New York City, only not as exciting in terms of things to do. (There isn't much in New Brunswick...) It is like NYC in the sense that you will walk past a hundred people and not one will say hello to you or even look at you... even for New Jersey, it's pretty bad. (I am a native Jerseyan). I think people just kind of get sucked into this depressive wave and everyone just walks around with their headphones on and eyes on the ground. It's very very lonely.

In addition to all this, I don't feel very safe. As a woman, it is especially scary. Every week we get an e-mail about another robbery or attack that happened to a student or somewhere on campus. Homeless people come onto the buses (nothing against homeless people, it's just that everybody can come on the bus.) I was also told never to walk around by myself after dark, and there are parts of New Brunswick that you NEVER go to.For me, Rutgers was not a very good experience overall. But you decide for yourself if you would fit in.