 He studied at Rutgers University on a scholarship, where he met Allan Kaprow and George Segal.He participated in Kaprow's "Happenings," and posed for Segal's plaster sculptures.Claes Oldenburg, in whose Happenings he also participated, later referred to Samaras as one of the "New Jersey school," which also included Kaprow, Segal, George Brecht, Robert Whitman, Robert Watts, Geoffrey Hendricks and Roy Lichtenstein.