The First Colonial Colleges of New Jersey

and

     Rutgers and Princeton were New Jersey's first two colonial colleges.  Princeton was chartered in 1746, while Rutgers was chartered in 1766.  Both universities started programs within New Jersey such as liberal arts, students government, college athletics, and academic freedom.
     It is interesting to see that originally tuition at Princeton was only twenty dollars a year.  And did you know that at their start Rutgers only had a graduating class of two people?
     Of course only men were allowed to attend these prestigious universities back then.  Their liberal arts curriculum consisted of Latin and Greek classes, rhetoric, mathematics, philosophy, logic, metaphysics, ethics, foreign language, and the study of Christianity.  There was no such thing as electives offered, and students who didn't take the entire liberal arts program didn't graduate.
     In 1864, Rutgers became a public college of New Jersey.  Although churches founded both institutions, they eventually broke away and the schools continued on their own.  They eventually began to expand and have become the universities that we know today.
     These schools play a significant part within New Jersey history.  Not only because of the famous alumni they have produced, but to their contribution to education that is prevalent in colleges throughout the United States.