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Hi all,
We're moving to NJ in a month. We have 18 year old son, who graduates high school now. He is a 4.2 GPA student (unweighted), SAT is high enough, etc. He was accepted in many good universities here in CA, but he did not enrollbecause of the move, some costs, etc. He is accepted in Rutgers School of Engineering as well, but after looking at some pools, etc. I grew unsure about Rutgers' education, meaning overall Rutgers is far after some of the universities he was accepted in (UCLA one of them). Yet, I somehow would prefer that he is with us. Shortly, I urgently need to find out from eveyrbody, especially from Rutgers' graduates in engineering (Electrical and Computer) whether you consider Rutgers' education beneficial and good, too theoretical or just right to teach you the skills you need to become a good engineer. Does it pay off, do they provide help in the beginning (job fairs, etc.) to the undergrads to find a job, is the name "Rutgers" respected at least in NJ regarding academics (not sports)? I would really appreciate everyone's opinion and experience, we must make a decision in the next 3 weeks((. Help! Thanks so much!
Don't let the biased US News and World Report (based on things like amount of alumni giving) cloud your decsion. RU has some excellent programs and it's engineering school is top notch.
I am a Rutgers grad, and I got an amazing education there. The engineering school is very well respected and extremely competitive.
One caveat: if your son ends up at Rutgers, he'll get out of it what he puts into it. Rutgers is a really vast university- there are many job fairs, tons of research opportunities, and hundreds of extracurricular programs. However, the students are the ones who are really responsible for putting themselves out there. The faculty and administration will not hold your son's hand as he goes through college: he will be the one who makes his college education what it is. The opportunities are certainly there- it's just a matter of taking advantage of them.
Good luck, and don't worry about the sports- while the programs are nationally recognized, the number of students involved in them is incredibly small. The majority of students I encountered were concerned with academics, not football stats.
Location: Splitting time between Dayton, NJ and Needmore, PA
1,184 posts, read 4,044,370 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MissLizzie85
One caveat: if your son ends up at Rutgers, he'll get out of it what he puts into it. Rutgers is a really vast university- there are many job fairs, tons of research opportunities, and hundreds of extracurricular programs. However, the students are the ones who are really responsible for putting themselves out there. The faculty and administration will not hold your son's hand as he goes through college: he will be the one who makes his college education what it is. The opportunities are certainly there- it's just a matter of taking advantage of them.
+1.
Having graduated from RU also and worked there as an academic dean in pharmacy, what MissLizzie states is absolutely true.
Quite frankly, post-graduation, it isn't the degree so much as the skillset of the person that is going to be sought, especially in today's climate. The student who disciplines him/herself to go to Career Services at the Busch Student Center on a weekly basis, takes time to pursue internships, makes considerable effort to work with the mentor, takes the time to be active in the learning during the internship, networking with others in the field, and learning from mistakes by maturing will have a much better chance for success after graduation because they will have that experience. The kid who thinks everything is going to be handed to him/her needs to go somewhere else.
While I was a dean there, I had students studying in doctoral programs who graduated from Harvard and failed out. I also had students who struggled through junior colleges and blossomed once they were really challenged by the faculty at RU.
This is ultimately your son's academic career. He needs to be the one to nuture it, water and feed, and care for it through the development and implementation of strong study skills and excellent time management skills. The Learning Centers at Rutgers offer training for students who need these skills.
Best wishes to your son in whatever college he chooses and to you in supporting him during his collegiate career.
Just one small request on behalf of the current deans there: please don't be a helicopter parent. As I've said to others, the IRS isn't going to allow you to front for your son if he ever gets audited; don't front for him in college. He has to learn through experience and experience comes from mistakes.
imo, rutgers is well known in the area, but it's definitely not at the level of ucla. it's a very decent school though and he'll do fine if you really want him near you. is your son mainly looking at engineering schools?
Just one small request on behalf of the current deans there: please don't be a helicopter parent. As I've said to others, the IRS isn't going to allow you to front for your son if he ever gets audited; don't front for him in college. He has to learn through experience and experience comes from mistakes.
Of course, I think that your son will be fine going to RU. However, taking RUNYfan's advice to heart, then you probably should have let your son go to UCLA. Let's face it, UCLA is a better school than RU. And, if your son is thinking about grad school, then graduating from UCLA could be more advantageous than graduating from RU. That being said, if your son does very well at RU, he should be well positioned to get into a good grad program.
The key is that your son needs to do very well in his program. Then, if he is not happy at RU, he could transfer to another university. If you are "wed" to the area around NJ, then look for other schools in that area. In fact, there are many good schools, with good engineering programs, in that area: Princeton U, Columbia U, UPenn, Penn St. U, Lehigh U, U of Pitt, etc.
Good luck. And, tell your son to make sure that he aims for the best grades that he can get
The last message somehow disappeared. So, to continue, thanks to all for the info and the advices, we'll see what we can make out of it. It's absolutely true that it's mostly about what will my son make out of any education. He is a very smart and persistent kid, very determined and with God's help he should be fine. We'll let you know the outcome. And in the meantime if anybody has anything else to share regarding the matter, experiences they had regarding looking for job after Rutgers, etc, please do.
As mentioned above, it depends on what your son wants out of school. If he just wants to put in 4 years, get an engineering degree and get a job, Rutgers is fine. If he's more research oriented, wants to continue for a Masters or PhD, maybe wants to teach or stay in the academia/research area, UCLA is definitely the better bet, IMO.
Hi all,
We're moving to NJ in a month. We have 18 year old son, who graduates high school now. He is a 4.2 GPA student (unweighted), SAT is high enough, etc. He was accepted in many good universities here in CA, but he did not enrollbecause of the move, some costs, etc. He is accepted in Rutgers School of Engineering as well, but after looking at some pools, etc. I grew unsure about Rutgers' education, meaning overall Rutgers is far after some of the universities he was accepted in (UCLA one of them). Yet, I somehow would prefer that he is with us. Shortly, I urgently need to find out from eveyrbody, especially from Rutgers' graduates in engineering (Electrical and Computer) whether you consider Rutgers' education beneficial and good, too theoretical or just right to teach you the skills you need to become a good engineer. Does it pay off, do they provide help in the beginning (job fairs, etc.) to the undergrads to find a job, is the name "Rutgers" respected at least in NJ regarding academics (not sports)? I would really appreciate everyone's opinion and experience, we must make a decision in the next 3 weeks((. Help! Thanks so much!
minimize what undergrad costs. ucla and ru are not such a different caliber of school that its worth paying significantly more for either.
The last message somehow disappeared. So, to continue, thanks to all for the info and the advices, we'll see what we can make out of it. It's absolutely true that it's mostly about what will my son make out of any education. He is a very smart and persistent kid, very determined and with God's help he should be fine. We'll let you know the outcome. And in the meantime if anybody has anything else to share regarding the matter, experiences they had regarding looking for job after Rutgers, etc, please do.
I went to Rutgers Newark as a PhD student (mathematics). The campus life there was terrible (though it's much better at the Newark campus), but the quality of the faculty was excellent.
The brand didn't seem to hurt at all. I spent a couple of years working on campus, then interviewed with several financials.
The job fairs on the Newark campus were a bit weak, but I expect the main (New Brunswick) campus would be better.
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((. Help! Thanks so much!
Thanks to all
