Upper School

TRADITION. DIVERSITY. EXCELLENCE.

Since 1766, Rutgers Preparatory School has been preparing students for the challenges of college and beyond. Traditions run deep in the Upper School, from the Freshman Camping trip in September to Senior Explorations just prior to Commencement-we appreciate the links to the past that our traditions provide. The school year is punctuated by annual events like Career Day, Burger Blast, and of course, Commencement, as well as daily traditions like Morning Meeting, when the entire Upper School comes together to hear students and teachers promote upcoming events, announce results of athletic and academic competitions, applaud honors that our students have earned, or hear a poignant reflection that somebody feels compelled to share.

Many of our curricular and extra-curricular offerings complement the broad diversity of our community, but it’s through the daily experience of working and collaborating with students and faculty from a myriad of backgrounds that we truly come to appreciate the benefits of living in a multicultural society. At Rutgers Prep, approximately forty percent of our students are "people of color"-we celebrate not only Christmas, Hannukuh and Kwaanza, but also Diwali, Eid-ul-Fitr and Chinese New Year. While many institutions promote "color blindness," we openly embrace the varieties of ethnicity, religion, socio-economic status, sexual orientation and other forms of diversity that exist in our community, and use this richness to promote understanding and tolerance in our daily interactions.

Students in the Upper School understand the RPS motto: Severum res est verum gaudium-"Hard work is true joy." Excellence in the classrooms, the art studios, the athletic fields, the performing venues, and the broader communities in which students live, is a direct result of the effort and commitment they exhibit. We see it in ways that are easy to measure-college acceptances, standardized test scores, state athletic championships, selection to juried art exhibits or all-state choirs and orchestras. We also experience excellence in ways that are more subtle-the regularity with which Upper School students volunteer to read to Lower Schoolers, the command of complex data when Student Research class members present their gene sequencing findings to scientists from the Waksman Institute at Rutgers University, the percentage of students who complete much more than their required hours of community service. In the Upper School, students derive joy from challenging themselves daily, and work hard to meet and exceed their expectations.