Our History  

Since it opened in 1856 as Seton Hall College, the University has provided an education that inspires great minds to achieve their greater purpose. Its Catholic identity has made Seton Hall open to people of all faiths, creeds and colors. The seeds of diversity were planted almost from the beginning; during its first 12 years, Seton Hall enrolled more than 500 freshmen from 17 states and six foreign countries. The University continues to reflect the growing ethnic scope of its students and the increasing diversity of the Church and society it serves.

During the 19th century, in spite of setbacks, lean times and the Civil War, the College continued to expand. By 1937, Seton Hall established a University College. This marked the first matriculation of women. The South Orange campus became coeducational in 1968.

The College was organized into a university in 1950 following a period of unprecedented enrollment growth. The School of Law opened in 1951 with Miriam Rooney as the first woman dean of law in the United States on the old John Marshall Law School site in Jersey City with an entering class of 72 students. In September 1951, the law school moved from Jersey City to Newark, and in 1954, graduated its first class. 

The next two decades saw the modernization of many facilities and the construction of a library, science building, residence halls and the Bishop Dougherty University Center. Several programs and majors were inaugurated, as were important social outreach efforts. New ties were established with the private and industrial sectors, and a growing partnership developed with federal and state governments to create programs for the economically and educationally disadvantaged.

In 1986, representatives from 13 New Jersey Catholic hospitals and medical centers met at Seton Hall to address medical education in the state. This led to the suggestion that Seton Hall play a major role in this effort. Later that year, hospital presidents from St. Elizabeth Hospital (now Trinitas Regional Medical Center), St. Michael’s Medical Center and St. Joseph’s Hospital (now St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center) met with the University chancellor with a vision to open a school on Seton Hall’s South Orange campus.

In April 1987, Seton Hall’s Board of Trustees approved the formation of the School of Graduate Medical Education. The school’s mission is to prepare outstanding professionals to assume leadership roles in the healthcare arena. To achieve this goal, various unique and innovative educational programs utilize a multi-institutional — yet integrated — approach to graduate education. The school comprises two distinct educational divisions: graduate education degree programs in the health sciences and post-medical school residency and fellowship programs. In 2008, the school was renamed the School of Health and Medical Sciences.

The 1970s and 1980s continued to be a time of growth and renewal. New business and nursing classroom buildings and an art center were opened. In 1984, Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology returned to Seton Hall, its original home, after 58 years at Darlington, Bergen County. The Richie Regan Recreation and Athletic Center was dedicated in 1987. With the construction of four new residence halls from 1986 to 1988 and the purchase of an off-campus apartment building in 1990, the University significantly changed its identity as a primarily commuter institution. Seton Hall is now recognized as a residential campus, providing living space for approximately 2,100 students.

The physical development of the campus continued in the 1990s. The $20 million Walsh Library opened in 1994 with first-class study and research resources that marked the beginning of Seton Hall’s technological transformation. Jubilee Hall, which was dedicated in 1997, provided a clear example of the University’s continued commitment to undergraduate education and the expanding role of information technology in higher education. In July 1988 when Dean Ronald J. Riccio took the helm, he arranged for financing and beginning construction of the $37 million facility located in the heart of Newark's business district which is home to Seton Hall Law School today.

The School of Diplomacy and International Relations opened in 1997 in an alliance with the United Nations Association of the United States of America. Beginning in 1998, all incoming full-time, first-year students were issued laptop computers as part of the University’s innovative and nationally recognized mobile computing program.

In fall 2007, the University finalized $35 million in renovations to McNulty Hall to transform it into a leading-edge facility for science and technology learning and research. Since 2010, Seton Hall has completed a host of campus renovations and new construction projects. An initial round of improvements totaling $134 million concluded in 2014 with the opening of a new state-of-the-art fitness center, academic building, parking garage and expanded Aquinas Hall dormitory.

More recently, the University opened Bethany Hall, a welcome center at the entrance to the South Orange campus, and transformed the University Center into a leading-edge study, social and engagement space for everyone in the Seton Hall community.

In 2017, Seton Hall opened an Interprofessional Health Sciences campus in Nutley and Clifton to house the College of Nursing and School of Health and Medical Sciences. Through collaboration with the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, which is also housed at the IHS campus, Seton Hall trains students in an environment that mirrors how modern medical facilities operate.

Since then, Seton Hall has undertaken an effort to rebalance instructional vs non-instructional costs in favor of the former. In 2023, the University launched the College of Human Development, Culture, and Media. The new college is poised as the singular place for interdisciplinary learning focused on innovation along the continuum of human development. Integrating exceptional faculty and dynamic, cross-disciplinary curricula, it seeks to improve the human condition by collaborating across distinct fields that uniquely complement one another.

New facilities and academic offerings are providing a home to some of the best and brightest students to ever study at Seton Hall. In fall 2025, 1,625 freshmen enrolled after receiving offers of admission from the largest applicant pool in Seton Hall history. The class hails from 38 states and 18 countries, and boasts an average two-part SAT score of 1322 — an impressive 202-point increase since 2009.