Making It Easier to Be a Student

Rutgers improved the way students interact with University offices for enrollment, financial aid, student accounting, and registration.

• A new financial aid website and a check-in app in the financial aid office enable students to conduct most business online and reduce wait times for in-person support.
• One-stop service centers were proposed for each campus, and one—at Rutgers University–Camden—opened in 2018. At Rutgers University–New Brunswick, staff from the offices of the registrar, financial aid, and student accounting were relocated to share space in the same building at Records Hall. 
• The myRutgers dashboard allows self-service activities from computers and mobile devices for courses and registration, grades, financial aid, and more. The dashboard received 7.7 million hits in its first year, with 99 percent of students using it.
• Work began on a new computer-based course scheduling system—the first major change to the system in decades. By optimizing course locations and scheduling, the system would reduce time to graduation, facilitate the satisfaction of major requirements, and reduce the time spent on University buses.
• A task force developed strategies for relieving the congested bus system and travel times between classes at Rutgers–New Brunswick. Rutgers added 18 buses to the fleet, installed a system to tell students when the next bus will arrive at the nearest stop, and used classroom locations to help determine first-year housing placements. In addition, Rutgers–New Brunswick began tracking every bus ride, studying real-time data, and adjusting buses accordingly.