What are the best colleges and universities in New Jersey if you reward schools for making the best use of their limited resources? Academic Stewardship asks how effectively schools manage their financial and human resources to gain the influence that makes them academically excellent. Schools that are exemplary in Academic Stewardship are doing everything in their power to help students and faculty achieve their full potential.
Colleges and universities in New Jersey deserve to be recognized when they do more with less. It’s impressive when a large wealthy school can spend money lavishly on expensive buildings and programs. But it’s even more impressive when a small school with limited means is able to train and inspire students that the larger wealthier schools tend to ignore.
The American Association of Colleges and Universities reported in late 2021 that almost 75 percent of higher-education professionals at US colleges and universities felt financial constraints prevented their schools from effectively attracting students. Distracted by the size and amenities of larger schools, prospective students tended especially to be overawed by the big research universities.
New Jersey’s smaller colleges, especially its liberal arts colleges, need effective ways of communicating their value to a world that celebrates “bigger is better” and “you need the best.” Unfortunately, most college ranking companies, such as U.S. News & World Report, define “best” in a way that devalues schools with smaller budgets and fewer students even when these schools do remarkable work in advancing their students’ education. By and large, college rankings penalize schools that serve underserved populations.
Inspired by Malcolm Gladwell, who for years now has criticized conventional college rankings for misrepresenting what’s good and valuable in education, we decided to construct a new ranking metric that highlights those schools that do more with less. That metric—called the Academic Stewardship metric—takes away both the size and the wealth advantage of schools, and focuses instead on how well schools use the resources available to them to advance the education of their students.
As a metric, Academic Stewardship is defined by a precise mathematical formula, which can be found in our Academic Stewardship white paper. Measuring the Academic Stewardship of New Jersey’s colleges requires measuring two forms of stewardship: 1) Stewardship of financial resources (using the money they have responsibility without waste) and 2) Stewardship of human resources (doing their best to help students, faculty, and administration to flourish). Together, these two types of stewardship form what we call Academic Stewardship. If you want to learn more about the factors involved in Academic Stewardship, click the more button below.
Academic Stewardship as so defined is connected to keeping tuition and other costs down, but it should not be confused with affordability or frugality. The schools that this metric ranks as exemplary academic stewards tend to be all over the map when it comes to tuition and other costs. At issue is the influence of schools given the financial and human resources they have on hand. If a school is going to charge more for tuition, then that needs to be reflected in the school having proportionately greater influence.
The benefits of attending a school with strong academic stewardship include:
Tuition + fees
$43K
Acceptance
80%
Graduation
74%
Student body
2K
Drew University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$39K
Acceptance
93%
Graduation
58%
Student body
3K
Saint Peter's University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
85%
Graduation
54%
Student body
4K
Fairleigh Dickinson University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$16K
Acceptance
79%
Graduation
71%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1075/20
Rutgers University–Camden’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$36K
Acceptance
82%
Graduation
61%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1120/23
Rider University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$57K
Acceptance
53%
Graduation
87%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1400/32
Stevens Institute of Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
4%
Graduation
98%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1510/33
Princeton University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$15K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
39%
Student body
6K
New Jersey City University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$47K
Acceptance
77%
Graduation
72%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1230/27
Seton Hall University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$42K
Acceptance
84%
Graduation
69%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1125/23
Monmouth University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$18K
Acceptance
69%
Graduation
74%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1295/28
New Jersey Institute of Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$17K
Acceptance
62%
Graduation
87%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1230/27
The College of New Jersey’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
83%
Graduation
56%
Student body
8K
William Paterson University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$15K
Acceptance
85%
Graduation
76%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1101/23
Stockton University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
79%
Graduation
48%
Student body
12K
Median SAT/ACT
1010/19
Kean University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
84%
Graduation
69%
Student body
16K
Median SAT/ACT
1145/24
Rowan University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
67%
Student body
19K
Montclair State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$16K
Acceptance
68%
Graduation
84%
Student body
48K
Median SAT/ACT
1295/28
Rutgers University–New Brunswick’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$35K
Acceptance
74%
Graduation
39%
Student body
1K
Saint Elizabeth University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$36K
Acceptance
92%
Graduation
52%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
970/18
Felician University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Nearly half of the colleges and universities in this state are private, and tuition rates range from $6,000 to $52,000. With a graduation rate of 97% and a student population of just over 7,000, Princeton University is the state’s most esteemed institution. Narrowing in on the sciences and arts, this Ivy League school offers unique areas of study, including robotics, intelligent systems, and public life. The remaining 31 public colleges and universities range in tuition from $4,000 to $17,000.
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The state’s largest and top-ranked public research institution is Rutgers University. With campuses in New Brunswick, Newark, and Camden as well as smaller locations across the state, Rutgers awards degrees in physics, economics, criminal justice, and psychology. New Jersey also has 11 religiously affiliated colleges and universities, including the oldest diocesan university in the United States, Seton Hall University. This Roman Catholic university has a tuition rate of $42,000 and a student population of over 8,000.
New Jersey, known for its sandy shores and busy expressways, also has more diners than any other state in the U.S., as well as the world’s longest boardwalk, located in Atlantic City. Many influential people, including Buzz Aldrin, Frank Sinatra, and Thomas Edison, have called The Garden State home. Visitors can even peek at some of Edison’s early light bulbs at the Menlo Park Museum. And with 50 higher learning institutions to choose from, students can find a school that suits their career path and budget.
Learn more about earning your degree from one of New Jersey’s highly regarded colleges and universities.