<p>As a parent who resides in NJ I can tell you that we were willing to pay just a little bit more than our instate publics for our son. He is in a public U in VA. We were unwilling to pay the cost at UVM, UCONN, and other public schools that were in the $30k range. There were good private schools that were also below the 30k bar for us (after merit and FA-middle/upper middle class). I can tell you that a friend’s D attended SUNY Bing OOS and her parents made her transfer out at the end of freshman year because of cost. She is currently at Rutgers. I asked her if the price is similar, and she said that Rutgers was less instate, so much so that it was worth it for her to transfer. What could have made the big difference is her housing, but I did not get into those costs. She is on a strict budget. </p>
<p>Rutgers has a good reputation nationally. We were seekng a smaller school, which many Sunys are, but we were also looking for a student focused education rather than a research based U. We were also looking for professors who spoke English well (sorry, but for my dollar I needed to make sure that my son could understand what the professor was saying-unwilling to compromise on that), and where one could stay away from large 101 classes. We were looking for something that was doable for our wallet. We found all of that in Va. I just wish we were instate. I am jealous of those who live in VA, or NC.</p>