Rutgers University - New Brunswick

Date: Jul 09 2006
Major: Electrical Engineering (This Major's Salary over time)
Frankly, I was oblivious to colleges when I applied. My choices were Rutgers, Cornell and Steven. Rutgers was the only one I could afford and still have time to date, which was fortunate because I was a slacker for the first 18 months.

All colleges are much more competitive today than then; I doubt that Cornell would accept me today, but then again, I didn't go there. Rutgers was the right school for me in the 70s and probably would be today at that point in my life.

Rutgers is very well regarded nationally and internationally for reasons that have always mystified me. That counts for alot. Like most big schools, you will get out of it what you grab. If you're passive, you will be in trouble, if you're active, you will get a lot.

One of the best aspects of Rutgers is diversity.

Not in the recent PC sense, but in the fact that the most productive people don't evolve out of a homogeneous school system (i.e. one set of selective private schools), but rather out of a hetrogeneous hodge-podge of people who learn to excel at differing rates of speed, at different times in their lives.

Rutgers gave me that chance - later in my life and has given that to others.

So, if you haven't learned to get a 3.0 or 3.5 or 3.9 in High School - so what. And if you start off poorly in College, so what. Life is a long path - the issue isn't whether you've fallen down or are slow out of the gate. It's how you live your life and eventually contribute.

I've worked with numerous people from more elite schools who lack a certain humility. I'm not so sure they'll ever pick it up later in life.