Odds Not Good For New Jersey College Students

We’ve put one kid through college and grad school, and we’ve got two more freshmen working on their degrees right now. As a parent, you’ve got two primary concerns. The first is covering the cost of higher education for your children. The second is hoping that they make it through the four (or more) years and graduate with a degree.

I recall back in the day when many of my college classmates and friends didn’t make it to graduation day. There are many reasons college students never cross the finish line.

I think the saddest reason is that they run out of money or simply can’t afford to continue. Others flunk out of school or give up because they feel it’s too difficult. Some need to quit school to take care of family members. Some feel they no longer need a degree because they’re already working in their chosen field. I know a few people who made that decision and regretted it later in life.

Whatever the reason one may not finish their college career, the odds are that most won’t get that coveted degree.

According to a new study published by casinos.com they demonstrated that a college degree is far from guaranteed. They broke it down by state and the best graduation rate for any state is just over 63 percent (District of Columbia).

Unfortunately, many other states including New Jersey haven’t done nearly as well. The next-best state’s percentage is more than fifteen percent lower (Massachusetts at just over 46 percent). They were followed by Vermont at 44.44 percent, and Colorado at just two percentage points lower in fourth place.

Jersey came in fifth place out of all fifty states at just over 43 percent. That sounds pretty good, but our chance of graduation is still much less than half. That means 67 percent of New Jersey students who start college never graduate.

The article also notes that “According to Forbes, Princeton University in New Jersey is the best Ivy League university in the country.”

Check out the full list here.

According to U.S. News & World Report, ten universities and colleges in New Jersey are among the best in the country with one ranked number one for the past 12 years.

Our family is going through the college decision making process for the second time, this time with two at once. My oldest made it easy because he knew exactly which university he wanted to attend. There was no comparing schools or long distance college visits. My twins are a bit different. Neither one of them has decided where they want to go, we've been on multiple long distance college visits, and they've just begun their senior year of high school.

Going through the U.S. News & World Report list of top universities and colleges in the country was very helpful. They examined fifteen hundred colleges and universities that offer bachelor's degrees and conducted "17 measures of academic quality."

U.S. News & World Report does a great job of breaking down each school by "rankings data and key characteristics about majors, campus life, costs of attending, and more." The result of their study comes from years of research using both past and current data.

Some of the ranking factors were graduation and retention rates, social mobility, graduation rate performance, undergraduate academic reputation, and faculty resources. The faculty resources from last year were examined in the following categories... class size index, faculty compensation, percent full time and part time faculty with terminal degree in their field, percent faculty that is full time, and student faculty ratio.

The New Jersey colleges and universities that landed in the top one hundred on the list are Princeton, Rutgers-New Brunswick, Rutgers-Newark, Rutgers-Camden, Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey Institute of Technology,  Seton Hall University, Stockton University, Montclair State University, and Rowan University. One of them topped the list for the 12th year in a row. Here's the run down of all the New Jersey schools that made the list and where they ranked in no particular order.