New Jersey v Virginia

[MyCityIsBetterThanYours]

Princeton is clearly the most prestigious university in either state. I'd give UVA the edge over Rutgers for state universities. Considering how difficult it is for one to gain acceptance into Princeton I was thinking NJ can't compete with balance of universities available in the state of VA, which is obviously has the advantage of being much larger area wise.

Virginia Tech
James Madison
Washington and Lee
William and Mary
University of Richmond
Virginia Commonwealth
Virginia Military Institute
George Mason
Old Dominion


NJ has Stevens, NJIT, Rowan, Montclair State, Seton Hall that come to mind but I'm sure I'm missing a few.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by UrbanQuest

Agreed except for the higher education part. UVA/William and Mary vs Rutgers/Princeton.

Actually, both states have outstanding systems of public higher education. Both of the Virginia schools you mention are part of it, while only Rutgers is part of New Jersey's.

But New Jersey's public higher-ed system also includes Rowan, Richard Stockton, Thomas Edison, Montclair State*, New Jersey City and Kean universities. Plus it has what many consider the nation's best value in a four-year liberal arts college in the College of New Jersey (nee Trenton State College; there was a hard tussle with Princeton, which went by that name prior to 1896, when Trenton State took it for its own), plus Ramapo State College. And Rutgers has three four-year campuses, in New Brunswick, Newark and Camden.

Virginia lacks a private university on Princeton's level, but its flagship state university is one of the best of the "public Ivies," and William and Mary (the second oldest college in the United States, behind Harvard) is no slouch either.

*This is the only public college or university in the state that is not a member of the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities, which says it represents the state's "senior institutions of public higher education." (Well, NJIT isn't either.)

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by UrbanQuest

Virginia has UVA over Rutgers, nicer mountains and no real ghetto/poor cities. That’s where it ends.

New Jersey’s shoreline puts a wallop to Virginia. Virginia has good public schools in Fairfax and Loudon counties, NJ has them all over the state. Virginia has DC/Arlington/Alexandria for an urban experience, NJ has NYC(all by itself dwarfing all that Virginia has)/Philadelphia/Jersey City and Hoboken.

As for wealth. Per Capital is the better measure. Here are each states locals with per capital incomes > $60,000 in no particular order.
DC
1. Vienna
2. Oakton
3. McLean
4. Reston
5. Wolf Trap
6. Tysons
7. Lansdowne
8. Arlington
9. Alexandria
10.Floris
11.Franklin Farm

New Jersey
1. Tenafly
2. Alpine
3. Cresskill
4. Demarest
5. Norwood
6. Rockleigh
7. Old Tappan
8. Woodcliff Lake
9. Upper Saddle River
10. Saddle River
11. Ho Ho Kus
12. Ridgewood
13. Allendale
14. Ramsey
15. Glen Rock
16. Oradell
17. Edgewater
18. Franklin Lakes
19. Wyckoff
(and that’s just Bergen County)

On balance I would give NJ the slight edge.

Let me add some in South Jersey for you too:

Atlantic County
Longport*

Burlington County
Moorestown

Camden County
Haddonfield
Tavistock**

Cape May County
Avalon*
Stone Harbor*

*These are Shore municipalities, all of which have small year-round populations that swell to about four times their year-round size or more in the summer months.

**Tavistock Borough is the least populous municipality in the state, with a current population of 3. Thus there are no official income stats for it, but since the reason it exists was because it houses a country club that desired a liquor license, something unavailable in dry Haddonfield (it was incorporated when the country club moved there in 1921), and it's surrounded by Haddonfield's tonier east side, I think it safe to say that its per capita income is also north of $60,000 per year.

South Jersey urbanized later than North Jersey did, and most of the urbanizers came from more blue-collar ethnic South Philadelphia. The serious money in Philly resides in its Pennsylvania suburbs.