Last week, I debated that The College of New Jersey would not be recognized nationally because we’re not as smart as we like to tout. But it definitely is true that we are not known and thus respected throughout the country, because everyone is from New Jersey.
According to the Admissions Office, 94% of the undergraduate student body are from New Jersey. Comparatively Ivy league schools, such as Princeton University, have only 91% American students. State schools such as William and Mary, a school we are obviously modeled after average only about 60% of its student body from Virginia. So most obviously, gaining a better national reputation must start with better recruitment outside of our own region.
After the admission’s office recruits the few out-of-state students that feel uncomfortable on campus, more must be done to make them feel accepted. During Welcome Week, I was asked more than a hundred times, “Are from North or South Jersey?” A hundred times I had to reply that I was from Pennsylvania.
Unfortunately it is not just the first few weeks that there is an inundation of the fact that everyone is from New Jersey. The First-year experience usually holds events to determine which region of New Jersey is best. Every fall, the baseball team plays a series between North and South Jersey. People always judge accents by North Jersey or South Jersey, not even considering that people come from other regions.
Another example is the distribution of absentee ballots, that include those for Bucks County, Pennsylvania and several New Jersey counties. The sad fact is that most students who will need absentee ballots for the upcoming elections are those that cannot travel home on election day (i.e. those that come from out-of-state).
Even The Signal jumped into the foray that would never be relevant at a school with a geographically diverse student body. Most recently was this year’s piece about which half of the state supported which professional football team on September 16, 2003. And on April 23, 2003 the features sections was devoted to determining if students the borders of North, South, or even a Central Jersey.
Our school which seeks a reputation outside of the state does little to seek students through aggressive recruiting outside of the state and does nothing to acknowledge the few percentage of students that don’t come from New Jersey. However the biggest reason our school might never be known in any of the other 49 states occurs after graduation.
After graduation, many students seek employment. Since our school has a fine reputation along the Parkway and Turnpike it’s not too difficult finding a job within a hundred miles. The problems starts when seeking employment in distant zip codes.
Only an hour-drive away west of Philadelphia, people have never even heard of The College of New Jersey. One of the reasons is because of the name change. Everyone complains about it. It’s not too important, but, yes the name change will have an enormous negative impact on our college.
Constantly friends from the other side of the Delaware River comment, “Oh, you go to Rutgers.” After I nod my head, they continue, “You go to Princeton?” It is conversations like these that affirm my stance.
Besides the name change, people are not too familiar with our college. It is for these reasons I don’t think we’ll ever reach the level of prominence our administration seeks.
Our academics aren’t the best, but they are damn good. And everyone’s from New Jersey, but it’s not too bad of a state once you been here a long enough time. My thoughts on The College of New Jersey are similar. The school isn’t world-renowned. It doesn’t have Division I sports or the best academics, but it is probably the best college choice any of us could have made.
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Copyright 2004, Kevin Semanick