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What Every College Student Should Know
By: ZOE MILGRAM

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Photo from "A Portrait of Rutgers," courtesy Rutgers University.

A student studies on a bench in early fall outside the College Center at Douglass College.

 
   COLLEGE
is often an excuse for young people to move away from home. Far away from home. So far away from home that
it’s possible to invent the new person you want to be, away from childhood friends and high school hierarchies.

   That doesn’t explain why so many teenagers are choosing to stay in New Jersey for college. The percentage of New Jersey students who remain in the state has risen to New York Times proportions. Wendy Ginsberg, a writer for the New Jersey section, has noted that New Jersey colleges and universities are being inundated with applications, in the case of Rowan University, for example, whose 1,200 places 7,000 people applied.

   The State Commission on Higher Education has estimated that roughly 70,500 graduates from New Jersey high schools will be attending state colleges. These numbers are expected to rise to 95,000 by 2009.

   Perhaps the question is ‘why now?’ With Gov. Jim McGreevey’s 5 percent cut in public financing, public universities like Rutgers, the largest school in the state, will be unable to compete with the new technologies and renovated buildings that higher enrollment has allowed.

   The Commission on Higher Education (COHE), however, will be allowing more money for schools physical plants, in an effort to make up for the $4.7 billion in excess that have been run up.

   The COHE has awarded six universities, Rutgers, Princeton, Seton Hall, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Stevens Institute of Technology, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, with $5 million of grants money to "augment the state’s prominence as a hub for the high-tech industry and ensure its role as a leader in innovation and progress."

   Even with overspending and poor budgeting, the appeal of going to a state school lies often in the amount of tuition money parents can save. For the school year 2001-2002, for example, tuition to Rutgers University averaged around $5,250 for New Jersey residents.

"Old

Photo from "A Portrait of Rutgers," courtesy Rutgers University.

Old Queens is a familiar
scene on the Rutgers College campus and houses the office of the president of Rutgers University.

   Even private schools like Fairleigh Dickinson University averaged around $17,474 for the same year. The high costs of room and board — as well as the harsh reality that many dorms cannot hold nearly all of the student body — is often a deciding factor, as many of these institutions are largely commuter schools.

   But many commuter students worry that they will not be getting
a real college experience. They may not be around for late-night study (yeah
right!) sessions, parties and the sense of camaraderie that you can only get
on your own for the first time, talking about something that seems "very deep,"
very early in the morning or late at night, depending on how you look at it.

   Most students also find that the experience of being in college is still conducive to starting over, even if mom and dad and everyone that you’ve been going to school with for the past 12 years are only an hour away. Being close by helps an incoming college student become someone new during the week and go home and be the same old person on weekends while mom does their laundry.

   Adam Salmon, a student at The College Of New Jersey, chose to attend the school for its "location and convenience, not money," he says. "Communication (close to home) is very important."

   Besides the some 26 public and private colleges and universities, New Jersey also offers 19 community colleges. Most offer students inexpensive options to earn an associate’s degree and are often a starting block for admission to one of the state’s other institutions, especially schools nearby, although some credits may not transfer.

   These schools tend to offer similar, if not the same, degree options. Dual degree programs and double majors and minors seem to be a popular trend for especially ambitious students and are more commonplace these days.

   State schools also offer more in the way of connections for those planning on staying in New Jersey after graduation. Princeton, Rider, and Rutgers universities all have very large alumni associations. Some graduates believe that membership in an alumni association makes it easier to obtain a job after graduation and therefore is a major selling point.

   As Saint Peter’s junior Andrew Allshouse of Ewing was looking for a school close by, commented, "I wasn’t too impressed with any schools in Pennsylvania or New York so I figured, why not stay in old NJ."



For more information on New Jersey colleges and universities, visit the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education Web site at www.state.nj.us/highereducation/schools.htm.

What Every College Student Should Know

   PROSPECTIVE college students and their parents conduct months of research to find just the right college. Once they’re on campus, however, most students don’t follow through with research on what courses and which teachers will best further their academic career.

"college

   "Ultimately, the college experience you have is up to you," write Ernie Lepore, a philosophy professor at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and Sarah-Jane Leslie, a Rutgers honors student, who together have written a guide to campus life. "What Every College Student Should Know: How to Find the Best Teachers and Learn the Most from Them" (140 pp.; paper, $12.95), was published in March by Rutgers University Press.

   "You can settle for poor teachers, poor guidance, and poor recommendations — but you don’t have to. All you need to get the most out of your college education is a proactive attitude and a little guidance; if you’ve got the attitude, we’ll provide the advice," the authors write.

   The professor-student writing team offers perspectives from both sides of the classroom podium. Readers learn:

   • What questions to ask in selecting an instructor;

   • How to evaluate professors based on the first class sessions;

   • What to look for in a syllabus and grading policies;

   • How to identify a professor’s teaching style and how to adapt to it.

   Even the most outgoing students can expect only limited contact with their professors in the classroom, so the authors also provide tactics to take full advantage of meetings outside regular class time, such as ways to build a relationship with a teacher and get invaluable feedback on your work, and tips on how to get the best recommendations from professors.

   Dr. Lepore is the director of the Center for Cognitive Science at Rutgers, as well as a professor of philosophy. Sarah-Jane Leslie graduated in May from Rutgers College, part of Rutgers University, with a triple major in philosophy, mathematics and cognitive science. The Phi Beta Kappa scholar will put her academic survival skills to work next year at Princeton University, where she will enter the doctoral program in philosophy.



   Founded in 1936, Rutgers University Press is a nonprofit academic publishing house operating under the auspices of Rutgers. For more information, visit rutgerspress.rutgers.edu


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