Students speak their opinions towards Rider’s positive ratings

By Olivia Nicoletti

Rider has yet again made the list for top universities in New Jersey. The Wall Street Journal released their 2022 Higher Education College Rankings with Rider coming in eighth out of 20 schools in the state.

According to a university press release, Rider earned a spot on the list of the top 300 institutions in the U.S., as well as in the top half of colleges in the Northeast region.

A university press release also said that The Wall Street Journal ranked, “universities and colleges based on graduate success and student learning. The rankings use 15 individual performance metrics, grouped into four pillars: resources, engagement, outcomes and environment.”

It goes on to say, “Approximately 20% of the rankings are derived from the annual Times Higher Education U.S. Student Survey, which includes data from more than 170,000 current U.S. students across all ranked colleges.”

Although this may be a major boost for the employees, students have shared opinions as to whether Rider deserved this spot.

Olivia Venier, a senior music education major, attended Westminster Choir College (WCC) before relocating with the rest of the students to the Lawrenceville campus in the Fall of 2020. She has lived on campus since the beginning of this fall semester but has been to campus for rehearsals in the past year.

Venier’s experience at the Princeton campus was great but feels her move has so far been unpleasant.

“Overall, the people are nice here, but the facilities are not even close to adequate for the WCC people. I feel Rider being selected as one of the best colleges is laughable. For the WCC people, we were taken from our campus, losing teachers and students alike,” Venier said. “We were given a place with few practice rooms, a not nearly large enough practice space for our symphonic choir with terrible acoustics, and some people I know were met with hostility by some of the other teachers and students.”

Brandon Rios, a junior global supply chain management and sports management major, has lived on campus until this current fall semester. Rios prides himself in being involved on campus and has more planned for his future at Rider.

“I am happy to hear that Rider has been selected as one of the best colleges because it makes the ‘on-campus life’ more enjoyable,” Rios said. “I think when people are happy with their education and have good experiences, the campus becomes more of a lively, positive environment.”

Rios too believes that Rider should make some changes.

“I believe Rider can improve their campus social life. They can do this by adding more late-night meal and snack options,” Rios said. “I feel as if campus shuts down past 11 p.m. especially on weekends. With some changes, students can enjoy campus a little more on the weekends. I cannot imagine the environment was marked high on Rider’s score sheet for the rankings.”