I recently visited Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where I toured the campus and spoke with the admissions office about the latest trends in admissions. Here are some takeaways from my visit:

· New Jersey’s flagship public university, Rutgers – New Brunswick is large, with 34,141 undergraduates spread out over seven schools and five separate college campuses in New Brunswick. Students ride Rutgers buses from one campus to the next as they commute between various classes and dorms.

· Rutgers – New Brunswick is located relatively centrally in New Jersey. A train station is directly adjacent to the College Ave campus, with trains reaching Philadelphia in 90 minutes and NYC in 40 minutes.

· The heart of campus is the College Ave campus, a historic, urban campus that dates back to the university’s founding in 1776. Johnson & Johnson, the single largest employer of Rutgers grads, is headquartered directly adjacent to this campus. The four other campuses have a more suburban feel.

· Douglass College, one of the five campuses, offers all-female student housing for students who identify as female, as well as a few courses centered around women’s empowerment.

· The Livingston campus features a 100+ acre ecological preserve where students can hike and commune with nature, while the Cook campus houses gardens and farms used by agricultural and animal science students.

· While most students eventually move off campus, on-campus housing is typically available all four years for those who seek it.

· The top 500 students in every incoming class become part of the Honors College, which features honors housing, a small handful of small seminar-style courses and some honors sections in your major spread out over four years, all topped off with a senior capstone project.

· Students can begin participating in research as early as freshman year. For premeds, Rutger’s Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is located in New Brunswick, as is the university hospital, which is a Level I Trauma Center.

· The Road to Wall Street program in the business school matches sophomores hoping to work on Wall Street with alumni who currently work there and helps prepare them to apply for Wall Street internships.

· The campus, like the Garden State, is diverse, with white students making up just 31.5% of the student body.

· Neither Greek life nor sports dominate campus life, although both are available to students seeking them. 13% of students participate in Greek organizations, many of which are centered around professional, cultural and service-based activities.

· At a school this large, students will need to be prepared to advocate for themselves and take initiative to ensure they’re successful.