He is likely going to NJIT, a very good school. That area is safe. Any city has shitty areas, a lot of suburbs do as well. Unless he is going on some drug buy in a housing project, he should be fine.

UPenn is in a bad area of Philadelphia, it’s still a good school. Parts of New Haven are bad, should people not go to Yale. Columbia is in Morningside Heights which is basically Harlem. Should people not go there.

Newark has great transit options right into Manhattan., he can jump on Amtrak to Philadelphia, DC, Boston, etc. He has Newark Airport right there to go most anywhere. I think for an international student, Newark is a better option than some rural campus in the sticks, you saw 4 students murdered in Moscow Idaho recently, but just my opinion