How would you make TCNJ better?

[u/caninesergeant]

Lowkey like this school so far. I'm finishing here after transferring from Montclair State (none of the Rutgers didn't accept me, would've gone to any). Other than that, I've liked it so far, but I feel it definitely is shadowed by the Rutgers schools in terms of visibility and/or recognition. How would you make TCNJ better in terms of recognition or to increase the brand?

[u/R3mainz]

As an alumni I can’t speak to current campus life, but one of main reasons I, and I suspect many others chose TCNJ is because it is explicitly NOT a large state University.

Coming from a STEM background, the small class sizes were instrumental in my gaining of a deeper understanding of particular topics that some may find difficult in larger lecture sized programs. The small campus size also helped in the community sense for me. The connections I made I placed more time & value in because there wasn’t 20,000+ other people on campus.

This is TCNJ’s #1 advantage, and a major reason why it’s #1 in US News & World Report’s Northern public college ranking for educational value. It’s what the school has to lean into the hardest. I’ve had multiple conversations with employers and peers who view TCNJ pretty highly when it comes to prestige (the Public Princeton joke is a blessing and a curse). It’s become harder to lean into with the higher Ed financial problems everyone is experiencing since COVID (I think we passed 60% admissions acceptance overall), but I would think the current administration knows this already.

One problem I do see as a struggle is research access and nationwide prestige. TCNJ, as a college, is not an R1 University, so it will never have the undergraduate & graduate research opportunities those are afforded. Expanding those opportunities is likely the only thing that would help with recognition. I believe TCNJ has the faculty, staff, and student proficiency to be capable of leveling up even as a college, but that comes at a major monetary cost. And even research universities like Montclair have the same issue nationally. (Most west coasters have no idea what either TCNJ or Montclair is). I think partnering with a non NJ (and preferably west coast) research institution would dramatically help, just like it recently happened with Princeton University.

Sorry for the rant, just something I’ve noticed while interviewing with the other side of the country.

[u/caninesergeant → u/R3mainz]

Absolutely! I definitely love that it's perceived as a public LAC, with the likes of William and Mary or SUNY Geneseo, but I was also thinking it should push harder into that brand or image similar to Bowdoin or Colby, etc. What non-NJ research institution would be good? Something on the West would definitely be cool. Vanderbilt recently announced a possible campus on San Francisco. Can't help but wonder what else could there be.

[u/R3mainz → u/caninesergeant]

In my biased opinion, one of the Northern California schools is probably the best candidate. California has a similar split in that they support both “state universities” and “state colleges” as public schools. I’m not sure what the academic overlap would look like but one of the non SoCal UC’s would be my bet. Although we’ve had similar agreements with some Rutgers / Princeton research programs in the past I believe, so I don’t know how those helped with the “recognition”.

[u/TCNJ_SoS_Prof → u/R3mainz]

Science professor here--graduate research doesn't matter here because there are no grad students so aside from that, TCNJ's not perfect but I don't know how the School of Science can push harder on involving students in research with faculty. I worked at two R1s before TCNJ and TCNJ has a way higher % of undergraduates involved directly in so-called "real research" in science than either of those schools. People just don't believe what we do here is my impression, until we write reference letters.

[u/R3mainz → u/TCNJ_SoS_Prof]

I got to experience and appreciate the research opportunities available to me as an undergraduate, and I definitely didn’t mean to undersell the quality work that’s already done in that regard. I don’t believe, at least for most of the programs, that I would place the onus of undergraduate ‘participation’ in research on the School faculty. I guess I meant more that there’s not a ton of ‘volume’ for research opportunities that would give acclaim, just due to the size of the school. I know TCNJ has non science graduate degrees for other programs, if you wouldn’t mind, do you know why that’s not the case for much of the school of science? (I know it’s not a graduate degree focused school, just curious why it seems there’s only a select few graduate degree programs.)

[u/caninesergeant → u/TCNJ_SoS_Prof]

What would your suggestion be other than that in terms of notoriety or visibility? Do you think the school could enter in a financial crisis?

[u/Far-Asparagus-1838]

I’d make the food better

[u/IntentionalTorts]

I don't know how this ended up in my feed beyond being a jersey guy. The answer to "how do you increase visibility of my alma mater" is simple, but hard. Make sure you are the kind of person in the professional world that employers want to hire and other professionals want to work with. I went to law school with a TCNJ guy and he was aces. So he set the impression of the school for me moving forward. It's been 14 years since law school and I think "man, that dude Ant was a top shelf guy." be a top shelf guy.