History and Mission

The history of honors education at Rutgers goes back more than forty years to the 1980s, and starts with the implementation and evolution of several unique and distinct Honors Programs in the School of Arts & Sciences (which later came to include students from Rutgers Business School), the Engineering Honors Academy, and the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. With such a broad swath of the University providing an enriched experience, including professional schools as well as liberal arts majors, the evolution of these programs led to great success for the students who commanded scholarships, unique classes, research programs, faculty engagement, and a richness of resources in the classroom, residence halls, and campus programming.

In 2015 the University also launched an interdisciplinary experience, the Honors College, as a coequal entity, focusing on the learning-living experience and expanding the honors approach to two more Schools: Mason Gross School of the Arts and Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. Ground was broken on a new 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. 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.

For a decade the four entities worked side-by-side, evolving both in parallel and independently. As the state of education changed, however, it was decided that the structure of honors education should also change as it was realized that the collective entities would be stronger as one unit, allowing for a greater concentration of effort, a growth in the honors presence across campus, and extending the enriched programs to the full complement of exceptional students. A new committee was formed by Chancellor Francine Conway in 2024 to explore the process and advantages of integration, leading, a year later, to the first fully articulated Honors Council, a shared curricular outcome, the development of mission-based courses, an affirmation of the interdisciplinary approach and the requirement for a global competency course. In the summer of 2025 the Honors College and the Honors Programs formally integrated by restructuring the curriculum, offering a singular set of co-curricular programs, and allowing for even greater interdisciplinary curricular and extracurricular experiences, all while preserving the mission and values of an honors education. Today it is known as the Honors College.

Following the consolidation in the summer of 2025, 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 a new Honors College motto "Inspired. Empowered. Connected." building on the legacy of the previous decade's motto "Curiosity. Knowledge. Purpose.", today's Honors College students are asked to think about how they can serve the world with their dedication to finding inspiration and developing knowledge so that they may ultimately have a life and a career that empowers themselves and others, and remain purposefully connected to their communities, all of which are markers of an exceptional education.

Today, the Honors College offers an unparalleled educational experience to the highest-achieving students from New Jersey, the United States, and across the world, and is focused on interdisciplinary and enriched learning in the context of an innovative and an expansive and comprehensive learning-living community. The College is a powerful academic initiative 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.