Has anybody had kids who transferred into Rutgers New Brunswick for the spring semester, sophomore year or later – an moved into a dorm? How did it go?
Was there a reasonable amount of orientation for the incoming mid-year transfers, or were they left to fend for themselves (as we are hearing on a recent Binghamton thread, and as I have heard other parents mention at other places).
I’d be surprised if Rutgers students were left to fend for themselves. Binghamton is short staffed. It isn’t really admission’s fault. They probably do the best they can. I believe that the former president of Binghamton was in partnership with a private developer to build high end private apartments right next to the university. I would guess that they don’t get too upset if Spring transfers who have bad experiences in the public dorms move to those private apartments the next year. I don’t know if the former president is invested in them or not but she was in private partnerships with business while she was arranging for the university to do things like buy the land from the same company so she benefited. Unfortunately while the private apartments are close by, they are so expensive that renting one room cost what renting a house would cost.The apartments are now called Metro maybe to appeal to the biggest demographic from the area around New York City. I bet the families from that are don’t realize how expensive those apartments are compared to what they could get in the Vestal area. Binghamton is also filling the public dorms with students they are requiring to attend community college so they are probably not hurting any when Spring transfers move out. I doubt Rutgers lets Spring transfers fend for themselves. Why would they?
But Rutgers also seems to be in the ugliest campus lists. You may wonder why state schools around the NY area so ugly and those in other areas so beautiful! http://www.campussqueeze.com/post/the-20-ugliest-colleges-in-the-usa.aspx At least for SUNY, they built utilitarian buildings for the masses and originally they showed the private schools that the public schools won’t compete for students who have money to pay private tuition. They also showed tax payers that not a penny was spent on extras. But an ugly campus doesn’t mean it isn’t a decent college. Both Rutgers and Binghamton are certainly strong mid-sized public universities.