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Ann Arbor vs. New Brunswick: How do we compare?

September 27, 2019 Regional Updates
Rutgers University and UofM comparison

Our football blog series is back for the fourth straight year! We use the football season as an incentive to compare Ann Arbor to cities around the country represented by our U-M football competition. The question is always – how does Ann Arbor compare to other college towns in the U.S.?

Arguably, New Brunswick, NJ, was one of the first-ever American college towns. Rutgers is the nation’s eighth oldest institution of higher learning — one of only nine colonial colleges established before the American Revolution. As American universities go, that’s old. Rutgers University is referred to as The Birthplace of College Football as the first intercollegiate football game was held between Rutgers and Princeton on November 6, 1869.

Now to set the context before we present the infographic:

  • New Brunswick is a lot smaller than Ann Arbor (about half as big), though Rutgers has a larger student body enrollment. 
  • Though not a large city itself, New Brunswick is within 25 minutes of Newark, and about 45 minutes of New York.
  • New Brunswick is just one town in the midst of others of similar population, unlike Ann Arbor, where the population is more concentrated.