History and Mission

In the fall of 2015, the Honors College at Rutgers University-New Brunswick opened its doors and welcomed its inaugural class. Overlooking the Raritan River and located at the north end of Voorhees Mall, the Honors College became a new landmark on Rutgers' historic College Avenue campus. The Honors College curriculum offers an unparalleled educational experience focused on interdisciplinary and experiential learning in the context of an innovative and comprehensive living-learning community, complete with seminar rooms, on-site advising and administrative offices, study lounges, and faculty apartments. The Honors College provides a fully integrated, 24/7 academic and social experience.

Addressing the need to provide more honors opportunities to the highest-achieving students from New Jersey and across the country, the Honors College in New Brunswick was conceived as a powerful academic initiative to support the needs of honors students and build on the strength of existing honors programs at Rutgers by offering an innovative learning environment and close interaction with faculty from the beginning of students' undergraduate careers. In parallel with the national visibility gained from Rutgers-New Brunswick joining the Big Ten and its related Big Ten Academic Alliance, the founding of the Honors College doubled the number of high-achieving students at New Brunswick with access to honors education, underscoring the role of Rutgers-New Brunswick as the public flagship university of New Jersey. The Honors College works alongside the existing school-based honors programs--which continue to fulfill their missions of supporting high-achieving students in New Brunswick--integrating exceptional talent from all of the schools into its unique residential program and allowing for even greater interdisciplinary curricular and extracurricular experiences.

Ground was broken on the Honors College facility as part of the Seminary Place Redevelopment Project in September 2013, flanking the new academic building next door completed in September 2016, and the Voorhees Mall opposite the historic Old Queens campus. As the new facility took shape, a broadly representative faculty committee was convened by then-New Brunswick Chancellor Richard Edwards, and charged with developing an innovative curriculum designed to guide students from their introduction to scholarly inquiry, through the development of critical thinking skills, to applied research and the formation of new knowledge. Along with the consortium of six participating undergraduate schools, the New Brunswick Honors College works in tandem with a student's major course of study in their school of enrollment, exposing students to interdisciplinary inquiry, providing opportunities for research and engagement with Rutgers' world-class faculty, and challenging them to engage with 21st-century issues from their first days on campus. With the Honors College motto of "Curiosity. Knowledge. Purpose.", students are asked to think about how they can serve the world with their creativity and knowledge so that they may ultimately have a life and a career with purpose.

About the Honors College (HC-NB)

ABOUT THE HONORS COLLEGE