The school is one of the nine state colleges and universities in New Jersey and has about 9,200 undergraduate students and 1,700 graduate students, and 350 full-time faculty. The school offers 30 undergraduate and 19 graduate degree programs in five colleges: Arts and Communication, Christos M. Cotsakos College of Business, Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Science and Health. About 75% of the students commute and most the students are from New Jersey. The most popular fields of study are education and business.
The school was founded in Paterson, New Jersey in 1855 as the Paterson City Normal School to provide professional preparation for teachers. In 1875 started to provide a one year program for teachers, which later expanded into a two year program. By 1936 the school accepted those that did not intend to become teachers, later expanding offerings to nursing and business. The name of the school was changed in 1937 to the New Jersey State Teacher's College at Paterson.
In 1950 the college moved to it's current hill-top location in Wayne, New Jersey. The school dropped the word "teachers" from its title in 1958 before being renamed The William Paterson College of New Jersey in 1967, in honor of the New Jersey statesman and patriot, William Paterson. The college was renamed William Paterson University in 1997 after sufficiently expanding its program.
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