“I’m very well-aware that finances are sometimes all that makes a student’s college decision, and that is beyond unfortunate”
There are many things in life that are ‘beyond unfortunate’, attending a top 100 national University like Rutgers isn’t remotely close to being one of those things, nor is going to any halfway decent school and getting a good education out of it. The whole rankings thing is such a scam and sham that enables schools to charge the ridiculous amounts they do by preying on students and their families’ insecurities and brand name envy, which in turn forces schools to spend and need more money to compete in the rankings game.
The small LAC I attended for UG was recently ranked in the bottom 10% of schools in PA by some media outlet’s ranking formula. They don’t do much research, though the research they do is done by undergrads (which was invaluable experience), the teaching is excellent since the profs are there to teach, not do research, and I received an amazingly rewarding education, also one that my parents and I could afford. My classmates are doctors, lawyers, professors and successful professionals of all sorts in teaching, business, health care, etc. Did I go there because it was affordable? Damn right I did, and it was hardly unfortunate in the least, and yes, I am certain your despised safety school, Rider, would be ranked above it, though they are in different states.
I scored in the 99th percentile on the LSAT, had partial scholarship offers from Pitt, U of Md, and Dickinson (before it became part of Penn State), plus an acceptance to Penn’s law school. Family and financial circumstances made it much more viable for me to attend Widener’s PA campus for law school so that I could work full time while attending part time. Again, was this something “incredibly unfortunate”? Not even close. I again got a great education, a job right out of school and plenty of advancement since then, plus the scholarship I received kept my student loans very easily manageable, especially compared to the enormous student debt I see newbies in my office lugging around like giant millstones around their financial necks.
The ‘worst’ education I received, and it was still fairly good, was from a top 50 national research university where I did my masters and found the teaching to be extremely hit and mostly miss because most profs only taught because they had to and concentrated on research, which was the key to promotion and tenure.
Also, your comment about the ‘reputation’ of girls at Rutgers strikes me as utterly offensive and demeaning. One of the first, most well spoken and brightest young posters I encountered on CC was a young lady who was thrilled to get into Stockton with a later guaranteed admit into Rutgers for Pharmacy, so my impression of the young ladies at Rutgers could not be more different than yours apparently is.