The College of New Jersey was founded on October 22, 1746. It broke the mold of Reformation Colleges by creating
"toleration with preferment," which was that "any person of any religious denomoniation whatsoever" could attend.
The administration was a Board of Trustees that had 10 ministers, 12 clergymen, and the governor acting as the presiding
officer
The college was later renamed Princeton in 1896.
These colleges followed the precedent set by Princeton:
- King's College (1754) - later Columbia University
- College of Philadelphia (1755) - later University of Pennsylvania
- College of Rhode Island (1765) - later Brown University
- Queen's University (1766) - later Rutgers University
- Dartmouth College (1769)
Harvard and William and Mary conformed to the new model of toleration but Yale resisted. Thomas Clap, who
was the President of Yale from 1740-1766, opposed the Great Awakening. He eventually lost control of the college to
rebellious students.
The college curriculum of this time included:
- Doctrines of the Modern Enlightenment
- John Locke and Newton's theories
- more thorough teaching of classical authors
- Greek and Latin
- "Common Sense" philosophy
- introduced by John Witherspoon, President of Princeton from 1768-1795
- "He saw no conflict between faith and reason; instead, he encouraged his students to test their faith by the rule of experience."
- type of study introduced that was aimed at the New York City businessman
- created by President Samuel Johnson of King's College
College teaching also became an accepted profession during this time period.
