Each year, the Rutgers Future Scholars program introduces 200 first-generation, low-income and academically promising middle school students from school districts in its four home communities of New Brunswick, Piscataway, Newark and Camden to the promise and opportunities of a college education.

The program has multiple-year components, each building on the foundation of the previous year. Beginning in summer preceding their eighth grade year, student participants become part of a unique pre-college culture of university programming, events, support, and mentoring that will continue through their high school years and eventually college.

For students who successfully complete the pre-college part of the program, Rutgers will provide full tuition funding through scholarships and federal grants to students admissible to Rutgers University.

Rutgers has found that 97 percent of those students targeted in seventh-grade have graduated high school and the average high school GPA is 3.4. More than 80 percent of Rutgers Future Scholars alums are attending post-secondary institutions, including 260 at Rutgers.