Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, commonly referred to as Rutgers University is an American public research university which is also one of the oldest, largest, top-ranked institutions of higher education in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. Originally chartered as Queen’s College, Rutgers is the eighth-oldest college in the US and one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. It was established in 1776 and is headquartered at New Brunswick, one of the most prestigious campuses in the state of New Jersey.
As one of the leading comprehensive public research university, Rutgers University has a three-pronged mission of:
- Providing for the instructional needs of New Jersey’s residents through its undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs.
- Conducting the innovative research that contributes to the medical, environmental, social, and cultural well-being of the state, as well as aiding the economy and the state’s business and industries; and
- Performing public service in support of the needs of the residents of the state and its local, county, and state governments.
Rutgers is the #1 public university in New Jersey with over 70,000 undergraduate and graduate students (45,000 UG students and 20,000+ graduate and professional students) and over 500,000 alumni around the world. The university has about 9,000 faculty members in 175 academic departments.
The university has affiliations with a number of prestigious organisations and associations, like Association of American Universities, Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, Big Ten Academic Alliance, Universities Research Association, etc. to name a few.
Rutgers has three campuses located throughout New Jersey: New Brunswick campus in New Brunswick and adjacent Piscataway, the Newark campus, and the Camden campus.
The New Brunswick campus was categorized by Howard and Matthew Green in their book titled The Public Ivies: America’s Flagship Public Universities (2001) as a Public Ivy.