Rutgers Preparatory School
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| Rutgers Preparatory School | |
| Severa res est verum gaudium Hard work is true joy. |
|
| Established | 10 November 1766 |
| School type | Private, day |
| Religious affiliation | Originally Dutch Reformed, now Secular |
| Headmaster | Dr. Steven A. Loy |
| Location | Somerset, NJ, USA |
| Campus | 35 acres (142,000 m²) |
| Enrollment | 712 |
| Faculty | 68 |
| Student:teacher ratio |
6:1 |
| Average SAT scores (2005) |
623 verbal 641 math |
| Athletics | 15 sports |
| Color(s) | Maroon and white |
| Mascot | The Argonaut |
| Conference | Patriot |
| Homepage | www.rutgersprep.org |
Rutgers Preparatory School (also known as Rutgers Prep or RPS) is a private, co-educational day school located in the Somerset section of Franklin Township, 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.
Rutgers Preparatory School is a member of the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools.
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[edit] History
Rutgers Preparatory School is the oldest independent preparatory school in the state of New Jersey. Originally founded as the Queen's College Grammar School, it was established on November 10, 1766 under the same charter that founded Queen's College (now Rutgers University). Instruction began on August 15, 1768 under its first master, Caleb Cooper, who was affiliated with the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). After 1825, it was known as the Rutgers College Grammar School. 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, the second-oldest surviving building on the Rutgers University campus. From 1809 to 1829, Rutgers Prep shared Old Queens, the oldest building at Rutgers University (1809), with the young Queens College (after 1825, Rutgers College) and the New Brunswick Theological Seminary. Before then, instruction was carried on in various taverns and boarding houses in the New Brunswick area.
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. Rutgers Prep first admitted women in 1952; that same year, it eliminated the football team and ended its boarding program to become a day school to which students commuted rather than lived. 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 its current location on the Wells Estate (purchased from the Colgate-Palmolive Company) in nearby Somerset, New Jersey. Its address is 1345 Easton Ave., Somerset, NJ, 08873.
[edit] Academics
Rutgers Preparatory School offers four levels of education: a Primary School serving Pre-Kindergarten to Kindergarten, a Lower School from grades one through 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 Language, Art, Computers, Music, and Drama).
Each student in the Upper School is required to perform a minimum of ten hours of community service during each academic year as a condition for advancing to the next grade level and for graduation. This community-service obligation may be fulfilled either through volunteer work with a non-profit organization, through a charity, or through a service that in some way benefits the school community (tutoring, etc.). In addition, at least five of these hours must be completed outside the school campus.
[edit] Awards and Recognition
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.[1]
The 2007 Junior Varsity Academic Team is the first JV team from Rutgers Prep to go undefeated and capture the championship title.
[edit] Athletics
Rutgers Preparatory School fields teams in boy's and girl's soccer, tennis, basketball, and lacrosse as well as baseball, softball, volleyball and co-ed teams in golf, cross country, swimming and wrestling.
Rutgers Prep competes in the Patriot Conference, which also includes the Gill St. Bernard's School, the Ranney School, the Purnell School, Stuart Country Day School, Wardlaw-Hartridge School, Timothy Christian School, Princeton Day School, The Pennington School, and Saddle River Day School. Rutgers Prep also regularly competes against other private and public schools including Blair Academy, The Peddie School, and the Hun School of Princeton.
Rutgers Prep also participates in an athletic tournament called the Headmaster's Cup, with Gill St. Bernard's School, which began in 2004. The contest, which alternates campuses every year, includes fall sports from both the middle and upper schools. Rutgers Prep won the inaugural event in 2004 and the two schools tied in 2005.
In the 2005-2006 academic year, several Rutgers Prep teams won state championships, including girl's soccer, girl's basketball, and volleyball. In the fall of 2006, the top seeded girl's soccer team tied second seeded Ranney School in the title game, becoming co-champions. This match was a rematch of the 2005 title game, where Rutgers Prep upset the number 1 seed 1-0 in double overtime. This is the third consecutive year that the Argonauts have either shared the title or won it outright. The girls basketball team also repeated as State Prep "B" champions, as the top seeded Argonauts defeated the Knights of Gill St. Bernard's School by a score of 67-48.
[edit] Student Publications
Argo — Quarterly Newspaper
- 06-07 Editor-in-Chief: Elsie Dedecker
Excelsior — Bi-Annual Literary Magazine
- 06-07 Editors-in-Chief: Anna Blazier, Catherine Eagan, Courteney Lario, Ava Marron
Ye Dial — School Yearbook
- 06-07 Editors-in-Chief: Brittney Calloway, Melissa Harrison
[edit] Notable alumni
- William H. S. Demarest (1879) — Minister, President, Rutgers College (1906-1924), New Brunswick Theological Seminary (1924-1934)
- Aline Murray Kilmer — poet and author
- Joyce Kilmer (1904) — poet, World War I soldier
- Stanley Kamel (1961) — actor on the television series Monk
- Phillip Kosnett (1978) — diplomat, United States Department of State
- Michelle Wolpov (1983) — owner of Game Shape Physical Therapy and Sports Performance Center in Manalapan, NJ [1]
- Ava Brody Berry (1985) — entrepreneur, co-founder and president of Made by Hands company
- Eireann Corrigan (1995) — author of You Remind Me of You, Splintering, and Ordinary Ghosts
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Rutgers Preparatory School website
- Rutgers Preparatory School Moodle website
- Rutgers Preparatory School library catalog
- College Enrollment History, 2001-2005
- National Center for Education Statistics data for Rutgers Preparatory School
Categories: Preparatory schools in New Jersey | Educational institutions established in the 1760s | 1766 establishments | Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools | New Jersey Association of Independent Schools | Elementary schools in New Jersey | Middle schools in New Jersey | High schools in New Jersey | Private schools in New Jersey | Rutgers University | Somerset County, New Jersey
