The College of New Jersey

Please let me first state, that I loved my college experience very much. I was lucky enough to have an amazing roomate, and make some great friends though…I think that, without them, my experience would have been less than spectacular.

Clubs/Sports:

As far as extra-curriculars, I never got involved- most of the clubs weren't to my taste, though i had a few very good friends who were heavily involved in campus life. And from opposite ends of the spectrum! one an accountant, and the other an art major…There are some pretty interesting club sports though…I tried rugby and frisbee on two seperate occasions.

Food:

there are a lot of choices with the meal plans, half is delicious, and almost all are BAD for you. Be careful about what you eat, and be mindful of portion size if you don't want to gain the freshman 15 (or 20…yikes!)

Gym facilities:

I was a bit of a gym rat while I lived on campus. The gym is easy to get to, but small, ill-equipped, and you have to make reservations for treadmills and ellipticals. Ridiculous.

Location:

Right next to good old Trenton. While I never had a problem with it, (and my house was a few minutes away from trenton center) there are definitly SKETCHY areas, and I'd be careful walking outside of campus at night. On campus, you should be alright, but- stay mindful. No matter how "safe" a campus is, there are always crazy people. You will also frequently get emails about escaped crazy people from the nearby mental hospital. Vague descriptions include: tall caucasion male. ?. Never had a problem with it, though.

Nightlife/parties:

Frats incredibly active, though you'll always have to pay at least $5 to get in (that includes ladies). THOUGH they do have car service (some do, anyway) so there are no drunk drivers on the road…which was FANTASTIC. Apparently there are a lot of sports parties, but as I was never involved in sports, I never went. The student population generally likes to have fun, so make friends with people who LIKE to party, and you'll always find one. Katmandu (closer to trenton) always has great events for students and there is good dancing.

Academics:

I was an art ed major and i was incredilbly dissapointed with my department. Student teaching was a rude awakening, and I still felt ill prepared, upon graduating. I felt the other education majors got more of an education than i did (art and music education are seperate programs). Foundational art classes were a joke, and I didn't learn half as much as I should have. BUT…the more advanced classes were wonderful. Advanced painting, drawing. It really depends on the professor, do your research, get student opinions, and sign up with the hardest professors…you'll get the most rewarding experiences out of them. I loved almost all of my art history classes. THE ART DEPARTMENT ARE INCREDIBLY CONCEPTUAL (I'm not including IMM or graphic design in this). Great for fine art, but I wanted to do more illustrative work, and think I might have been better off going to art school. I feel as if I graduated ill prepared. AND the career center is NO help for art students. Education, not so bad, art, terrible.

Study abroad:

great program! try it! I was in Italy for 3 months.

Other advice:

Get a car as soon as you can. I stand by the quote "only boring people are bored", you'll have a lot more opportunities to have diversified fun, if you have a car! resturants aren't too far away, and niether is princeton!