Environment

The northern New Jersey metropolitan area offers virtually unlimited opportunities to enjoy cultural, recreational and educational pursuits.

Newark is an active business and industrial center with a population of over 275,000. It has two large educational complexes composed of several adjacent universities and schools of higher education, exciting ethnic enclaves and vast open parklands. The city is surrounded by smaller urban and suburban communities, offering a full spectrum of affordable housing.

In October 1997, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center opened on the waterfront in the heart of the city. This facility, which includes a 3,000 seat opera house, a 2,500-seat concert hall and a 1,800-seat music theater, is second only to New York's Lincoln Center as the largest cultural arts center in the United States. Other cultural facilities in the city include the internationally acclaimed Newark Museum, where a $7 million expansion program was recently completed; the 101-year old Newark Public Library; the New Jersey Historical Society, which was founded in 1845, and the 2,800-seat Symphony Hall. Each spring Newark's Branch Brook Park provides the most spectacular display of cherry blossoms in the United States.

The campus is convenient to many recreational and entertainment areas; a thriving airport and railroad station are located nearby. New York City, and all that it has to offer, is only minutes away and easily accessible by either public or private transportation. The Meadowlands Sports and Entertainment complex, housing professional football, soccer and basketball teams as well as concerts and nightly horse racing, is less than fifteen minutes away.

To the northwest are mountains and lake regions, replete with scenic beauty and picturesque towns. Boating, fishing, hiking and camping facilities are found at Lake Hopatcong, the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and High Point State Park. Vernon Valley/Great Gorge provides excellent skiing.

New Jersey's shore and cape areas, a one to two-hour drive from the campus, boast miles of sandy white beaches, bays for sailing and fishing, boardwalk amusement parks and Atlantic City's glittering casino hotels.

Northern New Jersey is an ideal locale for young families, with ample high-quality daycare, abundant municipal playgrounds and pools, excellent school systems and a wide variety of extra-curricular activities.