Total Enrollment: 70,876
Undergraduate: 50,957 (72 percent)
Graduate and Professional: 19,919 (28 percent)
New Jersey residents: 82.5 percent
Out-of-state: 17.5 percent
Women: 54 percent
Men: 46 percent
Full- and part-time faculty: 8,500-plus
Academic degrees awarded since 1766 (through Academic Year 2017-18): 598,874
First degree awarded: 1774
Living Alumni: 517,376
RUTGERS’ HISTORY
Rutgers was chartered in 1766 as Queen’s College, making it the eighth-oldest institution of higher education in the nation. It became Rutgers College in 1825, honoring Col. Henry Rutgers, a former trustee and Revolutionary War veteran. In 1924, Rutgers College assumed university status. By 1956, legislative acts designated all of Rutgers’ divisions as The State University of New Jersey, making it the youngest state university in the country at that time. Rutgers is the only university in the nation to have been a Colonial college, a land-grant college and a state university. In 1989, Rutgers became a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. In 2016, Rutgers University celebrated its 250th anniversary, a milestone few higher education institutions have achieved.
In August 2012, the New Jersey Medical and Health Sciences Education Restructuring Act was signed into law, and in November 2012, the Rutgers Boards of Governors and Trustees voted unanimously to approve the changes outlined in the legislation. The act transferred to Rutgers nearly all of the schools, institutes and centers of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and integration became effective in July 2013.
In November 2012, The Big Ten Conference Council of Presidents/Chancellors voted unanimously to accept Rutgers as the 14th member of the Big Ten. One month later, Rutgers accepted an invitation to join the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (now known as the Big Ten Academic Alliance), the nation’s premier higher education consortium of top-tier research institutions. Membership became effective in July 2013. Scarlet Knights sports teams in New Brunswick began competing in the Big Ten in all intercollegiate athletic programs starting July 2014.
