Rutgers Preparatory School: Difference between revisions

Rutgers Preparatory School File:.jpg Photo
Headmaster	Dr. Stephen A. Loy
School type	Private Day School
School motto	Severa res est verum gaudium (Hard work is true joy)
Religious affiliation	None
Founded	1766
Location	Somerset, New Jersey
Campus size	35 acres
Enrollment	712
Student/Teacher Ratio	6:1
Average Verbal SAT score	623
Average Math SAT score	641
Sports Teams	15

Rutgers Preparatory School (also known as Rutgers Prep or RPS) is a private, co-educational day school located in Somerset, New Jersey. Established in 1766, Rutgers Preparatory School is the oldest independent school in the state of New Jersey and the sixteenth-oldest in the United States.

Academics

Rutgers Preparatory School offers three levels of education, starting with a Primary (or Lower) School serving Pre-Kindergarten to grade four, a Middle School offering grades five to eight, and an Upper School offering traditional secondary level education from grades nine to twelve. Students are required to complete twenty course credits in order to graduate, accumulating a minimum of five credits per year, and are to take courses based in a traditional liberal arts curriculum that spans across several academic departments (English, History, Mathematics, Science, World Langauge, Art, Computers, Music, and Drama).

Each student in the Upper School is required to perform ten (10) hours of community service during each academic year as a condition of advancing to the next grade level and for graduation. This community service obligation may be fulfilled either through volunteer work (without renumeration) with a non-profit organization or charity, or by providing a service that in some way benefits the school community (tutoring, etc.).

Rutgers Preparatory School is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and was recognized in 1992 as a Blue Ribbon School by the United States Department of Education.

History

Rutgers Preparatory School is the oldest independent preparatory school in the state of New Jersey, founded as the Queen's College Grammar School, it was established in 1766 under the same charter that founded Queen's College (later Rutgers University). Instruction began on 15 August 1768, under its first master, Caleb Cooper, who was affiliated with the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). It was first established in New Brunswick, New Jersey, from 1829 until 1957 housed on the corner of College Avenue and Somerset Street, in a building that today is known as Alexander Johnston Hall, and is the second-oldest surviving building on the Rutgers University campus.

During the Progressive Era, Rutgers Preparatory School was among the first schools in the nation to institute a curriculum involving the laboratory sciences, extracurricular activities, student publications and community service. In 1952, Rutgers Prep first admitted women, eliminated the football team, and ended its boarding program, focusing on being a day school to which students commuted. In 1956, faced with the prospect of Rutgers becoming the state University, the university's Board of Trustees decided to divest itself of the preparatory school, which became fully independent in 1957, relocating to the its current location on the Wells Estate (purchased from the Colgate-Palmolive Company) in nearby Somerset, New Jersey.

Notable alumni

• William H. S. Demarest (1879) — Minister, President, Rutgers College (1906-1924), New Brunswick Theological Seminary (1924-1934)
• Joyce Kilmer (1904) — poet, soldier
• Phillip Kosnett (1978) — diplomat, U.S. State Department

See also

• Preparatory school
• Private school
• Rutgers University

External links

• Rutgers Preparatory School