Princeton offers several methods to apply: the Common Application, the Coalition Application, and the QuestBridge Application. Princeton's application requires several writing supplements and submitting a graded written paper. The middle 50% range of SAT scores was 1490–1560, the middle 50% range of the ACT composite score was 34–35, and the average high school GPA was a 3.96. For graduate admissions, in the 2021–2022 academic year, Princeton received 12,553 applications for admission and accepted 1,322 applicants, with a yield rate of 51%. From 1977 to 1995, Princeton employed an early action program, and in 1996, transitioned to an early decision program. In September 2006, the university announced that all applicants for the Class of 2012 would be considered in a single pool, ending the school's early decision program. In February 2011, following decisions by the University of Virginia and Harvard University to reinstate their early admissions programs, Princeton announced it would institute a single-choice early action (also known as restrictive early action) option for applicants,

Costs and financial aid

As of the 2021–2022 academic year, the total cost of attendance is $77,690. 61% of all undergraduates receive financial aid, with the average financial aid grant being $57,251. In 2001, expanding on earlier reforms, Princeton became the first university to eliminate the use of student loans in financial aid, replacing them with grants. In addition, all admissions are need-blind, and financial aid meets 100% of demonstrated financial need. The university does not use academic or athletic merit scholarships. In September 2022, Princeton announced that it would cover all costs for families earning $100,000 a year or less, with reduced costs for higher income families as well.

Kiplinger magazine in 2019 ranked Princeton as the fifth best value school in a combined list comparing private universities, private liberal arts colleges, and public colleges, noting that the average graduating debt was $9,005. For its 2021 rankings, the U.S. News & World Report ranked it second in its category for "Best Value Schools".

Student life and culture

Residential colleges

The university guarantees housing for students for all four years, with more than 98% of undergraduates living on campus. Freshman and sophomores are required to live on campus, specifically in one of the university's seven residential colleges. Once put into a residential college, students have an upperclassmen residential college adviser to adjust to college life and a faculty academic adviser for academic guidance. Upperclassmen are given the option to keep living in the college or decide to move into upperclassmen dorms; Present-day residential colleges are:

Princeton's residential college system dates back to when university president Woodrow Wilson's proposed the creation of quadrangles. While the plan was vetoed, it eventually made a resurgence with the creation of Wilson Lodge (now known as First College) in 1957 to provide an alternative to the eating clubs. Wilson Lodge was dedicated as Wilson College in 1968 and served as an experiment for the residential college system. In 2020, Princeton University elected to change the name of Wilson College to First College after the recent deaths involving police brutality of black individuals. When enrollment increased in the 1970s, a university report in 1979 recommended the establishment of five residential colleges. Funding was raised within a year, leading to the development of Rockefeller College (1982), Mathey College (1983), Butler College (1983), and Forbes College (1984). Butler's dorms were demolished in 2007 and a new complex was built in 2009. Butler and Mathey previously acted as only underclassmen colleges, but transitioned to four-year colleges in fall 2009. Princeton completed and opened two new residential colleges—Yeh College and New College West—at the beginning of the academic year in September 2022. The university plans to construct a new residential college named Hobson College where First College currently stands.

Princeton has one graduate residential college, known as the Graduate College, located on a hill about half a mile from the main campus. The location of the Graduate College was the result of a dispute between Woodrow Wilson and then-Graduate School Dean Andrew Fleming West. Wilson preferred a central location for the college; West wanted the graduate students as far as possible from the campus, and ultimately, he prevailed. The Graduate College is composed of a large Collegiate Gothic section crowned by Cleveland Tower, The tower also has 67 carillon bells, making it one of the largest carillons in the world. The attached New Graduate College provides a modern contrast in architectural style to the gothic Old Graduate College. Graduate students also have the option of living in student apartments.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="160" class="center">

File:Forbes College from College Rd West.jpg|alt=A picture of Forbes College|Forbes College (founded 1984)

File:Mathey College, Princeton University.jpg|alt=The exterior of Mathey College, specifically Blair Arch.|Mathey College (founded 1983)

File:Princeton (6035183309).jpg|alt=A picture of Rockefeller College|Rockefeller College (founded 1982)

File:Princeton University Whitman College.JPG|alt=The exterior of Whitman College|Whitman College (founded 2007)

</gallery>

Eating clubs and dining

alt=A picture of Ivy Club, the oldest eating club on campus|thumb|Founded in 1879, [[Ivy Club is the oldest and wealthiest eating club on campus.]]

Each residential college has a dining hall for students in the college, and they vary in their environment and food served. Upperclassmen who no longer live in the college can choose from a variety of options: join an eating club and choose a shared meal plan; join a dining co-op, where groups of students eat, prepare, and cook food together; or organize their own dining. Additionally, they serve as a place of community for upperclassmen. This requires prospective members to undergo an interviewing process. Each eating club has a fee to join which ranges from around $9,000 to $10,000. As a result, Princeton increases financial aid for upperclassmen, and the eating clubs also offer financial assistance. Cumulatively, there are ten clubs located on Prospect Avenue—Cannon, Cap and Gown, Charter, Cloister, Colonial, Cottage, Ivy, Quadrangle, Tiger, and Tower—and one located on Washington Road—Terrace. The USG funds student organization events, sponsors campus events, and represents the undergraduate student body when convening with faculty and administration. and is the largest and oldest student organization on campus. The Whig-Clio Society has several subsidiary organizations, each specialized to different areas of politics: the Princeton Debate Panel, International Relations Council, Princeton Mock Trial, and Princeton Model Congress. The International Relations Council manages two Model United Nations conferences: the Princeton Diplomatic Invitational (PDI) for collegiate competition and the Princeton Model United Nations Conference (PMUNC) for high school competition.

There are several publications on campus and a radio station. Founded in 1876, The Daily Princetonian, otherwise known as The Prince, is the second oldest college daily student newspaper in the United States. Other publications include The Nassau Literary Review, the Princeton Tory, a campus journal of conservative thought, The Princeton Diplomat, the only student-run magazine on global affairs, the Princeton Political Review, the only multi-partisan political publication on campus, and the recently revived Princeton Progressive, the only left-leaning political publication on campus, among others. Princeton's WPRB (103.3 FM) radio station is the oldest licensed college radio station in the nation.

thumb|[[McCarter Theatre, where the Princeton Triangle Club premieres its Triangle Show|alt=A picture of McCarter Theatre]]

Princeton is home to a variety of performing arts and music groups. Many of the groups are represented by the Performing Arts Council. Dating back to 1883, the Princeton Triangle Club is America's oldest touring musical-comedy theater group. It performs its annual Triangle Show every fall at the 1,000 seat McCarter Theatre, as well as original musical comedies, revues, and other shows throughout campus. The comedic scramble Tiger Band was formed in 1919 and plays at halftime shows and other events. Other groups include the Princeton University Orchestra, the flagship symphony orchestra group founded in 1896, and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, both of which perform at Alexander Hall. Arch sings are where a cappella performances are held in one of Princeton's many gothic arches. The oldest a cappella ensemble is the Nassoons, which were formed in 1941. All-male groups include the Tigertones (1946) and Footnotes (1959); all-female groups include the Tigerlilies (1971), Tigressions (1981), Wildcats (1987); the oldest coed a cappella group in the Ivy League is the Princeton Katzenjammers (1973), which was followed by the Roaring 20 (1983) and Shere Khan (1994).

Traditions

alt=A picture of FitzRandolph Gates|thumb|[[FitzRandolph Gates, which by tradition undergraduates do not exit through until graduation]]

Princeton students partake in a wide variety of campus traditions, both past and present. Current traditions Princeton students celebrate include the ceremonial bonfire, which takes place on the Cannon Green behind Nassau Hall. It is held only if Princeton beats both Harvard University and Yale University at football in the same season. Another tradition is the use of traditional college cheers at events and reunions, like the "Locomotive", which dates back to before 1894. Princeton students abide by the tradition of never exiting the campus through FitzRandolph Gates until one graduates. According to tradition, anyone who exits campus before their graduation will not graduate. A more controversial tradition is Newman's Day, where some students attempt to drink 24 beers in the 24 hours of April 24. According to The New York Times, "the day got its name from an apocryphal quote attributed to Paul Newman: '24 beers in a case, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? I think not. Newman spoke out against the tradition. At Reunions, a traditional parade of alumni and their families, known as the "P-rade", process through the campus.

Princeton also has several traditions that have faded into the past. One of them was clapper theft, the act of climbing to the top of Nassau Hall to steal the bell clapper, which rings to signal the start of classes on the first day of the school year. For safety reasons, the clapper was permanently removed. Another was the Nude Olympics, an annual nude and partially nude frolic in Holder Courtyard that used to take place during the first snow of the winter. Started in the early 1970s, the Nude Olympics went co-educational in 1979 and gained much notoriety with the American press. Due to issues of sexual harassment and safety reasons, the administration banned the Olympics in 2000, to the disappointment of students.

Alma mater

"Old Nassau" has been Princeton University's school song since 1859, when it was written that year by freshman Harlan Page Peck. It was originally published in the Nassau Literary Magazine, where it won the magazine's prize for best college song. After an unsuccessful attempt at singing it to Auld Lang Synes melody, Karl Langlotz, a Princeton professor, wrote the music for it. In 1987, the university changed the gendered lyrics of "Old Nassau" to reflect the school's co-educational student body.

Transportation

Tiger Transit is the bus system of the university, mostly open to the public and linking university campuses and areas around Princeton; routes are updated upon community feedback. The service sees an average of 3,500 boardings per day on weekdays and 1,100 boardings per day on weekends. NJ Transit provides bus service on the lines and rail service on the Dinky, a small commuter train that provides service to the Princeton Junction Station. Coach USA, through their subsidiary Suburban Transit, provides bus service to New York City and other destinations in New Jersey.

! colspan="2" data-sort-type=number |Total

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! colspan="4" data-sort-type=number |Economic diversity

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Princeton has made significant progress in expanding the diversity of its student body in recent years. The 2021 admitted freshman class was one of the most diverse in the school's history, with 68% of students identifying as students of color. The university has worked to increase its enrollment of first-generation and low-income students in recent years. The median family income of Princeton students is $186,100, with 72% of students coming from the top 20% highest-earning families. In 2017, 22% of freshman qualified for federal Pell Grants, above the 16% average for the top 150 schools ranked by the U.S. News & World Report; nationwide, the average was 44%. Based on data in a 2019 article in The Daily Princetonian, 10% of students hail from Bloomberg's 2018 list of "100 richest places", and that the top 20% of high schools send as many students to Princeton as the bottom 80%.

In 1999, 10% of the student body was Jewish, a percentage lower than those at other Ivy League schools. 16% of the student body was Jewish in 1985; the number decreased by 40% from 1985 to 1999. This decline prompted The Daily Princetonian to write a series of articles on the decline and its reasons. The New York Observer wrote that Princeton was "long dogged by a reputation for antisemitism" and that this history as well as Princeton's elite status caused the university and its community to feel sensitivity towards the decrease of Jewish students. In the Observer, several theories are proposed for the drop, ranging from campus culture to changing admission policies to national patterns. As of 2021, according to the Center for Jewish Life on campus, the university has approximately 700 Jewish students. As of 2024, according to Hillel International, there are approximately 450 Jewish undergraduates at Princeton, comprising about 8.6% of the undergraduate student body. In addition, about 250 Jewish graduate students are enrolled at Princeton, comprising about 7.9% of the graduate student body. Consequently, as American Jews are accounting for 2.4% of the total US population, there are 358% more Jews among students at Princeton than Jews among the total US population, which makes Jewish students the best represented minority group at Princeton.

Starting in 1967, African American enrollment surged from 1.7% to 10% but has stagnated ever since. Bruce M. Wright was admitted into the university in 1936 as the first African American; however, his admission was a mistake and when he got to campus he was asked to leave. Three years later Wright asked the dean for an explanation on his dismissal and the dean suggested to him that "a member of your race might feel very much alone" at Princeton University. Princeton would not admit its first Black students until in 1945 when Princeton instituted the V-12 program on campus. In 1947, John L. Howard, one of the four naval cadets admitted to the program, would become the first Black student to graduate with a bachelor's degree.

Athletics

thumb|Princeton's mascot is the tiger.|alt=A picture of a tiger statue on Princeton's campus

Princeton supports organized athletics at three levels: varsity intercollegiate, club intercollegiate, and intramural. It also provides "a variety of physical education and recreational programs" for members of the Princeton community. Most undergraduates participate in athletics at some level. Princeton's colors are orange and black. The Princeton administration considered naming the mascot in 2007, but the effort was dropped in the face of alumni and student opposition.

Varsity

thumb|Princeton vs. [[Lehigh University|Lehigh football, September 2007|left|alt=A picture showing a football match between Princeton University and Lehigh University in September 2007]]

Princeton hosts 37 men's and women's varsity sports. Its rowing teams compete in the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges, and its men's volleyball team competes in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. Princeton's sailing team, though a club sport, competes at the varsity level in the MAISA conference of the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association.

Princeton's football team competes in the Football Championship Subdivision of NCAA Division I with the rest of the Ivy League. Princeton played against Rutgers University in the first intercollegiate football game in the U.S. on November 6, 1869; Rutgers won the game. From 1877 until at least 1903, Princeton played football using rugby rules.

As of 2021, Princeton claims 28 national football championships, which would make it the most of any school, although the NCAA only recognizes 15 of the wins. With its last win being in 2018, Princeton has won 12 Ivy League championships. In 1951, Dick Kazmaier won Princeton its only Heisman Trophy, the last to come from the Ivy League.

The men's basketball program is noted for its success under Pete Carril, the head coach from 1967 to 1996. During this time, Princeton won 13 Ivy League titles and made 11 NCAA tournament appearances. Carril's final victory at Princeton came when the Tigers beat UCLA, the defending national champion, in the opening round of the 1996 NCAA tournament.

Princeton women's soccer team advanced to the NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship semi-finals in 2004, becoming the first Ivy League team to do so in a 64 team setting. The men's soccer team was coached from 1984 to 1995 by Princeton alumnus and future United States men's national team manager Bob Bradley, who lead the Tigers to win two Ivy League titles and make an appearance at the NCAA Final Four in 1993. Princeton's men's lacrosse program undertook a period of notable success from 1992 to 2001, during which time it won six national championships. In 2012, its field hockey team became the first in the Ivy League to win a national championship.

Princeton has won at least one Ivy League title every year since 1957, and it became the first university in its conference to win over 500 Ivy League athletic championships. Teams compete against other collegiate teams both in the Northeast and nationally. Several leagues with differing levels of competitiveness are available.

In the fall, freshman and sophomores participate in the intramural athletic competition called Cane Spree. Although the event centers on cane wrestling, freshman and sophomores compete in other sports and competitions. This commemorates a time in the 1870s when sophomores, angry with the freshmen who strutted around with fancy canes, stole all of the canes from the freshmen, hitting them with their own canes in the process.

Notable people

Alumni

thumb|left|The Princeton University Class of 1879, which included [[Woodrow Wilson, Mahlon Pitney, Daniel Barringer, and Charles Talcott|alt=A picture of the Princeton University Class of 1879, posing on the steps of the John C. Green School of Science]]

U.S. Presidents James Madison and Woodrow Wilson and vice presidents Aaron Burr, George M. Dallas, and John Breckinridge graduated from Princeton, as did Michelle Obama, the former First Lady of the United States. Former Chief Justice of the United States Oliver Ellsworth was an alumnus, as are current U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor. Alumnus Jerome Powell was appointed as chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board in 2018. Pete Hegseth, 29th U.S. secretary of defense, is a 2003 graduate of Princeton. Alumnus Mark Milley served as both 39th chief of staff of the United States Army and 20th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Princeton graduates played a major role in the American Revolution, including the first and last colonels to die on the Patriot side, Philip Johnston, and Nathaniel Scudder, as well as the highest ranking civilian leader on the British side David Mathews.

Notable graduates of Princeton's School of Engineering and Applied Science include Apollo astronaut and commander of Apollo 12 Pete Conrad, Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos, former chairman of Alphabet Inc. Eric Schmidt, and Lisa P. Jackson, former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Actors Jimmy Stewart, Wentworth Miller, José Ferrer, David Duchovny, and Brooke Shields graduated from Princeton, as did composers Edward T. Cone and Milton Babbitt. Soccer-player alumna, Diana Matheson, scored the game-winning goal that earned Canada their Olympic bronze medal in 2012. Declan Farmer graduated in 2020 and has won multiple Paralympic Games gold medals and is the first U.S. sledge hockey player to score over 200 career goals.

thumb|Archival record from the Graduate School detailing [[Alan Turing's academic journey]]

Writers Booth Tarkington, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Eugene O'Neill attended but did not graduate. Writer Selden Edwards and poet W. S. Merwin graduated from Princeton. American novelist Jodi Picoult and author David Remnick graduated. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Barton Gellman and Pam Belluck and Lorraine Adams, as well as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa, are Princeton alumni. William P. Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation and founding editor of the Cherokee Advocate, graduated in 1844.

Notable graduate alumni include Allen Shenstone, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Thornton Wilder, Richard Feynman, Lee Iacocca, John Nash, Alonzo Church, Alan Turing, Terence Tao, Edward Witten, John Milnor, John Bardeen, Steven Weinberg, John Tate, and David Petraeus. Royals such as Prince Moulay Hicham of Morocco, Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, and Queen Noor of Jordan attended Princeton.

Faculty

As of 2021, notable current faculty members included Angus Deaton, Robert Keohane, Edward W. Felten, Anthony Grafton, Peter Singer, Jim Peebles, Manjul Bhargava,, Jesse Jenkins, Brian Kernighan, Betsy Levy Paluck and Robert P. George. Notable former faculty members include John Witherspoon, Walter Kaufmann, John von Neumann, Ben Bernanke, Paul Krugman, Joseph Henry, Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Mullen, Andrew Wiles, Jhumpa Lahiri, Cornel West, Daniel Kahneman, and alumnus Woodrow Wilson.

Princeton University is widely considered to be an institution that affiliates with and produces some of the most elite members of society. The university's reputation has made it a frequent reference in media.

  • This Side of Paradise (1920): In F. Scott Fitzgerald's debut novel, the narrator, Amory Blaine details his life at Princeton, dabbling in literature and unfulfilled romances.
  • A Beautiful Mind (2001): A biographical film centered on the award-winning mathematician, John Nash, featuring him studying for his PhD at Princeton in the first part of the film.
  • A Cinderella Story (2004): The main love interest, Austin Ames dreams of becoming a writer and gets accepted into Princeton.
  • The Rule of Four (2004): A thriller novel by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason about four Princeton seniors: Tom, Paul, Charlie and Gil try to solve the mystery of a coded manuscript.

See also

  • Big Three (colleges)
  • Higher education in New Jersey
  • Princeton University Department of Physics
  • The Princeton University Summer Journalism Program
  • List of universities by number of billionaire alumni

Notes

References

Works cited

Further reading

  • Princeton Athletics website