<p>I have a much different perspective on Rutgers since I’m an out of state student who really needed to be at a reputable university close to New York City and the Tri-State Area since I want to work there for a living as part of my career. All of my friends respect the fact that I’m going to Rutgers and many of the adults I’ve told about the school get all excited when they hear the name. I even met someone at the doctors office who went to Rutgers for premed and was all surprised when she saw I was going to send my immunization forms there. Another friend I have all the way out in California even recognized the RU name and told me, “Rutgers? Not bad!”</p>
<p>I’ve seen other major flagship state schools who have much higher admissions rates than Rutgers and some with slightly lower admissions rate and don’t see why anyone isn’t badmouthing or criticizing those schools. A 53% graduation rate for four years and a 77% graduation rate for six years is pretty good in my opinion especially for a school with a “high” admissions rate. At the end of the day, getting all the networking and educational opportunities I need at an affordable price that won’t land me into thousands of dollars of debt is more important than worrying about arbitrary rankings that have little relevance in the workplace. Besides, I was already thinking about attending an “elite” school like NYU, UCLA, or Columbia University for grad school to get an MFA in cinema and film studies and going to a really expensive, “prestigious” school like BU for undergrad is not worth it if I need to have money left over for grad school.</p>
<p>I’ve seen Georgia schools with high admissions rates in the 60s and 70s with four year graduation rates as low as 10%-20% and six year graduation rates ranging from 30%-50%, so I feel very fortunate that I chose a school with actual proven success among the students and it was exactly what I wanted all along no matter what other people have to tell me.</p>