Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I was recently admitted to Rutgers University for a PhD program and I'm interested in what the area is like and whether it'll be a good fit for me. For starters, I'm young, not married, and from lower Westchester, NY originally. I love NYC, and I would definitely go there for culture, nightlife, etc., (does the NJ Transit train to Penn run often/on time?) but I'm also wondering what the arts/restaurant/museum scene is like in New Brunswick. Is it more of a sleepy exurban area or is there a genuine urban core here? I've spent the last few years in a very suburban and quiet area on Long Island so I'm looking to avoid that.
Of course, the first piece of advice will be to visit, which I will be doing shortly. I do know that it can be hard to understand a new area from a couple of visits only, so I'd like to get some other opinions. Thanks!
New Brunswick has a downtown with some restaurants, bars, etc. The George Street Playhouse and State Theatre offer frequent shows of various sorts. The only museum I can speak of is the Zimmerli Art Museum on the Rutgers College Ave campus. It's a small museum, but worth a visit. There are also a few small galleries. Downtown NB is a nice place to live if you like a little bit of an urban environment and can afford the rent in some of the nicer buildings there. Much of the rest of NB is quite "seedy."
Many grad/PhD students choose to live in Highland Park and save some money. Highland Park is a small borough across the river from downtown NB. It has a small Main Street district of its own, but it otherwise pretty sleepy. When I was a grad student at Rutgers I lived in Highland Park and walked over to NB for classes, dinner or bars, and to catch trains to NYC.
NYC is an hour by train from New Brunswick, so it's an easy day trip. There are plenty of other museums and galleries around. You can take the train to Newark to visit the Newark Museum. There are some galleries in Princeton, the sculpture garden in Hamilton, and the whole city of Philadelphia, all of which you can get to by train if you don't mind a transfer or two.
Thanks for the response. A couple more questions: Is New Brunswick walkable to and from the Busch campus? It seems to me that there are only a couple of road bridges and not much in the way of pedestrian pathways. Also, are there outdoor activities such as parks, canoeing, etc. nearby?
Johnson Park in Piscataway (big park along the river) is right across the street from the Busch campus (right by the football stadium). Also, the Rutgers Ecological Preserve on the Livingston campus has a great trail system to explore (beautiful park area). If you go a little north of New Brunswick side into Franklin Twp. (closer to South Bound Brook I think), you can get to the towpath along the river that goes along for miles. Canoeing- not in New Brunswick, but further up the Raritan at some point (the head of tide is actually around New Brunswick). As far as walking goes, there is a bridge by Johnson Park that connects to New Brunswick (Landing Lane), but it's a fairly steep climb up George St, which is also a narrow road without sidewalks (though there is a paved trail in the park next to the road). There is however, a pedestrian walkway along the Rt 18 bridge. And there are RU buses that run from the Busch Campus to the College Ave Campus that run until pretty late at night.
Thanks for the response. A couple more questions: Is New Brunswick walkable to and from the Busch campus? It seems to me that there are only a couple of road bridges and not much in the way of pedestrian pathways. Also, are there outdoor activities such as parks, canoeing, etc. nearby?
It might be better as a bike ride than as a walk. Busch is a considerable distance from downtown NB. I have walked from the train station in NB to the RU football stadium and it's a +/-45-min walk. All of the academic and residential buildings on Busch would be at least an additional 10-15 min or more. By bike it would be a quicker trip, and as Runner mentioned, there's a bus service, and lyft/uber as a fallback if it's late and you don't want to wait for the next bus.
Johnson Park is a great place to jog or play tennis. If you cross the Landing Lane bridge from Johnson Park and immediately turn to your right, you can get on the Delaware and Raritan Canal towpath. It's more than 60 miles of (mostly) unpaved but flat trail you can take down to Princeton, Trenton, and then up along the Delaware River to Lambertville and Frenchtown. I've biked 2/3 of it and see lots of people biking, jogging, or walking along the way. http://www.dandrcanal.com/pdf/parkmap.pdf
If you have a car, you can easily get to the shore, Poconos, Del Water Gap, etc. Train service to the shore is available but would require some transfers and waiting. There are student groups who take ski trips, hikes, etc., that you could seek out (though most members will probably be undergrads), or you may connect with other grad students in your program and do these activities together. Grad students can join intramural sports leagues at RU. Also, try meetups.
Are you going there for a science PhD? (because you mentioned Busch) If so, and if you are going to be spending all of your time over on Busch, I would find an apartment over there in Piscataway and have a car. I can't see any reason to rent a place in NB...more expensive and not as nice and crime can be an issue.
NB is a small city with a nice core (but small) and the rest is rundown neighborhoods or the university. NYC is easy to get to on the train so that's a plus
Yea, im going for physics PhD, so you're right, I won't be spending much time in NB itself. I drove over to see what the area is like today. I liked the city core and I drove over the to top Busch campus. I don't know why but I wasn't expecting it to be so large. It isn't very walkable since there isn't even a sidewalk for some of the path between the visitor's center and the rest of the campus. Also the rest of the campus seems to be hemmed in by highways, which I guess is efficient for travel but not too pretty to look at. The older college avenue campus was very pretty however, if only it weren't separated by so many highways.
Yea, im going for physics PhD, so you're right, I won't be spending much time in NB itself. I drove over to see what the area is like today. I liked the city core and I drove over the to top Busch campus. I don't know why but I wasn't expecting it to be so large. It isn't very walkable since there isn't even a sidewalk for some of the path between the visitor's center and the rest of the campus. Also the rest of the campus seems to be hemmed in by highways, which I guess is efficient for travel but not too pretty to look at. The older college avenue campus was very pretty however, if only it weren't separated by so many highways.
Yes, Busch is huge and sprawling. If you are doing a physics PhD you will be in your building 99.9% of the time anyway I guess. I did an undergrad degree in science there and worked in labs and all of the grad students lived in Piscataway mostly and just drove to the lab. You are right, RU-NB is a very segmented campus overall with the highways everywhere.
Yea, im going for physics PhD, so you're right, I won't be spending much time in NB itself. I drove over to see what the area is like today. I liked the city core and I drove over the to top Busch campus. I don't know why but I wasn't expecting it to be so large. It isn't very walkable since there isn't even a sidewalk for some of the path between the visitor's center and the rest of the campus. Also the rest of the campus seems to be hemmed in by highways, which I guess is efficient for travel but not too pretty to look at. The older college avenue campus was very pretty however, if only it weren't separated by so many highways.
The entire Busch campus is very walkable. Everyone walks, don't worry, it looks sprawling but everything is really a 10 minute walk or less. Plus you won't be parking in the visitor's center. If you end up parking in a further lot there is always a bus to take you closer, then you walk from there. You don't see highways from Busch campus, Busch is very pretty it's just an ugly time of year all around. Same for College Ave - not sure what you mean by the highways everywhere... there is route 18 but again that's not even in the campus area. Maybe you're just not used to NJ yet...
PS: New Brunswick is quite "urban" and can be dangerous in different areas and especially at night. The college area is generally pretty good but as you get out into the actual city of New Brunswick there is a strong gang presence that's no joke.
The campus bus service between Busch and College Ave. is very reliable. There is really no reason to even consider walking between these 2 campuses.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
