N.J. Governor Wants to Merge Thomas Edison Into Rutgers

[creationstory]

creationstory - I'd like to ask if you have any empirical data to suggest your claims or whether you are just using your personal feelings on the matter to bash Rutgers as well as myself?? This discussion is about Gov. Christie's desire to merge RUTGERS NEW BRUNSWICK - PISCATAWAY and TESC. I am totally aware that Rutgers is a system school - I am a full-time student there! Camden and Newark are separate but equal both have Law Schools, Newark has a nursing school and their alums are treated no different than a New Brunswick school. Rutgers has accommodated me as a NTS accepting 12 CCAF credits (although my situation is different due to my AFSC, - Linguist - Urdu, Farsi), and 48 via CLEP/DSST.

I do not know whether or not you have taken courses at RU - however if you have than are experiences are vastly different. In my first semester I took 2 courses taught and graded by TA's - both were lower level requirements taught in lecture halls. Every other single class I have taken has had less than 25 students and the vast majority having 18 or less.

As for your statement to Rutgers is just keeping pace - if this data is just keeping pace what is everyone else doing??

Eleven of Rutgers' graduate departments are ranked by the National Research Council in the top 25 among all universities: Philosophy (2nd), Geology Ranked 9th Nationally based on NSF funding 9th ,Geography (13th), Statistics (17th), English (17th), Mathematics (19th), Art History (20th), Physics (20th), History (20th) Comparative Literature (22nd), French (22nd), and Materials Science Engineering (25th).

According to U.S. News & World Report, in the top 25 among all universities: Food Science (2nd), Library Science (6th), Drama/Theater (12th), Mathematics (16th), English (18th), History (19th, with the subspecialty of African-American History ranked 4th and Women’s History ranked 1st), Applied Mathematics (21st) and Physics (24th).

The Philosophy Department ranked first in 2002–04 tied with New York University and Princeton University, and second in 2004–06 (NYU was first, Princeton 3rd, Oxford 4th) in the Philosophical Gourmet's biennial report on Philosophy programs in the English-speaking world.

In 2003, the Wall Street Journal conducted a study of the undergraduate institutions that most frequently feed students placements at elite professional and graduate programs, such as Yale and Harvard; Rutgers was ranked 20th in the rankings they compiled for public university's.

Even Forbes Magazine weighed has an opinion on RU, Forbes ranked Rutgers as being the 20th best public university in the United States for "getting rich," as judged by its students' median salaries upon graduation.

Even Rutgers - Newark gets to join in the fun! According to U.S. News & World Report, in the top 25 among all universities: The Division of Global Affairs (DGA) Ph.D. program at Rutgers University-Newark was ranked fifth in the nation in the Benchmarking Academic Excellence survey of Top Universities in Social and Behavioral Sciences Disciplines in the combined category of International Affairs and Development for 2006 - 2007.

As to me and law school - my LSAC GPA is 4.0 a LSAC 4.0 is the same as any other 4.0 whether it's from Harvard or TESC - If you went to an extremely prestigious UG such as HYP (Harvard, Yale, Princeton) you may get a slight bump when ADCOM's review your package in the end law schools care about numbers because they must report them to LSAC and those numbers have a significant factor in their rankings. LSAT is another beast, I'm currently in a PowerScore class - I have taken over 10 real LSAT's as part of the course and I'm averaging a 174 - If I bomb it and get a 158 I'll still be sitting pretty at RU -Newark or Camden for free because they are Yellow Ribbon participants. As a member of the NJ Air Guard RU has not asked me for a single penny - I register for courses buy my books and show up - it's great! So I still have 36 months of Post-9/11 GI bill eligibility remaining.

I feel for the Michigan State grad who cant find a job - I feel for their situation -however that's the current state of the legal market in this economy. Law Schools are graduating approximately 20,000 more students then is necessary, over-saturating the market. The fact of the matter is if you graduate at or below median at a school that is not in the prestigious T-14 you will not have an easy time finding work. Graduating a Tier 3 school such as Michigan State in a region dominated by several T-14 schools (Michigan, UChicago, Northwestern) only compounds to the problem.

Anyway enough thread hijacking - this is about a TESC RU - New Brunswick merger. Because of the facts I have stated above and in previous posts I believe it will be a good thing for TESC and NJ residents!

GREAT DATA... you keep naming all these wonderful statistics and marketing material advertising your school... but in the end Rutgers is keeping pace with all the universitites around it.....
how so?

ok.. looking at your DATA.... you keep saying how RUTGERS is ranked such and such or this department and that department....

when you start using data from different sources.. so much changes.

one persons opinion may say that this place is ok.. another persons opinion may say it is GREAT! you do understand.. that it is opinion!

next.. you are ranking RUTGERS in very specific areas....top 20 public universities... or graduate departments..

you fail to consider how many public schools have this department or how many graduate programs have this major...

when you start making for more specific conditions you make the number of participants smaller until you can make a school sound like its damn near the best!

example... cars.. top 10 mid range price (eliminated high price and low price cars).. family cars (eliminated sports cars, coupes, wagons, suvs, trucks) by a foreign company (elminated domestic) built in america (eliminated those foreign cars built in a foreign nation)...

next you are using different years.... all major schools are improving.. Rutgers will never ever ever be UC Berkely or UCLA or RICE or MIT or Stanford or Cal-Tech... it is fighting to be around the level of lets say.. Stony Brook, or Univ of Maryland or Florida State or Univ Michigan...

a 4.0 from school A.. is not a 4.0 from school B... if that were the case.. they wouldn't have the LSAT's at all!!!!

if they took a look at your course conversions.. they will see how many courses you have with a grade.. it shows it on your LSAC report...

so 60 credits with no grade attached to it and 60 credits with a grade attached to it vs 120 credits with a grade attached to it...

you also haven't considered that they look at major.. someone who had a 4.0 with a philosophy or biochemistry major vs someone with a 4.0 with a criminal justice degree (historically an easy major)..

even if you make it to a top law school.. you are competing against students who very smart..so who is to say you will make the top 10% of students or make law review? you can go to a great law school.. and still not get to a top firm... so where does that take you? a store fron law office?

taking a practice lsat with no pressure vs an actual lsat with full pressure are two very different things... good luck with the test...

in the end.. college teaches how to critically think for yourself.. that is the point of taking different courses in different areas.. some people simply learn info and spit it back out... others absorb it and keep it forever... when you hear about statistics.. really read it carefully.. and don't gloss over key details!

i'd rather pay to go to princeton or columbia via my GI Bill than go to Rutgers for free and a t-14 law school where i didnt make bar review...
you open up more doors socially and professionally going to an ivy league school... than an average undergrad and a good law school where u weren't at the top...