The preparation of undergraduate students for successful lives and careers is Rutgers' premier and highest obligation. In addition to supporting continued commitments at Rutgers–Newark and Rutgers–Camden, President McCormick has led a historic restructuring of undergraduate education on the university's largest campus, New Brunswick.

The sweeping changes include combining four separate liberal arts colleges into a single School of Arts and Sciences, with unified admissions and graduation standards, and renewing a commitment to academic and campus life that enables students to live anywhere and take advantage of any program or service in New Brunswick. Students become acquainted with the intellectual life of the university from their first days on campus through new first-year seminars—small classes taught by top faculty on intriguing topics related to their research. Other key features include a core curriculum, enhanced opportunities for undergraduate research and service learning, a residential college for women that builds on the history and traditions of Douglass College, and a senior-year capstone experience that draws upon all a student has learned at Rutgers.