Rutgers University–New Brunswick is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. It is located in New Brunswick and Piscataway. It is the oldest campus of the university, the others being in Camden and Newark. The campus is composed of several smaller campuses that are large distances away from each other: College Avenue, Busch, Livingston, Cook, and Douglass, the latter two sometimes referred to as "Cook/Douglass", as they are adjacent to each other. All 4 subcampuses connect primarily via State Route 18. Rutgers–New Brunswick also includes several buildings in downtown New Brunswick. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". The New Brunswick campuses include 19 undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools. The New Brunswick campus is also known as the birthplace of college football.

Route 18 is a 42.8-mile-long (68.9 km) state highway in the central part of the US state of New Jersey. It begins at an intersection with Route 138 in Wall Township, Monmouth County and ends at Interstate 287 (I-287) in Piscataway Township, Middlesex County. Route 18 is a major route through central New Jersey that connects the Jersey Shore to the Raritan Valley region, connecting the county seats of Monmouth (Freehold) and Middlesex respectively. The route runs through Ocean Township, Marlboro Township, East Brunswick, and is the main thoroughfare for Rutgers University. Much of the route is a freeway. The remainder of the route is an arterial road with traffic lights in the East Brunswick and Old Bridge areas, and a boulevard in the remainder of Piscataway. Route 18 was designated in 1939 as a proposed freeway from Old Bridge to Eatontown. The section west of Old Bridge was formerly designated as part Route S28, a prefixed spur of State Highway Route 28 from Middlesex to Matawan. The designation, assigned in the 1927 renumbering, remained until a second renumbering in 1953. At that point, Route S28 was redesignated as Route 18, though the section from Old Bridge to Matawan was signed as TEMP 18, as this section would be decommissioned when the Route 18 freeway was built.