Princeton University Top Questions

As an anthropology major, the majority of my courses were seminars, with about 12 students on average. In these classes, and even my larger courses (except for a few large lecture classes), my professors knew my name and were eager to discuss the material outside of class—a couple of professors invited their students to their homes for a session of the seminar. In the rare large classes I took, there were always small precept meetings outside of the lectures where we discussed the content in more detail, and the preceptors (often graduate students) knew me by name as well. My favorite class was a journalism course with David Maraniss, a former reporter for the Washington Post and now a non-fiction author. Our major assignment was to write a 4,000-word non-fiction narrative, which we had the entire semester to work on. I profiled a janitor at Princeton; for my research, I accompanied her on her morning rounds, spoke with her ex-husband—also a janitor—as well as students and Building Services staff, and visited her home to meet her two sons. Since we had around 10 weeks to work on our pieces, I had the chance to do very thorough research and to edit and re-edit my writing in a way I hadn’t for other classes. My least favorite class was probably multivariable calculus, which went over my head and turned me off of mathematics for the rest of college. However, I did meet one of my best friends in the course, as we wrote notes (high-school style) throughout the lectures. (Maybe that was why I understood so very little…) I’m not sure whether all Princeton students engage intellectually outside of class, but my friends and I definitely did. We were very interested in what we were studying and enjoyed sharing and debating about it with each other. I’ve heard that molecular biology students are fairly competitive, but in my experience, college was completely different than high school, where students constantly asked about each other’s grades. No one knew my marks or SAT scores in college, and I knew none of my friends’, which I loved. Students are very driven and self-competitive, but not cutthroat with each other. The anthropology department is small enough to be personal and large enough to have excellent faculty. I enjoyed everything about it—my courses, my professors, the other anthropology majors, and my independent work. (Junior year, I did my independent research on The Oprah Winfrey Show, studying how she appeals to her viewership; senior year, I studied primary schooling in Uganda, and was funded to live there for a summer. The opportunities in anthropology are limitless.)

Academics at Princeton are, on the whole, outstanding. More so than at any Ivy League school, the undergrads at Princeton have lots of interaction with professors, especially junior and senior year. I'm not just talking about recently hired professors - big-name professors too. Juniors and seniors at Princeton have to complete significant independent research projects (juniors write what we call JPs and seniors write senior theses), and all students are assigned faculty advisors for these projects. My advisors (both of whom are tenured professors) have been great. For both my JPs and my thesis, my advisors have been very responsive to e-mail, willing to meet with me pretty much whenever I want, and have given me thoughtful feedback on my written work. It's a bit harder to get to know professors during freshman and sophomore year, especially if you're taking a lot of big classes, but all professors are required to hold office hours and they're usually happy to talk with undergrads about whatever.

Classes are hard. When people hear you go to Princeton, most assume you're some sort of genius. That may be, but most likely you don't feel like it most of the time when you're at Princeton, because everyone is so academically driven that even Pass/Fail classes aren't a joke. When I came back home after my first semester at Princeton, lots of my friends at other schools were talking about how much easier college was compared with high school. Unless you went to a ridiculously tough high school, this will probably not be the case at Princeton. Given the academic rigor, Princeton students do study a lot, partly because of the amount of work their given, and partly because most of them just seem to be ambitious, driven individuals. There are tons of libraries on campus (and the library system is immense/impressive...students here definitely take it for granted) and students can also be found studying in dorm common areas, cafes, and the campus center. On average most students work 3-5 hours per night, but sometimes less, sometimes more. A lot depends on your major. Humanities students tend to have lots of reading, often seemingly impossible to complete, whereas science major usually have lab reports and problem sets. Finals take place after winter break, with a week's reading period and then two weeks for exams. This can be a stressful period, but it's great having to class to focus on finals work. It is easy to forget a lot over winter break though. The student/professor relationship is generally very positive, and becomes more personal when you begin to focus in on your preferred department for a major or certificate (the Princeton equivalent of a minor). While there are many large intro classes, there are also plenty of smaller seminars, and these are usually the majority once you get past the intro levels. The large classes usually break into what's called precept once a week, a one hour small discussion group to cover the material in a smaller setting, led by a TA or the professor. This is good to keep you from getting lost in large classes, but it also means you can't totally zone out in these, because you'll be expected to contribute to precept discussion, which makes up a part of your class grade. Popular majors are always Politics, Woodrow Wilson School, Economics, and History, and these are all stellar departments. All of the smaller departments have awesome faculty as well though, and students sometimes benefit from the extra attention they can get from majoring in a less common field, especially when it comes time for the two JPs (junior papers) and the daunting senior thesis they must complete before graduation. You don't have to declare a major until sophomore spring, which is great for those like me who enter Princeton clueless as to their academic goals. I've settled on Comparative Literature, because it has the potential to incorporate many of my interests, such as foreign language, translation, creative writing, literature, film, and art. One way to figure out what you're interested in studying is simply by completing the required courses. All freshman have to take a writing seminar, and although most people I know seem to have hated this, my writing seminar, on the culture of consumption, has been one of my favorite classes so far. There's also a foreign language requirement and a number of "distribution requirements," which compel you to take classes in a number of broad categories. The hardest of these to complete for a hardcore humanities person like me are the one Quantitative Reasoning (mostly math classes) and two Science and Technology (with lab!) classes. These are good opportunities to use the four PDF classes you're allotted. I took an Astronomy class like this last spring as my math, and science I got out of the way with Intro to Psych and a class on Lasers I'm currently taking. All in all, the requirements aren't too painful and can introduce you to a new field of interest, or at least provide you with a funny story about bumbling cluelessly through lab. There are many career-driven students on campus (many seem to be aspiring analysts and i-bankers), but probably an equal number like me who still haven't quite figured out what the future holds for them. Even the career-driven seem to branch out and take the opportunity to explore other interests while at Princeton though, so people in your classes usually range from department majors to the random finance student who has always wanted to take a ceramics class. Princeton is quite a competitive place, and getting in is far from the last time you feel the strain of competition. While classes aren't aggressively competitive, the grade deflation policies still give everyone the feeling that its necessary to outperform their peers. Sophomore year, many students compete to get into the Woodrow Wilson foreign policy school. Others compete for summer internships or grants. Even fun at Princeton seems competitive at times. Many extracurricular groups require audition and acceptance--from a capella, dance groups, the business society, and theater, to just being a campus tour guide. In addition, half of the eating clubs that many students join during sophomore year require "bicker" (similar to rush) to gain admittance.

Academics get better every year. You start out as a number in big lecture classes freshmen year, but as you advance, the classes get smaller and smaller. By the time you are a senior, you are on a first name basis with all of your professors, at least in your department. My advisor has invited me to his house several times for dinner, and I've reciprocated with invitations to eating clubs and the dining hall. Every day I have very intellectual conversations with other undergrads, grad students, and faculty. Of course, these are things that one has to seek out, and its easy to just mix in with the crowd, especially in some of the bigger departments. This is definitely a school for smart people. Most classes are very challenging. If you aren't willing to work hard, or you don't feel you have what it takes, then you probably shouldn't be here. That being said, people aren't really that cutthroat (except the pre-meds) as compared to some other schools.

students study so much at princeton. i've often felt like that was the reason that "night life" here starts so much later than at other schools. people will go out at 12 or later because they'll be in the library or their rooms up until 11 trying to pack in weekend work. i think that princeton students are competitive only because they feel they've competed so hard already to get in that they can't give up now. i've avoided caring about other people's grades by never mentioning mine or asking theirs, and i find that i'm not the only person doing that. if i have a problem with the quality of my work or the way my work is being received i go straight to the TA or professor; i don't just complain about it to my friends. on that note, while some classes are really big, i think professors absolutely want to know names. they appreciate when students get in touch with them, even if it is just a grading question. i also love that every professor teaches at least one precept so he/she gets to know a few students more closely over that semester. in many ways the education here is geared toward getting a job, but i'm not sure we can blame princeton for that. in today's world people are just always concerned about money and the future. princeton attempts to combat this with their core curriculum, so that even engineers will encounter a couple of humanities classes over the course of their college career.