Here are the most affordable colleges and universities in New Jersey. Our list will help you find the right kind of school for you, at a price you can afford.
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.
Find college admissions consultants in your state.
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.
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great! If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence in their fields of study.
Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is freer from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
To rank the influence of schools, we first determine the influence of scholars and professionals based on the number of citations and publications they have had over the past 10 years. In addition to publications and citations, we consider the web links to and from these sources, and the page views of those sources. We then match the influential people to their alma maters and institutions of employment, so that their influence is attributed to those schools. Our machine-learning Influence Ranking algorithm produces a numerical score of academic achievements, merits, and citations across Wikipedia, wikidata, Crossref, Semantic Scholar and an ever-growing body of data. If you are interested in exploring how and why we rank by influence, explore our methodology in more depth.
There are 13 affordable colleges and universities in New Jersey with stated tuitions and fees under $20,000/year. The following list of the most affordable colleges and universities in New Jersey is composed entirely of schools offering bachelor’s degree programs, have stated tuition and fees near or under the national average of $16,000/year, and are fully accredited colleges.
These schools are ranked by academic excellence, and all under $20,000/year.
Tuition + fees
$15K
Acceptance
76%
Graduation
65%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1075/20
Rutgers University–Camden’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$18K
Acceptance
66%
Graduation
70%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1290/27
New Jersey Institute of Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
78%
Graduation
68%
Student body
17K
Median SAT/ACT
1155/24
Rowan University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
83%
Graduation
68%
Student body
19K
Montclair State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$16K
Acceptance
51%
Graduation
86%
Student body
9K
Median SAT/ACT
1260/27
The College of New Jersey’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
78%
Graduation
50%
Student body
12K
Median SAT/ACT
1010/20
Kean University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
77%
Graduation
74%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1115/23
Stockton University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
81%
Graduation
56%
Student body
9K
William Paterson University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$15K
Acceptance
67%
Graduation
84%
Student body
47K
Median SAT/ACT
1320/28
Rutgers University–New Brunswick’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$15K
Acceptance
96%
Graduation
36%
Student body
6K
New Jersey City University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$15K
Acceptance
67%
Graduation
72%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1130/23
Ramapo College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Student body
4K
Thomas Edison State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$15K
Acceptance
74%
Graduation
65%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1110/22
Rutgers University–Newark’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
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