MS in Applied Physics

The New Jersey Institute of Technology has a history dating back to the 19th century. Originally introduced from Essex County on March 24, 1880, and revised with input from the Newark Board of Trade in 1881, an act of the New Jersey State Legislature essentially drew up a contest to determine which municipality would become home to the state's urgently needed technical school. The challenge was straightforward: the state would stake "at least $3,000 and not more than $5,000" and the municipality that matched the state's investment would earn the right to establish the new school. 
The Newark Board of Trade, working jointly with the Newark City Council, launched a campaign to win the new school. Many of the city's industrialists, along with other private citizens, supported the fund-raiser. By 1884 the necessary funds were raised. Newark Technical School opened its doors in February 1885.
The first 88 students, mostly evening students, attended classes in a rented building at 21 West Park Street. That facility soon became inadequate for the growing number of students. A second fund-raiser - the institution's first capital campaign - was launched to support the construction of a home for Newark Technical School. In 1886, under the leadership of the school's first director, Charles A. Colton, the cornerstone was laid at the intersection of High Street and Summit Place for a three-story building later to be named Weston Hall in honor of the institution's early benefactor. A laboratory building called Colton Hall was added to the campus in 1911.