5 Reasons Why RU-N is the Best School in the Nation
Karolina Lula, Op-Ed columnist
Issue date: 10/17/05 Section: Opinion
You can have it your way!
RU-N has a better looking twin. It's called New Brunswick. You can date both. So off to Newark for an education and out to New Brunswick for a party.
We are motivated and we stay true to our roots. If you went to a party school, your GPA would have been poop. Rutgers actually focuses on academics, since there is not much else here. Rutgers will be the reason why you later went to Harvard, while Harvard could've been the reason you later went to Rutgers. Where you get your undergraduate education does not matter in that sense.
It's very close to the city. You can pretty much craft whatever undergraduate experience you want for yourself. You can be social and involved in student activities. Or you can go to class (or not) and then get the hell out of there and go to the city. Or Hoboken. Or down the shore. Your options are endless.
You get your money's worth.
You don't have to move away from home if you don't want to. Nothing beats mooching off your parents for another four years. Not only that, but you get home-cooked meals and someone to do your laundry for you.
It's the American Dream.
Internships: we got UMDNJ, law firms, senator offices, businesses, you name it. You could actually intern in the city where you go to school. There are plenty of opportunities.
Most of the student activities haven't yet been started, so if you're ambitious and innovative you get the credit of being a founder of an organization. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't, but everything is a learning experience.
It's very easy to get elected to office, but the experience is similar to running in a real election. You know which groups to target, which alliances to build, how to market yourself. It's better than Survivor.
If you are bright there is less competition. If you are good-looking there is less competition. If you're both you're unstoppable.
Things will cease to surprise you.
Where else do the condoms offered by the student activities office actually come in flavors? It's one thing to be safe, it's another to have a menu. I could just imagine a student leader coming into the student activities office:
Dean: "Are you here to talk about the event your organization was planning?"
Student leader: "No, I'm just here for the condoms. What's the flavor of the day?"
You learn survival skills.
If you are a commuter you learn how to drive in a high-traffic area. It comes in handy if you ever drive into the city.
We have a gym. On the Camden campus, they do not need a gym. They get their exercise by dodging bullets on their way to class.
It simulates a real world environment. If you went to an "all white school" or an "all black school" or an "all girls school" or an "all boys school," you would only learn how to behave in one type of an environment, and that would not be realistic. We should learn to get along with and tolerate all kinds of people because one day when we have real jobs we'll have to work with them anyway.
It makes you tougher.
You learn how to talk to the homeless. If you used to be stingy you become generous. If you used to be generous you become stingy. All it takes is a bum cursing you out when you really do not have any money on you. We are college students after all.
Columnist Karolina Lula, an NCAS economics and political science major, is executive vice president of the SGA.
RU-N has a better looking twin. It's called New Brunswick. You can date both. So off to Newark for an education and out to New Brunswick for a party.
We are motivated and we stay true to our roots. If you went to a party school, your GPA would have been poop. Rutgers actually focuses on academics, since there is not much else here. Rutgers will be the reason why you later went to Harvard, while Harvard could've been the reason you later went to Rutgers. Where you get your undergraduate education does not matter in that sense.
It's very close to the city. You can pretty much craft whatever undergraduate experience you want for yourself. You can be social and involved in student activities. Or you can go to class (or not) and then get the hell out of there and go to the city. Or Hoboken. Or down the shore. Your options are endless.
You get your money's worth.
You don't have to move away from home if you don't want to. Nothing beats mooching off your parents for another four years. Not only that, but you get home-cooked meals and someone to do your laundry for you.
It's the American Dream.
Internships: we got UMDNJ, law firms, senator offices, businesses, you name it. You could actually intern in the city where you go to school. There are plenty of opportunities.
Most of the student activities haven't yet been started, so if you're ambitious and innovative you get the credit of being a founder of an organization. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't, but everything is a learning experience.
It's very easy to get elected to office, but the experience is similar to running in a real election. You know which groups to target, which alliances to build, how to market yourself. It's better than Survivor.
If you are bright there is less competition. If you are good-looking there is less competition. If you're both you're unstoppable.
Things will cease to surprise you.
Where else do the condoms offered by the student activities office actually come in flavors? It's one thing to be safe, it's another to have a menu. I could just imagine a student leader coming into the student activities office:
Dean: "Are you here to talk about the event your organization was planning?"
Student leader: "No, I'm just here for the condoms. What's the flavor of the day?"
You learn survival skills.
If you are a commuter you learn how to drive in a high-traffic area. It comes in handy if you ever drive into the city.
We have a gym. On the Camden campus, they do not need a gym. They get their exercise by dodging bullets on their way to class.
It simulates a real world environment. If you went to an "all white school" or an "all black school" or an "all girls school" or an "all boys school," you would only learn how to behave in one type of an environment, and that would not be realistic. We should learn to get along with and tolerate all kinds of people because one day when we have real jobs we'll have to work with them anyway.
It makes you tougher.
You learn how to talk to the homeless. If you used to be stingy you become generous. If you used to be generous you become stingy. All it takes is a bum cursing you out when you really do not have any money on you. We are college students after all.
Columnist Karolina Lula, an NCAS economics and political science major, is executive vice president of the SGA.