Academics
With no professional schools and a small graduate school, Princeton
is perhaps the most undergraduate-friendly school in the Ivy
League. Because there are fewer graduate students at Princeton,
the university offers undergrads excellent faculty contact with
professors who are often at the top of their respective fields.
Most of Princeton’s department heads teach introductory
courses, which can be quite large but are broken down into precepts
(small weekly discussion groups) of around a dozen students.
TAs do often lead these precepts, but professors usually lead
some as well. Still, most other courses are much smaller in
size, offering direct professor contact, and Princeton also
has a freshman seminar program that caps the number of students
admitted to any one seminar so that first year students can
have direct contact with senior faculty. Dozens of such seminars
are offered each year.
Aside from faculty interaction, another hallmark of a Princeton
education is independent research. Much of the research conducted
at the university is performed by undergraduates and there are
ample resources available for undergrad research. Juniors complete
a series of Junior Papers that deal with original research or
analysis within their majors, and Seniors cap off their education
with the completion of a Senior Thesis or Senior Project, the
culmination of their Princeton experience. For both their Junior
Papers and Senior Theses, students select or are assigned a
faculty member to oversee their work, allowing for one-on-one
student-faculty contact.
All undergrads are required to fulfill certain “distribution
requirements” in epistemology and cognition, ethical thought
and moral value, historical analysis, literature and the arts,
quantitative reasoning, science and technology, and social analysis.
Engineering students have slightly different requirements than
A.B. students, who must achieve proficiency in a foreign language.
All freshmen are also now required to take a “Writing
Seminar” aimed at teaching academic and research related
writing. The Writing Seminar is the only required class at Princeton,
though it offers a variety of specific topics that each Writing
Seminar focuses on in its writing assignments; it is also the
only class that students consistently complain about.
One notable feature of Princeton’s academic calendar is
its two-week reading period before exams, allowing students
time to catch-up. The reading period thus helps to ease stress
come exam time. Princeton has a fall break after midterm examination,
and first semester exams aren’t taken until late January.
Princeton’s unique honor code system requires unproctored
exams and requires students to sign a pledge at the bottom of
every exam and paper stating essentially that they have not
cheated.
Additionally, Princeton has the most generous financial aid
program in the Ivy League. Like the other Ivies, Princeton gives
no merit-based scholarships, but the school’s endowment
has recently allowed it to eliminate all student loans in the
need-based financial aid awards and replace them with grants.
The loans to grants switch was an unprecedented move and allows
all undergrads to graduate debt free.
Student Life
While it is true that Princeton is slightly more conservative
than its peers (namely Harvard and Yale), it is hardly the straitlaced
country club that many people imagine after seeing A Beautiful
Mind. However, there is a certain “clubby”
atmosphere unique to Princeton—namely the eating clubs,
which are a mixture of private dining halls and coed fraternities.
Most social life revolves around “the street” bordering
campus where the eating clubs are located. During the end of
their sophomore year or beginning of their junior year, upperclassmen
may sign into some of the clubs or “bicker” at others
(“bicker” is a selection process that gets its name
from the bickering among club members over who should get in).
Those who do not join eating clubs generally go “independent,”
meaning they live in dorms with or near kitchens, and are on
their own for meals.
There is, of course, more to student life at Princeton than
the eating clubs. Princeton is well-known for its Triangle Club,
a comedic theatrical group to which the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald
and Brooke Shields once belonged. The Triangle club’s
home stage, McCarter Theatre, is considered one of the country’s
best performing arts theatres, and Princeton’s small Richardson
Auditorium attracts major acts. The Whig-Clio debating society
is the oldest in the nation as is the college radio station,
and Princeton also has several popular student publications.
Altogether, Princeton offers over 200 student organizations.
Sports at Princeton are moderately popular as far as Ivy League
athletics go. Although the football isn’t the greatest,
Princeton’s athletic strength is in lower profile sports.
Men’s and women’s lacrosse are annual national contenders
as are the men’s crew teams and women’s rugby club.
Campus Environment
Princeton’s campus embodies the quintessential Ivy League
image; the Northwest section of campus is built up in collegiate
Gothic style, filled with stone turrets, towers, and even a
little stained glass—and of course, everything is covered
with ivy. There is also a bit of Colonial architecture (from
colonial times) as well as some modern dorms and buildings.
The interiors of many buildings, however, are less glamorous
and sometimes a bit crowded. To improve the less than ideal
conditions inside older dorms, the university has undergone
a massive renovation project aimed at restoring many of the
old buildings. There is also a new set of dormitories scheduled
to begin construction as well as a new science library. In fact,
it seems as if some part of campus is constantly under construction
or renovation—a pain to deal with if you’re living
across from the early morning hammering, but also a sign of
the university’s efforts to provide top-notch facilities.
Freshmen and sophomores are assigned to one of five residential
colleges when they matriculate. These colleges are their residential
living areas during their first two years at Princeton, each
with its own dormitories, dining hall, faculty advisors, administrative
staff, and social events.
Outside Princeton’s self-contained campus and in Princeton
the town, the surroundings are largely upscale suburban. One
side of campus borders Nassau Street, which is the main street
in downtown Princeton. Nassau Street is home to several boutiques,
restaurants and shops, some of which are aimed at Princeton
students while others are geared toward the town’s wealthy
residents. Princeton also offers an abundance of trails and
parks along the river or among its many woods.
If students wish for a more vibrant weekend attraction, Princeton
is less than an hour away from both New York and Philadelphia.
In fact, many of the town’s inhabitants commute to New
York. There is an on-campus train station known as the “dinky”
that runs to and from Princeton Junction, where students can
get a direct line into “the City.”
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