The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

Date: Jan 13 2003
Major: Computer Science (This Major's Salary over time)
The campus itself is verynice. With clean, quality housing and classrooms and cafeteria in high proximity to the residence halls. It is also very handicapped accessible. The area itself is pretty nice, with Atlantic City and the beaches close as well as mall, movies and other activities nearby. Philadelphia is also pretty close.

However the problems with Stockton are mainly on the social end. I made some friends there but all in all, the student population is not MENSA. To put it bluntly, the people there (all New Jersey residents mind you) are not the sharpest knives in the drawer. They are a horribly unambitious group overall, and their studies seem to be the least of their worries. Meanwhile, the school is a great example of a suitcase school, with, as I'd estimate it, 60-75% of the campus population heading home on weekends because "there is nothing to do." The school caters to this population by having absolutely no activities going on during the weekend other than "make your own taco night" on occasion or perhaps "make your own pottery." The cafeterias are opened on a more limitedbasis on the weekend. Basically it is hard to maintain status as a "weekend warrior." Thursday nights are the big party night because of this and there is often something to do. On weekends howeevr, the campus is dormant. Most of the upperclassmen live off campus making for a dull environment on the campus itself. Campus life, in spite of this, is not the major flaw of the school.

Being there for only one semester I cannot fully sum up the quality of the education there but I can say that the student population, as I said before, were not on the waiting list for Princeton. Granted there is a small group of intellectuals there that are either unable to afford a better school or are underachievers. One student there, capable of a better college said he is there because he can come to Stockton, slack off, drink every night and get a degree in four years with very limited studying and, in fact, he pulled off good grades there doing so in one semester. So for someone who is looking for an academic challenge, I'd say look elsewhere. I'd say the same for someone who wants a true campus environment rather than a community college atmosphere with some housing thrown in. Stockton is a commuter school/suitcase school with a population made up of a group of underachievers who are still an overconfident, even arrogant bunch. For anyone, like myself, who thought college would weed out the subpar academia, attend Stockton for evidence against this.