Rutgers Admits (English Ph.D.) and New Brunswick Info

[8521679]

I was admitted to the English Ph.D. program and I've had a chance to visit the campus and department, so I thought I would give a run-down for those who have been admitted.

From a financial perspective, everyone at Rutgers (in the English department, anyway) gets the same funding, which is quite generous and is absolutely on par with anything you'd see at the Ivies. (I hear Johns Hopkins is giving about 18K a year, which is several thousand less than you'll see at Rutgers. Suckers!) The health insurance is cheap and solid, and the TA jobs are very well protected by the face-breaking union (you talkin' to me?), which means that annual raises are the norm. The campus has great gyms and free clinics and there's counseling available for when you start to go crazy.

I found the reception that the school extended to me to be delightful (even stunning). A couple schools I've been accepted to sent me an admission email, then nothing else at all. Rutgers, though, sent me a whole chorus of emails from faculty members offering their advice and assistance, giving me their cell numbers, etc., and the administrative staff in the English department could not be more competent and caring. I get the clear impression that the department is filled with really lovely people with a strong and nurturing sense of camaraderie. The graduate students I've had a chance to speak with seem very happy with the program, their stipends, the faculty, etc., and seem to be able to live fairly comfortably on their stipends.

New Brunswick, sadly, is nothing to write home about. Most of the graduate students seem to live in Highland Park, across the river from the College Avenue campus. It's a very residential area, but it's peaceful and quaint. There's a Stop and Shop supermarket nearby, a few ethnic restaurants, and a new bookstore has opened. It seems like quite a pleasant place to live. One-bedroom units tend to run about $900 - $1250 per month, while individual rooms in houses or apartments go from $500 to about $850. With walking and the campus bus system, a car is not necessary at all, but it would make grocery shopping a lot easier and would open up cheaper parts of Central Jersey to your housing search. It seems pretty clear, though, that most first-year grad students choose Highland Park as their place of residence.

I'll admit that Rutgers' location and rowdy New Jersey undergraduate population was doing a lot to turn me off, but the simple truth is that, regardless of what the town has to offer, you're not likely to have time to partake. Moreover, most of the grad students described the undergrads as "kind" and "thoughtful" and "charming," so that's nice. The grad students in particular seem really smart and interesting, and there's no shortage of young people around. Rutgers has a long reputation of getting fantastic speakers (Adrienne Rich was just there), but sadly the grad students themselves apparently don't always have time to go. So the truth is that there's tons of stuff going on, and you won't have time for any of it.

The train to NYC takes 45 minutes or an hour and costs about $17 round-trip. The New Brunswick train station is very convenient to the College Avenue campus. The train drops you at Penn Station, which is always nice, as NYC's entire homeless population has chosen to maintain a winter residence there.

Rutgers' library facilities have generally been described as adequate; one professor mentioned never having been unable to find something there, but for those looking to do hard-core archival work, you may have to travel to Princeton or the NY Public. Rutgers maintains a consortium with those schools (and Penn, Columbia, NYU, CUNY), so you can use their libraries and take classes with them. The general consensus is that the library (which is not the most attractive building in the world, but is perfectly modern and clean and decently equipped) will absolutely get the job done for 95% of what you need, but that Rutgers would likely rank a bit higher if it were able to offer its students more obscure archival collections. One way or the other, between RU's material and the wealth of stuff located in a one-hour radius of the campus, you will almost certainly have everything you could ever ask for in the way of library material.

I'd really love to see admitted grad students use this forum to get organized for the big move in the fall. It would be great if we could help each other out in finding places to live and figuring out how to get this done. There are plenty of resources offered by the University (and individual departments are particularly helpful), but getting a head start right here wouldn't hurt, either.

My honest, objective impression is that those of us who have won admission here are really very lucky; the school seems to be a true gem for graduate students.

[fromeurope]

A lot of great text!

Thank you for all that great info! I have also been admitted to Rutgers, and I fully intend to accept unless something earth-shattering happens.

[8521679]

Thank you for all that great info! I have also been admitted to Rutgers, and I fully intend to accept unless something earth-shattering happens.

Same here. I'd accept right now if it weren't prudent to wait for the other decisions to come back. PM me if there's anything else I can help with!

[M.J.P.]

Thank you for this thread. I think what your (amazingly thorough) post confirms is what I've heard from so many people, both within and outside of Rutgers. Unless something truly crazy happens at next month's Open House, I think I'm going to confirm as well. Everybody going to the Open House? I'd love to meet up!

I'd also love to coordinate housing/support with others who confirm. It would be really great to have a support network in place before we all get there. One bit of advice I have for everybody (which comes from my friend who now studies at Harvard Law), is to always double-check your housing situation with the graduate student legal aid (Rutgers offers graduate legal aid through the Graduate Student Association). As they help almost all of the students that have any form of landlord trouble, they have a lot of invaluable and insider information.

[fromeurope]

I found the reception that the school extended to me to be delightful (even stunning). A couple schools I've been accepted to sent me an admission email, then nothing else at all. Rutgers, though, sent me a whole chorus of emails from faculty members offering their advice and assistance, giving me their cell numbers, etc., and the administrative staff in the English department could not be more competent and caring.

I'd like to comment on this too: my experience has been exactly the same! It's been pretty amazing, and you really get a feeling that they care a lot. They have been forthright, enthusiastic, and very welcoming. If this is indicative of the atmosphere at the department (which I think that it is), it's going to be absolutely wonderful.

Edited February 28, 2010 by p7389

[8521679]

Thank you for this thread. I think what your (amazingly thorough) post confirms is what I've heard from so many people, both within and outside of Rutgers. Unless something truly crazy happens at next month's Open House, I think I'm going to confirm as well. Everybody going to the Open House? I'd love to meet up!

I'd also love to coordinate housing/support with others who confirm. It would be really great to have a support network in place before we all get there. One bit of advice I have for everybody (which comes from my friend who now studies at Harvard Law), is to always double-check your housing situation with the graduate student legal aid (Rutgers offers graduate legal aid through the Graduate Student Association). As they help almost all of the students that have any form of landlord trouble, they have a lot of invaluable and insider information.

I won't be at the open house, which is why I visited in advance. Feel free to send me a message if you'd like my email, though, as I'm happy to help you with what I discovered, and I'd love to hear how the open house goes. And thanks for the advice on the legal-aid office. I would never have thought of it. (And what kind of housing set-up are you looking for?)

[M.J.P.]

I won't be at the open house, which is why I visited in advance. Feel free to send me a message if you'd like my email, though, as I'm happy to help you with what I discovered, and I'd love to hear how the open house goes. And thanks for the advice on the legal-aid office. I would never have thought of it. (And what kind of housing set-up are you looking for?)

Definitely! The biggest thing with the legal-aid office is to make sure that the landlord doesn't have a history of gouging or screwing over tenants. It might be more difficult to get any information on individual renters, but always something worth checking out.

I'm definitely considering anything from one roommate in a large apartment complex (there are a couple in Highland Park that don't seem too sketchy) to multiple roommates in a house. I'm open to anything. My unrealistic, but highly fanciful dream is to rent an old Victorian house with 2-3 other people, have brightly painted walls, and good (clean! gotta be clean!) fun. I have never had a roommate, so I guess I'm not jaded toward the prospect yet like other people .

[8521679]

Definitely! The biggest thing with the legal-aid office is to make sure that the landlord doesn't have a history of gouging or screwing over tenants. It might be more difficult to get any information on individual renters, but always something worth checking out.

I'm definitely considering anything from one roommate in a large apartment complex (there are a couple in Highland Park that don't seem too sketchy) to multiple roommates in a house. I'm open to anything. My unrealistic, but highly fanciful dream is to rent an old Victorian house with 2-3 other people, have brightly painted walls, and good (clean! gotta be clean!) fun. I have never had a roommate, so I guess I'm not jaded toward the prospect yet like other people .

Oh man, you've never had a roommate? Well, welcome to the world of cleaning other people's spaghetti sauce off the ceiling.

I'm looking in the same direction, though. The key, of course, is to find the right roommates. I wouldn't recommend my roommate from my freshman year in college, for example. Stay away from that guy.

But the truth is that it can be a very economical arrangement. The most economical, for that matter. Figure on about $650 a month or so for rent (or so I gather), which isn't too bad at all in the Northeast.

Are you planning on taking a car? It could definitely open up some other neighborhoods (Milltown, Edison, Piscataway), which would add a lot of potential properties while sidestepping the undergrad competition.

Edited March 1, 2010 by 8521679

[M.J.P.]

Oh man, you've never had a roommate? Well, welcome to the world of cleaning other people's spaghetti sauce off the ceiling.

I'm looking in the same direction, though. The key, of course, is to find the right roommates. I wouldn't recommend my roommate from my freshman year in college, for example. Stay away from that guy.

But the truth is that it can be a very economical arrangement. The most economical, for that matter. Figure on about $650 a month or so for rent (or so I gather), which isn't too bad at all in the Northeast.

Are you planning on taking a car? It could definitely open up some other neighborhoods (Milltown, Edison, Piscataway), which would add a lot of potential properties while sidestepping the undergrad competition.

I did have two roommates my freshman year of college. Fortunately (unfortunately?), they didn't do anything. I've met babies with more eventful and engrossing lives than these two. So, I just sort of pretend as though I never had a roommate. (I'd be a great roommate, I swear! No spaghetti sauce on the ceiling from me. It would just be on a bed of delicious pasta. That's right.)

And no car for me. I'm all about public transportation, though, so I'd consider Edison if it were in an accessible location.

[lompoc727]

I'm also pretty sure I'm going to accept Rutgers's offer. I see that MJP's interests are listed in their signature. Anyone else care to share? Mine are in British/American romanticism, history of lyric poetry/aesthetics, and the intersections between literature and philosophy.

[8521679]

I'm also pretty sure I'm going to accept Rutgers's offer. I see that MJP's interests are listed in their signature. Anyone else care to share? Mine are in British/American romanticism, history of lyric poetry/aesthetics, and the intersections between literature and philosophy.

That makes two of us. Did you make it to the open house? I wasn't able to go, and I've been curious about how it went.

[lompoc727]

That makes two of us. Did you make it to the open house? I wasn't able to go, and I've been curious about how it went.

Makes two of us in the romanticism boat??? Forgive my excitement, but I know there aren't a lot of us going around.

It went well: Rutgers knows how to roll out of the red carpet while still focusing on what prospective students really want to know, like job placement stuff, professorial culture, etc. I enjoyed it a lot and liked a lot of the students I met, though I found the classes they had us sit in to be underwhelming. People seemed tired and shy, though I hear this isn't students' usual behavior I do wish they hadn't felt so inhibited. However, upon emailing with people in my fields of interest, their work seems very interesting, incisive, and sometimes cutting edge.

I do hope some of the other prospectives I met there decide to go, as well!

[lompoc727]

Makes two of us in the romanticism boat??? Forgive my excitement, but I know there aren't a lot of us going around.

It went well: Rutgers knows how to roll out of the red carpet while still focusing on what prospective students really want to know, like job placement stuff, professorial culture, etc. I enjoyed it a lot and liked a lot of the students I met, though I found the classes they had us sit in to be underwhelming. People seemed tired and shy, though I hear this isn't students' usual behavior I do wish they hadn't felt so inhibited. However, upon emailing with people in my fields of interest, their work seems very interesting, incisive, and sometimes cutting edge.

I do hope some of the other prospectives I met there decide to go, as well!

**Felt like I should amend: tired because they just got back from Spring Break and most had been out of town. Not because they were miserable.

[8521679]

**Felt like I should amend: tired because they just got back from Spring Break and most had been out of town. Not because they were miserable.

I should amend too: I meant that I'll also be accepting RU's offer, not that I'm also a romanticist. That's a one-person boat. A lonely, enraptured, heart-stricken, one-person boat.

[lompoc727]

I should amend too: I meant that I'll also be accepting RU's offer, not that I'm also a romanticist. That's a one-person boat. A lonely, enraptured, heart-stricken, one-person boat.

But yearning to be understood! So much detailed, mind-bending yearning...

[fromeurope]

But yearning to be understood! So much detailed, mind-bending yearning...

I see in your signature that you've gone from "pretty sure" to committed.

[8521679]

So what size cohort is RU aiming for? I'm under the impression that it's a dozen, but I can't recall where I got that information.

[lompoc727]

So what size cohort is RU aiming for? I'm under the impression that it's a dozen, but I can't recall where I got that information.

Colin Jager told me they're aiming for 10-12.

P.S. It seems that we incoming students are all stalking each other on facebook at the behest of the current first-years, so feel free to join!

[8521679]

I'm not stalking anyone. Yet.

[fromeurope]

I'm not stalking anyone. Yet.

I put my FB account through my e-mail account, so if you'll allow it, we can do some mutual stalking...