Acceptance Rate
58%
Avg. SAT
1500
75th percentile
“Rutgers-New Brunswick thrusts you into a massive, gritty public university engine where Big Ten sports collide with world-shifting research, all just an hour from NYC.”
New Brunswick, NJ
Location
Small City
Campus Setting
You'll step into Rutgers-New Brunswick, the hulking flagship of New Jersey's public universities, founded in 1766 as Queen's College by Dutch settlers in a riverside town—making it one of America's nine original colonial colleges and the Empire State's eighth oldest. Henry Rutgers, a Revolutionary War hero, saved it from bankruptcy in 1825 with a $5,000 donation and a cannon that now sits as a campus landmark, blasted during football wins. This legacy shapes a school that's unpretentically ambitious: pragmatic innovators and urban hustlers thrive amid its 40,000 undergrads sprawled across five campuses along the Raritan River, but if you crave intimate seminars or a sleepy liberal arts vibe, the sheer scale and commuter flux might swallow you whole. New Brunswick pulses with J&J's pharma empire nearby, ethnic eateries, and easy trains to Manhattan or Philly, yet its working-class edges mean you'll navigate sketchy blocks and construction chaos.
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Admissions
Acceptance Rate
Test Policy
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Average GPA
Application Fee
Academics
Student-Faculty Ratio
Programs Offered
Full-Time Faculty
Women Faculty
Research Spending
Degree Levels Offered
In Rutgers' classrooms, expect lecture halls packed with hundreds for intro STEM courses in pharmacy—the nation's oldest program, dating to 1840—or business analytics, where you'll crunch real datasets from nearby Fortune 500s, balanced by smaller honors seminars if you qualify. Professors, backed by a 15:1 ratio that hides massive lower-division classes, push undergrads into labs at the R1 research behemoth generating $900 million yearly; you'll dissect tick-borne diseases at the Center for Vector Biology or engineer biomaterials on Busch Campus. The intellectual vibe rewards self-starters who chase internships over ivory-tower debates, though pre-meds gripe about weeder courses, and humanities feel overshadowed by vocational giants like Mason Gross School of the Arts.
Student Body
Total Enrollment
37,985 undergrad • 14,284 grad
Undergraduate
Graduate
International
White
33%
Black / African American
8%
Hispanic / Latino
15%
Asian
29%
Other / Multi-racial
16%
Campus Life
Campus Setting
New Brunswick, NJ
Varsity Athletics
A typical week at Rutgers kicks off with Monday lectures, segues into club fairs boasting 800+ groups—from scarlet-knight archery to Korean BBQ society—then peaks Friday at frat parties or College Avenue's dive bars, all fueled by the electric Big Ten football scene where fans storm the field to move goalposts. Residential life splits across quad-style dorms, suite-style on the river, and Busch's apartment villages, fostering tight-knit floors amid the chaos, but you'll dodge bike thieves and late-night sirens in this semi-urban sprawl. Traditions like the all-night Grease Truck runs for 'Fat Sandwiches' bind the diverse crowd—half in-state, every ethnicity represented—but introverts or party-averse types battle isolation in the crowds, and brutal Jersey winters bury tailgates under snow.
Housing
On-Campus Housing
Housing Capacity
Meal Plan Available
Average Room & Board
Athletics
Athletic Association
NCAA
ROTC & Veteran Support
Army
Yes
Navy
Yes
Air Force
Yes
Veteran’s Programs Available
Yellow Ribbon Program (Post-9/11 GI Bill)
Yes
Credit for military training
Yes
Dedicated point of contact for veteran support services
Yes
Recognized student veteran organization
Yes
Member of DoD Voluntary Educational Partnership MOU
Yes
Cost & Aid
In-State Tuition
Out-of-State Tuition
Room & Board
Estimated Cost
Financial Aid
Students Receiving Aid
Receiving Pell Grants
Average Grant
Average Federal Loan
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Outcomes & Earnings
Retention Rate
93%
4 Years Graduation Rate
75%
6 Years Graduation Rate
85%
Median 10-Year Earnings
$74,479
93% of first-time, full-time students complete their freshman year at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and return in the fall. 75% of first-time, full-time students graduate in 4 years, and 85% graduate within 6 years.
Graduation Rate
4-year grads
75%
4-6 years
10%
Non-grad
15%
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Key Statistics
Type
Public
Tuition
$12,900
Acceptance
58%
Undergrads
37,985
4-Year Grad Rate
75%
Endowment
$1.6B
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1281