Well this is assuming (since a couple people here chimed about about going to other schools) for whatever reason if you can’t attend either of the schools you mentioned, I would avoid Montclair state. It’s not that it’s bad but the Physics department there is still young and growing (it split from the Math dept about a year before COVID) and for now it’s only offering astronomy electives (unless that’s what you want to get into). They are hiring more profs and it seems like they are on the right track to expanding and I hope it flourishes. But when compared to other schools “rigor” like RU and NJIT to MSU, obviously RU and NJIT blow MSU out of the water (I’m sure for other majors but I’m specifically referring to physics). This was told to me by my advisor at MSU.