The College of New Jersey

Appears on

• Top 6 Colleges in New Jersey

  Currently #5 · score 0

Reviews

Log in to leave a review.

Barks

Log in to bark.

Similar places

• Princeton University

  Princeton University, founded in 1746 as the College of New Jersey, is one of the nine colonial colleges established before the American Revolution, and its Ivy League reputation is built substantially around an undergraduate-focused teaching model unusual among research universities of its academic caliber. Every Princeton undergraduate is required to complete a senior thesis, an independent research project supervised one-on-one by a faculty adviser, a graduation requirement that gives Princeton students a level of sustained independent research experience uncommon even among other elite research universities. The university's endowment per student is among the highest of any American university, funding a no-loan financial aid policy that replaces loans entirely with grants, letting Princeton recruit top applicants regardless of their family's ability to pay tuition. Princeton's relatively small undergraduate enrollment for a major research university, combined with its deep endowment resources and close faculty mentorship model, has consistently placed it at or near the top of national university rankings, and the school's Gothic-influenced campus architecture, including its iconic Nassau Hall, remains one of the most recognizable in American higher education.

• Rutgers University

  Rutgers University, founded in 1766, is the eighth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and New Jersey's flagship public research university, having originally been chartered as Queen's College before later becoming the state's designated land-grant institution. The university's enrollment across its combined New Brunswick, Newark, and Camden campuses exceeds 67,000 students, making it one of the largest university systems in the country, and Rutgers' proximity to both New York City and Philadelphia gives students access to two major metropolitan job markets simultaneously. Rutgers' pharmacy, social work, and criminal justice programs have each built strong national reputations, and the university's status as a major public research institution funded in part by New Jersey's significant pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry has shaped particular strength in the life sciences. The university's membership in the Big Ten athletic conference since 2014, alongside far larger Midwestern flagship universities, reflected a deliberate institutional strategy to raise Rutgers' national athletic and academic profile, positioning it among a group of major public research universities well beyond its traditional Northeastern peer group.

• Stevens Institute of Technology

  Stevens Institute of Technology, founded in 1870, was the first college in the United States dedicated exclusively to mechanical engineering education, and its Hoboken campus sits directly on the Hudson River with a clear, unobstructed view of the Manhattan skyline just across the water. The university's engineering management and technology management programs reflect a deliberate institutional bridge between technical engineering training and business leadership, a combination that's made Stevens graduates particularly attractive to finance and technology firms seeking employees who can operate across both disciplines. Stevens' close proximity to New York City's financial and technology sectors gives students direct access to internships at major employers just a short train ride away, and the school's quantitative finance program benefits specifically from that access to Wall Street's concentration of trading and analytics firms. The university's relatively small size, around 4,300 undergraduates, and its highly specialized STEM-focused curriculum have made Stevens a consistent draw for students specifically seeking a technical education with direct access to the New York metropolitan job market, occupying a niche similar to Illinois Institute of Technology's within Chicago.

• Seton Hall University

  Seton Hall University, founded in 1856 by Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley, is the oldest diocesan Catholic university in the United States, and it's named for Bayley's aunt, Elizabeth Ann Seton, who became the first American-born saint canonized by the Catholic Church. The university's law school and its Stillman School of Business have each built strong regional reputations, and Seton Hall's location roughly halfway between New York City and Philadelphia gives students access to internship and career opportunities across both major metropolitan job markets. Seton Hall's men's basketball program, which reached the NCAA championship game in 1989, has given the university a national athletic profile that's helped raise its visibility beyond the New Jersey and tri-state region where most of its undergraduate applicants traditionally come from. The university's continued Catholic religious mission, combined with its relatively accessible admissions profile compared to the state's more selective private research universities, has made Seton Hall a consistent choice for students specifically seeking a faith-based education within commuting distance of the New York metropolitan area.

• Drew University

  Drew University, founded in 1867 originally as a Methodist theological seminary, has grown into a small liberal arts university whose wooded, 186-acre campus in Madison, New Jersey has earned it the nickname "the University in the Forest." The university maintains three distinct schools under one roof — a liberal arts college, a theological seminary, and a graduate school — an unusual combination that lets undergraduates cross-register into graduate-level theology and religious studies coursework not typically available at comparably sized liberal arts colleges. Drew's Semester on Wall Street and Semester on the United Nations programs give students direct, immersive access to financial and international policy institutions in nearby New York City, reflecting the university's deliberate emphasis on experiential learning tied to its location within commuting distance of Manhattan. The university's small size, fewer than 1,500 undergraduates, and its combination of a rustic, forested campus with direct programmatic access to New York City's financial and diplomatic institutions have made Drew a distinctive, if lesser-known, choice among New Jersey's private liberal arts colleges.