Rutgers-New Brunswick Dedicates New Honors College
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — The Honors College is the newest addition to the list of schools Rutgers University-New Brunswick has to offer, with the recently dedicated building boasting 170,000-square-feet of living and learning space for freshmen in the honors program.
“This new Honors College brings the University’s highest achieving students into one innovative community focused on intellectual curiosity and hands on, collaborative learning,” said New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno during her address at the college’s Sept. 25 dedication ceremony. “By engaging students from all disciplines in workshops, fieldwork, mentorships and more, the Honors College will help Rutgers continue to provide one of the best educational experiences in the nation.”
The building is located on College Avenue and is home to more than 500 first-year students who have been accepted through the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering, Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick, the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy and the Mason Gross School of the Arts.
In addition to bedrooms with carpet and air conditioning, the Honors College also has six seminar rooms, administrative and advising offices, live-in faculty apartments, an indoor-outdoor fireplace that anchors a lounge, and patio space. These amenities make the Honors College a living-learning community that provides interdisciplinary experience for honors students across academic fields.
“In that environment, students can interact with one another both in their residence hall experience and in their academic lives, taking common coursework and participating in classes on site in their seminar rooms in the facility,” said Donel Young, manager of marketing and communications at the Honors College.
Honors College students also have access to on-site programs, including arts shows, musical performances and social events with faculty members, as well as trips to museums, lectures and exhibits.
These events combined with the idea of a tight knit community caught the attention of Larissa Tobdzic, a freshmen enrolled in the Honors College through the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.
“They have a lot of programs for research, and a lot of faculty that are really willing to help you,” said Tobdzic. “I was happy to live with a bunch of people that could seriously challenge me intellectually and make friends with people who have other things in common (with me).”
Tobdzic is just one of the 530 freshmen in the inaugural Honors College class, which boasts an average SAT score of 2160, compared to the national average of 1497. Additionally, about 90 percent of the students in the inaugural class were in the top 10 percent of their high school classes.
“We were focused mainly on the top students from New Jersey who are among the 30,000 high school graduates who each year leave and go somewhere else,” Richard L. Edwards, chancellor of Rutgers University-New Brunswick, told TAPinto. “We want to keep that talent right here in our state and at our university.”
Rutgers has plans to expand the Honors College to 2,000 students across all academic years in the future. Alexis Celluro, a senior enrolled in the honors program through the School of Arts and Sciences, said she wishes the plan existed from the beginning.
“It would make more sense if it was something that continued further out because the only people I have had interaction with in the honors program are people in the School of Arts and Sciences program,” said Celluro.
Although first-year students are invited to live at the Honors College, the curriculum and its programs continue throughout their four years at the university. For Young, the community is just the beginning.
“It’s a place of music, of excitement, of scholarly debate, of late night studying, of students learning about themselves and the world through programming, courses, and casual interaction,” said Young. “It’s a place where students explore their curiosity about the world, gain knowledge, and find a purpose.”
