Rider University, located on Lawrence Road, offers 69 undergraduate programs and 25 graduate programs in business administration, liberal arts, sciences, education, the arts, counseling, and leadership. Staffed by more than 240 fulltime faculty members, 97 percent of whom hold a doctorate or the highest degree in their field. Rider has an average student to faculty ratio of 13 to one.
Rider was founded in Trenton in 1865 under the name of the Trenton Business College. Andrew J. Rider, hired in 1866 as principal of the college, became sole owner of the college in 1881. Having undergone a name change to Rider Business College in 1897, the college expanded its offerings and steadily grew during the first half of the 20th Century.
In the late 1950s, Rider began the process of relocating from Trenton to its new campus in Lawrence Township. In 1992, Rider merged with Westminster Choir College in Princeton Borough. Rider was formally granted university status by the State of New Jersey in 1994.
Rider's Lawrenceville campus covers 280 acres and boasts 43 buildings (including more than 20 student residence halls, a student center, a dining hall, and a chapel), athletic fields, tennis courts, an indoor swimming pool, and a lake.
Moore Library, located on the Lawrenceville campus, houses more than 481,000 volumes, 650,000 microforms, 134 online databases and other valuable resources. (Rider's Westminster campus, located in Princeton Borough, covers 23 acres. Westminster's Talbott Library has a large collection of music books, scores and sound recordings.)
Rider's school colors are cranberry and white and the university's mascot is the Rider Bronc.
The College of Saint Elizabeth is an independent Catholic liberal arts college. It is operated by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, the group that established the school in 1899. Undergraduate programs are women-only. The graduate school, continuing education program and professional certificates program are coed.
In addition to traditional college students, The College of Saint Elizabeth has made an effort to serve older adults, full-time workers and others who cannot attend full-day college programs. Online, evening and weekend classes are available for these students.
Seton Hall is a four-year Catholic University. Its law school is located in Newark, but the main campus is in South Orange. It was founded in 1856. Average class size is 25. Ninety percent of students receive financial aid and 72 percent get it directly from the university.
The five-year graduation rate is 60 percent; the four-year rate is 49 percent for freshmen entering in 2003.
The average incoming freshman had a GPA of 3.0-3.5 and scored 1600-1700 on the SAT or 23-25 on the ACT. There are 4,500 graduate students enrolled. On a national level, the university is best known for its men's basketball program; the Pirates advanced to the final game of the NCAA tournament in 1989. But Seton Hall also made headlines for a tragic dormitory fire in 2000 in Boland Hall that killed three students.
The Rutgers University Foundation facilitates fundraising for programs throughout the university. In addition to mailing a check or money order or using a credit card to donate on its Web site, donors can also set up payroll deductions or have their company match donations to the Foundation. The offices are located in Winants Hall.
With its main campus located at 400 Jefferson Street, Centenary College offers a wide array of educational programs for higher learning.
The school also has campuses in Parsippany and Edison, and an Equestrian Center in nearby Long Valley.
Centenary College was established in 1867 and is led by President Dr. Barbara-Jayne Lewthwaite.
In 2010, the college opened the David and Carol Lackland Center for Performing Arts, which hosts plays, concerts, a dining hall and communications programs.
