the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ , Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean sponsors legislation, approved today by the Senate, to study why so many New Jersey high school graduates choose to attend college out of state.
“Too many of our bright and talented high school graduates are deciding to pursue college degrees in other states,” said Kean (R-21). “The ‘brain drain’ hurts our state. Most of them never return to their home state to help bolster our workforce, contribute to communities, and help support their families. This study will help us better understand what we can do to reverse the trend.”
The bill, S-1228, would direct the New Jersey Secretary of Higher Education and the state’s Commissioner of Education, to conduct a study to determine the extent and causes of the out-migration of high school graduates to colleges and universities in other states.
An analysis by the Washington Post of data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows New Jersey’s export of 31,510 graduates in 2008 was the most in the nation.
That’s nearly double the loss of the next highest state, Texas, of 17,716 students.
“College-bound students leave New Jersey for a variety of reasons, but there has never been a systematic analysis to adequately examine the issue,” said Kean. “After investing so much to educate our next generation, it makes sense to do what we can to encourage our talented graduates to remain home and establish roots in the Garden State. If we don’t fully understand the causes, we can never effectively address it.”
There was no way I was going to Rutgers…and that was 40 years ago.
So I went to Pennsyltucky !
We wouldn’t consider any NJ colleges for our kids. They’re throwing money into the football program and cutting everywhere else.
I would gladly send my kid to Rutgers if it was half the price of another out of state college however the assh@les were almost same cost as Lehigh. It made it easier to decide and it is outside of Murphy’s state.
Smart kids. NJ is a sinking ship.
Princeton is a great school if you’re smart enough. But otherwise, college is a great time to bail on NJ’s sinking ship!
Not just New Jersey folks. 350,000 people moved out of New York City alone. And a good majority of them went to the suburbs close by.
The kids want to get far away from mom & dad. What good is it if they can just drop in on your after a short car ride to campus?
Rutgers has some GREAT programs and you can’t beat the in state price.
HOWEVER
I would NEVER send my child there to be verbally (and physically?) abused and told they are basically $hit by staff and students alike.
Sad, but true.
They need to commission a study? Princeton is a top college but difficult to get into. Most other colleges in nj rank very low. So if you are not the top 0.1% to get into Princeton but still very good in academics, what choice do you have?
Maybe improve the state schools? Rutgers is a reasonably good BIG school. TCNJ is a good smaller school. NJIT is a good smaller engineering school. The other State schools can be considered a notch or two down.
My daughter was wait list to TCNJ and didn’t clear and left the state permanently. My older son transferred into TCNJ and is in grad school. My younger son is in Seton Hall.
I’m not from NJ but attended Rutgers for 4 years, driven oddly enough given comments / perceptions, by its value. It was a great experience in terms of exposure to many different types of people, the information learned, skills gained in terms of writing & thought. I’m very pleased with the outcome so far, but it is very different than towns like Ridgewood. Also, education is often used interchangeably with social network / networking- that’s where I’d say NJ colleges could stand to improve.
I read an article a few years back in the Washington Post on this same subject, and its summary was NJ kids want “what’s shiny.” Just think of how rapidly Alabama & Clemson for example can capture the local imagination, as examples with football success. Think of Northeastern and the way it crafted itself recently entirely to improve its standing in rankings like US News.
NJ is a place of significant means, many beautiful small towns, and a broader sense of misguided inferiority. People seem to think it’s definitely better elsewhere, and when you’ve invested belief / $ to seek that out, you’re way less likely to support & build the local brand – all that would do is run counter to the belief you’ve decided upon, and the $ you’ve spent.
This is a generational thing in NJ at this point. It ain’t gonna be easy to change.