Rutgers University - New Brunswick

This school is very unsafe. Almost every week there's news about another serial rapist, students getting held up outside of the dorms, robberies, hell even our president was mugged. On campus housing is filthy, at best. Students are not sociable or friendly, you won't have many friends if you don't join a frat or sorority. Town surrounding the campus is slums, there really is no reason to ever go off campus. Even if you want to leave campus, you can't. Besides the fact that you will get stabbed if you're a white person on the bus, even if you were that brave it would take you about an hour just to get to the bus stop. Food is unedible, bring a lot of money for take-outs. And if you don't live on college ave, good luck having a social life. The best you'll do is to hang out in someone else's rat infested apartment just to get away from your smelly indian roommate.

2nd Year Female -- Class 2007

Useful Schoolwork: B-, Individual Value: F

If I had to do it over again I would not go to Rutgers. I would go instead to Vanderbilt, where I also gained admission. Why didn't I go to Vanderbilt? Quite simply, I was very misinformed when it came to the reputation of the schools to which I applied. I honestly thought Rutgers was just as good a school as Vanderbilt. I also thought Rutgers was a better school than Wake Forest, Tulane, Boston College, etc. If I could do it over again today I would not even apply to Rutgers. (An aside: I graduated from high school in Maryland in 1990 and everyone I knew, including myself, used college guides like Barron's and the Princeton Review. U.S. News and World Report simply did not enjoy the widespread influence that it does today. U.S. News did not begin to rank colleges outside of the top 25 until my freshman year of college. Up until then they only listed the top 25 so I ignored it as I thought it was too limited a study. And the issue wasn't available online (obviously) like it is today. If you didn't know when the issue was coming out (and most people didn't) then you had to go to the library to see it and the pages were usually ripped out. I didn't even know U.S. News ranked colleges until late in my senior year of high school.)

Other than the fact that I got into MUCH better schools I would also not go to Rutgers for one more very simple reason: the fact that classes are spread over several different campuses. Simply put, IT SUCKS. BIG TIME. Don't let the recruiters fool you. This is the biggest drawback about Rutgers and you should seriously consider it. You waste all sorts of precious time jumping campuses. Rutgers likes to say things like "we have the largest bus system of any university in the country." So *&^%$#@! what?!?! That is NOT a plus. If any school has a bus system then you should seriously reconsider going there. And don't buy into the BS that Rutgers tries to sell like "you only have to wait 5 minutes for a bus." Listen, the FACT of the matter is that you waste on average about an hour each day for EACH class you have on another campus. You have to walk to the bus stop, wait for a bus, ride the bus, and then walk to your class on another campus, then walk back to the bus stop again, wait for the bus, ride the bus and then walk back to your dorm or next class. That's going to add up to at least an hour. That is an hour you could have spent sleeping, studying, eating or working out. And if it's raining (which it seemed to do every other day in New Brunswick) then you'll be doing all of this in the rain. It would have been SOOOO much better to go to a school with only one campus. I would have had about two extra hours each day.

Other than the fact that Rutgers has a mediocre reputation outside of New Jersey and the bus system/multi-campus aspect blows, I did enjoy my time at Rutgers. I thought the students were intelligent and I had many bright friends. I really now suspect that my freshman year they put me on a floor with bright students just so I wouldn't consider transferring. (Just in case you're wondering why I never transferred: my freshman year U.S. News began to rank schools outside the top 25 and Rutgers College was in the 25 to 50 range--they didn't rank schools in this range--and I never checked it again until I graduated. I was shocked, SHOCKED, and depressed to see that Rutgers wasn't even in the top 50. When you work as hard as I did in high school and you get in to a number of great universities like I did and then you find out your school isn't as good as you thought it's as if your high school record is erased. I could have just goofed off for 4 years and not taken any AP classes.) Lastly, officials at Rutgers really need to step it up. Rutgers is really slipping academically. It is not the school it was in the mid to late 80's. Their admission standards have decreased so much that it's pathetic. At least half of each new class should have graduated in the top 10% of their high school class. For the flagship campus of a state school not to have 50% in the top 10 percent is pathetic.

4th Year Male -- Class 1994

Education Quality: A-, Surrounding City: D+

Rutgers was my 2nd choice school. I only ended up there because I was dating a guy and didn't want to go 5 hours away to Penn State, and I didn't have guaranteed housing at Penn State. Let me say I do have ONE positive comment - I made some really good friends for life in my sorority. That's it for the positive! I found this site while researching colleges for my son, who is a HS senior. Let me just say that he will NEVER go to RU. I would not WASTE another dime on that school! First of all, I am just number 361309.. yep I still remember the stupid number, cause that is all that matters there. You are not a person, no one cares about you. Douglass & Cook campus are nice, and I'm glad I stayed living on Douglass because it was at least a little easier to sleep (if your room mate or next door neighbor weren't keeping you awake with their loud sex all night) although freshman year I wanted so badly to be in the co-ed dorms. I came into Rutgers a confident, wholesome young woman. I was exposed to so much CRAP there it makes my head spin! I was chased, I was flashed walking home to Douglass via George St. ( NEVEr do that!) and almost date raped numerous times. My 3rd room mate tried to commit suicide because it was like living in hell there. My first set of room mates played with the Ouija board nightly, and left my room & clothes smelling like pot... I really should have taken the advice of my boyfriends mother during freshman year and transferred out to a small Christian college ASAP - but I was not raised in a Christian home, and I always went to public school so I thought Rutgers would be ok - boy was I wrong! Teachers are ultra-liberal & cannot speak English. Nothing was more frustrating than getting a D in Labor Economics because I couldn't understand the prof or the TA. I recently went to visit the college my husband went to (small & private).. I was AMAZED that they still knew him by name. That is what the college experience SHOULD be like - a place where you can actually GET the classes you need, make friends that actually have some moral compass, and get sufficient training for your career. I graduated with a degree in Economics, and I could NOT get a job other than retail manager at the time because I couldn't afford to sit home living with "mommy and daddy" like most of the spoiled rich brats who go there. I had to get out and support myself ASAP. I do make quite a bit of money now, and it is not at all based on what I learned in college. The only "careers" that have actually financially been good for me have been based on my looks (modeling) or common sense investing (real estate) - things I didn't even need a 4 year degree and large student loan for anyway!

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000