BU or Rutgers??

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rutbu
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 11:01 am

BU or Rutgers??

Post by rutbu » Tue Apr 06, 2010 11:22 am

I am an international student.
Now I got two offers

Phys@BU and Phys@Rutgers

But I do not know how to choose.
I want to study condensed matter experiment and plan to enter the industry after leaving school.
Boston is a big city and the life there would be convenient and safe. Moreover there would be a lot of job opportunities.
But the rank in physics of BU is just 30+

Rutgers has a higher rank in physics of 20+, and especially in condensed matter physics, Rutger is among the top 20.
But New Brunswick is a small city, and someone told me that the security situation there is not good.

So which one should I choose?

geshi
Posts: 200
Joined: Tue Dec 01, 2009 12:01 am

Re: BU or Rutgers??

Post by geshi » Tue Apr 06, 2010 12:09 pm

Personally I wouldn't put too much stock in rankings, especially one that is such a small discrepancy (now if it was 20 versus 150, that might be something to sway your opinion).

I've been to New Jersey, and (no offense to any New Jersey folks here) I think it's a freaking ****hole. I realize that the metro area of New Brunswick is only 50,000 people. I would still not consider it a "small city." It is surrounded by urbanization/industrialization. I've not been to New Brunswick itself, but I've been to the surrounding "towns;" they weren't very pleasant. The people I knew who went to Rutgers didn't have much of anything nice to say about the area or the school (albeit they did their UG there, not grad work).

I haven't been to Boston, but I hear it's a lot of fun. I have a few friends who are in school in that area, and they love it.

You also need to consider the research of the two schools. Do they both provide research you'd be interested in? That's probably the more important aspect of your decision.

povartc2
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Feb 08, 2010 9:34 pm

Re: BU or Rutgers??

Post by povartc2 » Wed Apr 07, 2010 3:55 am

I visited Rutgers a couple weeks ago. News Brunswick is only 30-45 min away from NYC. I heard you might need to buy a car in order to get around easily. I would say the town itself was OK. I just personally didn't like lots of cars running around on campus. Otherwise, their condensed matter program is great with lots of options. The student to professor ratio seemed very low, which is good.



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