South Orange isn’t even listed! Beyond pathetic.
They ranked the Top 415 College Towns…
- Thread starter SHUisNJsTeam
- Start date
No college town, no practice facility, no NIL. Stunned recruits don't want to come here.
Is that really a shock? South Orange is a nice town but hardly a college town. And you’d think some of the people figured out after they bought there was a college. In my experience the people weren’t the warmest.
During my senior year we were going to have a “day drink”, couple of kegs with some music. I kid you not, there were 10 guys casually tossing a football with mild music waiting for people to arrive and the neighbors called the cops on us. At 1 pm. And the town cleverly has rules stating they can give out noise ordinance violations at any time.
Cops told us nothing crazy, don’t mess with other peoples yards. All fair.
They came back 2 hours later and gave out over $1,000 of tickets. Again, we’re not talking about a 2 am blast interrupting sleep. The noise was on par with any big family party.
And then on top of that the school “disciplines” you and hands out even more fines. Then they wonder why some alumni have no interest in donating.
During my senior year we were going to have a “day drink”, couple of kegs with some music. I kid you not, there were 10 guys casually tossing a football with mild music waiting for people to arrive and the neighbors called the cops on us. At 1 pm. And the town cleverly has rules stating they can give out noise ordinance violations at any time.
Cops told us nothing crazy, don’t mess with other peoples yards. All fair.
They came back 2 hours later and gave out over $1,000 of tickets. Again, we’re not talking about a 2 am blast interrupting sleep. The noise was on par with any big family party.
And then on top of that the school “disciplines” you and hands out even more fines. Then they wonder why some alumni have no interest in donating.
South Orange isn’t even listed! Beyond pathetic.
And no one is surprised...south Orange shouldn't be on this list. Why would a recruit want to come?
Have you been to downtown SO recently? Great restaurants of all types, bagel, ice ream and coffee shops, supermarket, pharmacy, bars, etc. A new restaurant and bar where town hall was housed looks beautiful and will open soon. Plus a walk to a train station to NYC!!
What exactly is missing?
What exactly is missing?
I just looked at the list. It is absurd. Bethlehem and Morgantown are in the top 100? Have you ever been there? We are 14 miles away from NYC. This list is absurd. Compare real estate prices of those places v SO. Anyone upset that we aren’t on this joke list frankly isn’t very bright.
Last edited:
Do college recruits really care about that? No NIL, that a huge drawback for Seton Hall University right now.
The village of SO hates us and there's not much to do. You think kids care about supermarkets, shops and pharmacies, ice cream and bagels??
There isn't way at all in which to rank something like this objectively, using these kinds of metrics. That's why the list is populated with dozens (hundreds?) of places I wouldn't ever even think of being a college town, as well as places to which I wouldn't consign my worst enemy.
But even if someone was ranking their subjective list of best college towns, I couldn't justify South Orange being on it. It's a beautiful town and a great place to live, but it's really not a "college town" at all, let alone a top one. There's a lot more to the appellation than having a college or university within its borders.
But even if someone was ranking their subjective list of best college towns, I couldn't justify South Orange being on it. It's a beautiful town and a great place to live, but it's really not a "college town" at all, let alone a top one. There's a lot more to the appellation than having a college or university within its borders.
What’s missing? Oh, I don’t know, maybe friendly, welcoming neighbors? Maybe a town government that didn’t make trying to make Seton Hall’s life miserable their mission in life? Maybe build housing (apartments/condos) in town that students and recent grads with young families could afford? How about a hotel or two where visiting families could stay? There’s a lot missing! Just visit any other major college university town not named Seton Hall and you’ll see what I mean.
the town is pretty nice now. much more than when i was there.
Lol, biggest draw for SO is how easy / close it is to go someplace better. But New York is only 387 on list, so being 14 miles away doesn't get you much, with their ranking methodology. SO is not "wallet friendly" and while nice place for family, not so much for fun social scene for students.
This just shows how good Willard did during his time at Seton Hall! I will truly miss it! We are in the post Willard era now and it ain't pretty.
Cows, apparently, since Storrs Connecticut came in at number 32 on the strength of a strong social environment score.
Last edited:
The cows must like the UConn students. Unfortunately the South Orange residents don’t like the Seton Hall students.
Oh, believe me we have NIMBY issues any time we want to do any development. A big difference for UConn is that we are not in an urban area and the school owns sufficient land for development. That helps to dilute the impact of local residence who seem always to oppose any development on campus.
I read on this board that Seton Hall sold off land. Big mistake, in my opinion. Particularly inJersey, land is always an appreciating asset. And in especially Essex County, it is hard to come by.
This ranking is very poorly done.
It has cities like Santa Monica in it, which only have a junior college. You don't think of Santa Monica as a college town.
Now, it has Irvine, where my UC Irvine undergrad is at #13. It is a great place to live and go to school, but it's not the 13th best "college town". It's definitely a great place to live, though.
Seton Hall needs to gobble up as much land and buildings as possible. I believe they do that, when the opportunities arise.
It has cities like Santa Monica in it, which only have a junior college. You don't think of Santa Monica as a college town.
Now, it has Irvine, where my UC Irvine undergrad is at #13. It is a great place to live and go to school, but it's not the 13th best "college town". It's definitely a great place to live, though.
Seton Hall needs to gobble up as much land and buildings as possible. I believe they do that, when the opportunities arise.
Similar threads
