DS considering CS but not 100% committed. We are in state New Jersey. Net costs:
Steven’s: 45k (no dorming, no need)
George Mason (honors) 36k
Njit: 30k
Rutgers: 29k
We have visited all schools. Can appreciate the offerings of Rutgers but believe DS could benefit from smaller scale environment.
Opinions much appreciated. Thank you! 
I think Stevens would be a great choice. Great location, lots of opportunities, good programs, very nice new dorm (if he/you change your mind about dorming).
Assuming all are affordable, the first question I have is - why no dorming?
College is about far more than going to class. That’s the core but there are so many tangential areas that help a student to grow - from clubs to late night studies to hanging out with others whenever.
So I understand those that live at home for cost - but this isn’t you.
So I’m choosing GMU, NJIT, or Rutgers. I’m not sure what GMU Honors offers - and looking - it looks like multi disciplinary and humanity based classes - and that’s not for everyone - my son would never apply to this one (unless it comes with priority registration).
I get the wanting the smaller school. Can NJIT be a sub for Stevens - not as small but not as large as the other two.
Again, I’m just a fan of moving out…but that doesn’t mean it’s for everyone.
Best of luck.
Stevens as commuter is already the most expensive on this list. Adding dorm costs ($19k) and subtracting commuter living at home costs ($?) probably adds a significant amount of cost that may push the price over an (unstated so far) limit.
However, since Stevens is a predominantly residential school, there may be some value in living on campus in the first year, even if the student lives at home as a commuter in later years.
My point being - they have schools that presumably they can live at (I assumed the prices included living) - so why choose the most expensive that gives you the least “life” experience.
I get the size issue mentioned - but to me, college is about so much more than school - and while not everyone can afford a residential life, it appears this family can.
Thank you. No dorming at Stevens bc the school is really close by. Candidly, probably no “need” to dorm at NJIT as well. If no dorming at NJIT price in fact much less than 30k per year.
Completely appreciate the point about experiencing residential life. Tough decision! 
This is my view also. Going off to university could be thought of as sort of a half way house between living with parents versus living on your own. I did see both daughters gain in terms of their confidence and their real world sense when they went to university, in addition to getting an education.
However, I also agree that different steps make sense for different people, and I do know people who lived at home with their parents while getting their bachelor’s degree and had it work very well for them.
We are wondering if Stevens offerings (co-ops; excellent placement) would provide an ROI that justifies the 15k yearly price differential bw it and Rutgers. While we have enjoyed the Rutgers tours, some of the CS facilities looked run down. The scale of Rutgers is daunting as well. If he picks Rutgers, he would probably pick College Avenue for the campus.
That’s a personal call - but you can pretty much do a co op at any school in the country - it’s not owned by a select few - although they’d like you to think so.
My kid at Alabama had so many co ops sent to him (engineering) - didn’t choose to do a co op (summer interned) but certainly had the chance. When he interned, one of his co workers was a co op from Ole Miss.
Now, what happens at Stevens if the student doesn’t end up in STEM or business after all? You said CS isn’t 100%.
Co Ops are great - for the right student - but Stevens is far from the only school where you can get one.
Rutgers Internship and Co-op Course (RICC) | Career Exploration and Success
My daughter has Mason honors and Rutgers honors on her list. If she had to choose between those two, it would be Rutgers for the campus life and academics. Mason is considered a commuter school by the locals with not much to do on the weekends because the majority of kids, especially the ones from VA live off campus. The school has a mandatory on-campus residence requirement that the local kids can ask for exemptions from. They have basketball games, which we’ve been to a few times. I like Mason though because the school really seems to care about getting the kids placed in jobs. Being from the area, I know that Mason grads are known to find great jobs in the area. The dorms are nice to too.
Is your son interested in a Wall Street career? If so, Stevens has the upper hand among those from your list. They have several majors as well as concentrations that are focused on Wall Street jobs. Not to mention better connections and advising.
If price is an issue, and Wall Street is not necessarily in the picture, I’d suggest NJIT for the smaller size that you desire, and Rutgers next. Not really seeing a case for GMU here.
Also Instate NJ. I attended NJIT recently for grad work in data. Visited GMU and Rutgers this year for my S24. Thoughts…
GMU - we thought the facilities were much more updated than some other schools we visited. Not sure if you saw the same. Campus is a decent size but contiguous and not overwhelming like Rutgers. I’ve hired two people recently that did data science or CS Masters at GMU. Both very solid. Both went to expensive privates but then did GMU because of cost/benefit. Very suburban, but the train station in town goes direct to Arlington and DC. Our general conclusions were (i) that they have invested a lot to build something desirable in NoVa (VT and UVa and W&M are all far) and kept costs down so they are now attracting better talent and (ii) that they have more or less transitioned the school from commuter to residence. The on-campus housing policy for freshman confirms that. Probably more similar to your other 3 schools now. The proximity to defense contractors, Amazon, and other CS in the area is tough to beat. I don’t know about advising.
Rutgers - The value proposition is low cost, national univ, access to NYC, fun town, big school resources, B1G school spirit …but you have to weigh this against very very frustrated students : notoriously awful advising (like really bad to non-existent), more classes taught by TAs, and a huge/disjointed campus reliant on buses. How do you see this trade off?? It’s a personal choice. If you can stay mostly on Busch and College Ave it feels smaller and that should be doable for CS as an upperclassman.
NJIT -Again trade offs. What matters to you?? Cheap. Much smaller and very dense and busy campus. Lot of energy at all times. small classes taught by professors, opportunity to have much closer faculty relationships. Pretty good/flexible advising and allowed me to take CS electives that I wanted that weren’t necessarily approved (I was stats). Easy access to BYC on Path. However, I found however it felt a bit like high school with class policies that basically didn’t trust students. Like any school there is a mix of profs but it’s smaller that Rutgers by a lot so some you cannot avoid for required classes. Might be the case at Steven’s too - I don’t know. The campus is fine but stray too far off campus alone and it’s not super safe. The same can be said to some extent about Hoboken and New Brunswick but it’s the proximity to places to go for students that’s different. Downtown isn’t right next to campus.
Thank you I have the EXACT same opinions. Mason was impressive and we’re having a tough time ruling it out.
I concur that GMU should remain a strong contender.
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