Academic Success & Major Exploration
Engage in purposeful learning, use effective academic strategies, and make informed decisions about major/interdisciplinary pathways aligned with strengths and goals.
The Arc
A Rutgers platform for discovering opportunities, tracking experiences, and seeing how your involvement contributes to your growth.
Your Rutgers Experience Adds Up
Your time here is more than what happens in the classroom. The Arc app, powered by Suitable, helps you make the most of your experience at Rutgers. Discover opportunities across campus, get involved, and track your experiences in one place. From events and student organizations to leadership roles, service, research, and internships, The Arc helps you stay connected to everything you’re doing beyond class.
Each experience contributes to your growth. The Arc helps you see how those experiences connect over time and contribute to the skills and competencies you’re developing along the way.
See The Bigger Picture
What feels like a collection of individual experiences today often tells a much larger story.
The Arc helps you:
- Discover opportunities across Rutgers
- Track your involvement and accomplishments
- Connect experiences to competencies
- Earn points and achievements that reflect growth over time
- Build a stronger record of your experiences and development
Whether you’re applying for an internship, a job, a leadership position, or another opportunity, The Arc helps you better understand and communicate the experiences, skills, and competencies you’ve developed along the way.
Because what you do here matters, and it all adds up.
Start Your Arc
It only takes a few minutes.
Step 1
Download the Suitable app from the App Store or Google Play, or visit the Suitable website in your browser.
Step 2
Sign-in with your NetID@rutgers.edu email address, which will bring you to the CAS log-in screen. There, you'll sign in with your NetID and password.
Step 3
On your phone, enable push notifications and camera access. The camera is needed for scanning QR codes at events to earn points for attending.
Step 4
Finish setting up your account. To upload a profile photo, click the gear icon in the top right corner and click on “Scorecard.”
Step 5
Earn your first 10 points by finding the activity "Congratulations on downloading the Suitable App!" Click the button “Complete and claim your points.” Congratulations—you've now earned your first 10 points!
Competency Areas
Your Rutgers experience helps you grow in two important ways. Some experiences contribute to Personal Development by strengthening your connection to campus, community, academics, and well-being. Others contribute to Career Readiness, helping you develop the skills and competencies that prepare you for internships, careers, graduate study, and future opportunities. Together, they help shape who you become and prepare you for what comes next.
Personal Development
Your experiences at Rutgers help shape who you are. These competencies reflect how you engage with campus life, contribute to your community, explore your interests, and support your overall well-being.
Campus Engagement
Participate in and contribute to the intellectual, cultural, civic, and community life of Rutgers that enhances learning, belonging, interpersonal relationships, and personal development.
Community Engagement
Collaborate with groups or organizations in the larger community for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.
Wellness
Develop habits and use resources that support wellness and well-being in line with the 8 Dimensions of Wellness model (physical, intellectual, emotional, financial, social, spiritual, occupational, and environmental) for sustained balance, success, and connectedness.
Career Readiness
Your experiences at Rutgers also help prepare you for what’s next. These competencies reflect the skills, behaviors, and abilities employers value most and that support success in internships, careers, graduate study, and future opportunities.
Based on the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Career Readiness Competencies.
Career & Self-Development
Proactively developing oneself through continual learning, awareness of strengths and weaknesses, and networking.
Communication
Clearly and effectively exchanging information, ideas, and perspectives using active listening and varied communication styles
Critical Thinking
Identifying and analyzing problems, synthesizing information, and making objective, data-informed decisions.
Equity & Inclusion
Demonstrating the knowledge and skills to equitably engage with diverse cultures and challenge systems of inequality.
Leadership
Recognizing and leveraging personal and team strengths to achieve organizational goals.
Professionalism
Understanding and demonstrating effective work habits, accountability, and ethical behavior in the workplace.
Teamwork
Building collaborative relationships, managing conflict, and working respectfully toward shared goals.
Technology
Navigating and leveraging technologies ethically to enhance efficiency, complete tasks, and accomplish strategic goals.
Student FAQs
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- Complete your profile: Add a photo and fill in relevant details
- Explore the types of activities and achievements that are available, and get familiar with the competencies you will develop
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- Tasks are things you can complete on your own. Examples include working in Handshake, visiting certain offices on campus, contacting alumni mentors, and much more.
- Events occur at a specific time and place. Examples include attending a club meeting or departmental info session, and much more. Often you will sign in by scanning a QR code, or you may be asked to submit other evidence that you attended the event.
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You earn points by attending an event or completing a task. Introductory activities earn 10 points per competency; higher-level activities earn more points:
Activity
Level
Points
Per Competency
1 10 2 20 3 50 4 75 5 150 -
Achievements are groups of activities that lead to a certain learning goal. In some cases you need to complete a specific set of activities; in others you can choose from a list of options. Completing the appropriate set of activities will automatically earn you the achievement.
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Writing a reflection helps you process what you learned, so you can understand your own growth and draw insights to share in future applications and interviews. Reflections are most valuable when they are written in your own words and based on your personal experience.
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The Arc Scorecard shows your total points as well as the competencies and achievements you have earned. On your Scorecard, click “Share” to get a link that you can post on Handshake, LinkedIn, or other profiles.
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Engaging in Rutgers activities and tracking your experiences helps you develop career-ready skills, so you’ll be better prepared to confidently tell your story to future employers and showcase what you can bring to the workplace. The competencies you gain align with the National Association of Colleges and Employers' career-readiness competencies.
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Check the help center and/or write to thearc@rutgers.edu.
Campus Partner FAQs
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The Arc helps students take advantage of all that Rutgers has to offer, guiding them to campus resources and support. It also helps them track their development outside the classroom and build career-ready skills. Last but not least, The Arc helps students blend their various activities into a strong story they can share with future employers.
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We are creating a form to submit activities. In the meantime, please write to thearc@rutgers.edu to learn about submitting an activity for consideration.
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If you created an event, you should download the QR code and post it at the event for students to scan.
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If you require a reflection or other submission, you will need to review and approve those in order for students to earn points. We recommend reviewing submissions on a weekly basis to ensure that students receive timely credit and feedback for their work.
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We are creating a form to submit requests for achievements. In the meantime, please write to thearc@rutgers.edu if you would like to explore creating your own achievement.
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The Arc tracks a wide range of activities within skills-based roadmaps.
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The Arc integrates with the Canvas learning management system if you would like to incorporate campus activities into a course.
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RCommunity tracks community service and impact across all components of Rutgers University. We work on the back end to share appropriate data for Rutgers–New Brunswick students between The Arc and RCommunity.
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Accredible issues verified digital badges. Discussions are underway about possible connections between The Arc achievements and Accredible badges.
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