Drew University

About Drew University

Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey. It has a wooded 186-acre (75 ha) campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three schools.

In 1867, financier and railroad tycoon Daniel Drew purchased an estate in Madison to establish a theological seminary to train candidates for Methodist ministry.

The seminary later expanded to offer an undergraduate liberal arts curriculum in 1928 and graduate studies in 1955. The College of Liberal Arts, serving more than 1,600 undergraduate students, offers concentrations in the natural sciences, social sciences, languages and literatures, humanities and the arts, and in interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary fields. The Drew Theological School, the third-oldest of thirteen Methodist seminaries affiliated with the United Methodist Church, currently enrolls more than 350 students.

Why Should Study at Drew University?

For 2024, U.S. News & World Report ranked Drew University tied for #93 out of 211 National Liberal Arts Colleges and tied for #10 in Top Performers on Social Mobility. Drew University is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Drew was first accredited in 1932. Since 1938, the theological seminary at Drew has been accredited by the Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada. Drew's MAT program is accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation.

All of the university's programs are approved and accredited by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry and the University Senate of the United Methodist Church. Drew is one of 119 institutions that are members of the National Association of Schools and Colleges of The United Methodist Church (NASCUMC).

Campus

Drew University is located in Madison, New Jersey, a borough approximately 25 miles (40 km) west of New York City. Known as "the Rose City" because of its rose-cultivating industry in the 19th century, Madison is an affluent commuter town in New Jersey's Morris County. It is connected with the northern section of the state and Midtown Manhattan through the NJ Transit's Morris & Essex Lines. The university hosts the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, an independent professional theatre company.

The university sits on the former estate of William Gibbons (1794–1852), who owned the New York–New Jersey steamboat business that became famous from the Gibbons v. Ogden case, and who pieced together a 95-acre (38 ha) estate in Madison, New Jersey in 1832. He named his holdings "The Forest," which gives Drew its nickname of the "University in the Forest".

The following year, Gibbons commissioned the design and construction of a Greek revival antebellum-style residence that was completed in 1836.

In 1867, financier and railroad tycoon Daniel Drew (1797–1879) purchased Gibbons' estate from his descendants for $140,000. A devout Methodist, Drew donated the estate to the church to establish a Methodist theological seminary. The estate's mansion would be renamed Mead Hall in honor of Drew's wife, Roxanna Mead.

Drew's academic buildings feature a mix of Greek Revival, Collegiate Gothic, and neoclassical architecture on a 186-acre (75 ha) campus that is a serene, wooded oasis in the middle of a bustling suburban town. The campus features the Drew Forest Preserve, an 80-acre (32 ha) expanse that was recently restored with the planting of 1,100 native trees and shrubs by the university community and volunteer assistance from pharmaceutical manufacturer Pfizer, a large and local employer, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the New Jersey Audubon Society. The university's campus also features the Florence and Robert Zuck Arboretum, named for two botany faculty members, containing a mixture of native and non-native trees, plants and two small glacial ponds supporting populations of turtles, goldfish, catfish, and muskrats, and various species of birds including migratory fowl such as Canada geese, ducks, and herons.

The preserve and arboretum both provide a natural laboratory for the instruction of students in the study of biology and life sciences and for research, but is also open to the public by appointment. According to the New Jersey chapter of the Audubon Society, the arboretum and forest preserve is "important for groundwater recharge and runoff reduction within the Passaic River watershed and the Buried Valley Aquifer System".