Princeton University is a
private research university located in
Princeton,
New Jersey,
United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the
Ivy League, and is one of the nine
Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution.
Princeton provides undergraduate and graduate instruction in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. Princeton does not offer professional schooling generally, but it does offer professional master's degrees (mostly through the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) and doctoral programs.
Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, as the College of New Jersey, the university moved to Newark in 1747, then to Princeton in 1756 and was renamed Princeton University in 1896. (The present-day The College of New Jersey in nearby Ewing, New Jersey, is an unrelated institution.)
Princeton was the fourth institution of higher education in the U.S. to conduct classes. Princeton’s crest states “Dei sub numine viget,” which is Latin for “Under God she flourishes.” While it once had close ties to the Presbyterian Church, it makes no spiritual demands of its students. The university has ties with the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Theological Seminary, and the Westminster Choir College of Rider University.
History
(1892), Alexander Hall, Princeton University]]
New Light Presbyterians founded the College of New Jersey, later Princeton University, in 1746 in order to train ministers dedicated to their views. The college was the educational and religious capital of Scotch-Irish America. In 1756, the college moved to Princeton, New Jersey.
Following the untimely deaths of its first five presidents, the college enjoyed a long period of stability during 1768-94 under Reverend John Witherspoon. Military occupation and the Battle of Princeton severely damaged the college during the war. In another disaster, fire destroyed Nassau Hall in March 1802. Student unrest led to an explosion at the Nassau Hall front door and several other accidents in 1810. Witherspoon was a prominent religious and political leader; and an original signer of the Declaration of independence and the Articles of Confederation.
Before the construction of Stanhope Hall in 1803, the college's sole building was Nassau Hall. The college also adopted orange as its school color from William III. During the summer of 1783, the Continental Congress met in Nassau Hall, making Princeton the country's capital for four months. The much-abused landmark survived bombardment with cannonballs in the Revolutionary War when General Washington struggled to wrest the building from British control, as well as later fires in 1802 and 1855 that left only its walls standing. Rebuilt by Joseph Henry Latrobe, John Notman and John Witherspoon, the modern Nassau Hall has been much revised and expanded from the original one that was designed by Robert Smith. Over the centuries, its role shifted from an all-purpose building, comprising office, dormitory, library, and classroom space, to classroom space exclusively, to its present role as the administrative center of the university. Originally, the sculptures in front of the building were lions, as a gift in 1879. These were later replaced with tigers in 1911.
James McCosh took office as the college's president in 1868 and lifted the institution out of a low period that had been brought about by the Civil War. During his two decades of service, he overhauled the curriculum, oversaw an expansion of inquiry into the sciences, and supervised the addition of a number of buildings in the High Victorian Gothic style to the campus. McCosh Hall is named in his honor.
In 1896, the college officially changed its name from the College of New Jersey to Princeton University to honor the town in which it resides. During this year, the college also underwent large expansion and officially became a university. Under Woodrow Wilson, Princeton introduced the preceptorial system in 1905, a then-unique concept that augmented the standard lecture method of teaching with a more personal form in which small groups of students, or precepts, could interact with a single instructor, or preceptor, in their field of interest.
In 1969, Princeton University first admitted women as undergraduates. In 1887, the university had actually maintained and staffed a sister college, Evelyn College for Women, in the town of Princeton on Evelyn and Nassau streets. It was closed after roughly a decade of operation. Instead, Bryn Mawr College, a member of the Seven Sisters, was traditionally recognized as Princeton's sister school. After abortive discussions with Sarah Lawrence College to relocate the women's college to Princeton and merge it with the University in 1967, the administration decided to admit women and turned to the issue of transforming the school's operations and facilities into a female-friendly campus. The administration had barely finished these plans in April 1969 when the admissions office began mailing out its acceptance letters. Its five-year coeducation plan provided $7.8 million for the development of new facilities that would eventually house and educate 650 women students at Princeton by 1974. Ultimately, 148 women, consisting of 100 freshwomen and transfer students of other years, entered Princeton on September 6, 1969 amidst much media attention. (Princeton enrolled its first female graduate student, Sabra Follett Meserve, as a Ph.D. candidate in Turkish history in 1961. A handful of undergraduate women had studied at Princeton from 1963 on, spending their junior year there to study "critical languages" in which Princeton's offerings surpassed those of their home institutions. They were considered regular students for their year on campus, but were not candidates for a Princeton degree.)
As a result of a 1979 lawsuit by Sally Frank, Princeton's eating clubs were required to go coeducational in 1991, after Tiger Inn's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied.
Campus
The main campus is located within the boundaries of three municipalities:
Borough of Princeton,
Princeton Township, and
West Windsor Township. The James Forrestal Campus is in nearby
Plainsboro Township. The campuses are situated about one hour from both
New York City and
Philadelphia.
The oldest building on campus is Nassau Hall, built in 1754, and situated on the northern edge of campus facing Nassau Street. Designed originally by Robert Smith, the building was subsequently remodeled by notable American architects Benjamin Latrobe and John Notman. Stanhope Hall (once a library, now home of the University's Center for African-American Studies) and East and West College, both dormitories, followed. Major buildings in the late 19th Century were built in brownish stone in a Victorian Gothic style influenced by the Richardsonian Romanesque, many designed by William Appleton Potter, including the Chancellor Green Library and Alexander Hall.
Beginning at the very end of the 19th century, the University adopted a consistent Collegiate Gothic style, executed in gray stone. This standard continued up to World War II, and includes most buildings in the northern third of campus except the 19th-century core. The renowned Philadelphia firm Cope & Stewardson designed Blair Hall and Little Hall in the Collegiate Gothic style. McKim, Mead & White designed the FitzRandolph Gateway in front of Nassau Hall. The early 20th century also saw the first master plan for the campus, executed by the university's first master architect, Ralph Adams Cram, who designed several buildings on campus.
Modern buildings dominate the southern and eastern ends of campus. Fine Hall, the Math Department's home, designed by Warner, Burns, Toan and Lunde and completed in 1970, is the tallest building on campus at fourteen stories. Contemporary additions feature a number of big-name architects, including IM Pei's Spelman Halls, Robert Venturi's Frist Campus Center, Rafael Vinoly's Carl Icahn Laboratory, the Hillier Group's Bowen Hall, and Demetri Porphyrios' Whitman College. Lewis Library, designed by Frank Gehry, opened to students in the Fall of 2008.
A variety of sculptures adorn the campus. They include pieces by Henry Moore (Oval with Points, also nicknamed "Nixon's Nose"), Clement Meadmore (Upstart II), and Alexander Calder (Five Disks: One Empty).
At the southern edge of the campus is Lake Carnegie, a man-made lake donated by the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie and used for crew (rowing). It forms the boundary between Princeton Township and West Windsor Township. Beyond the lake and the adjacent Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park, are intramural fields.
From 2006 - 2008, Princeton University reported on-campus crime statistics that included 44 forcible sex offenses, 1 non forcible sex offense, 11 aggravated assaults, 152 burglaries, 9 cases of arson, and 14 cases of motor vehicle theft.
Cannon Green
Cannon Green is located on the south end of the main lawn. Buried in the ground at the center is the "Big Cannon." Its top protrudes from the earth and is traditionally spray-painted in orange with the current senior class year. A second "Little Cannon" is buried in the lawn in front of nearby
Whig Hall. Both cannons were buried in response to periodic thefts by
Rutgers students. The "Big Cannon" is said to have been left in Princeton by Hessians after the Revolutionary War but moved to New Brunswick during the
War of 1812. Ownership of the cannon was disputed and the cannon was eventually taken back to Princeton partly by a military company and then by a hundred Princeton students. The "Big Cannon" was eventually buried in its current location behind Nassau Hall in 1840. In 1875, Rutgers students, in an attempt to recover the original cannon, stole the "Little Cannon" instead. The smaller cannon was subsequently recovered and buried as well. The protruding cannons are occasionally painted scarlet by Rutgers students who continue the traditional dispute.
Buildings
Nassau Hall
Nassau Hall is the oldest building on campus, and the original building of the College of New Jersey. Built in 1754, it was the first seat of the
New Jersey Legislature in 1776, was involved in the battle of Princeton in 1777, and was the seat of the
Congress of the Confederation (successor to the
Continental Congress) from 30 June 1783 to 4 November 1783. It now houses the office of the university president and other administrative office, and remains the symbolic center of the campus. Graduation ceremonies are held each year on the front lawn of Nassau Hall in good weather.
Residential colleges
Princeton has six undergraduate
residential colleges, each housing approximately 500 freshmen, sophomores, some juniors and seniors, and a handful of junior and senior
resident advisers. Each college consists of a set of dormitories, a dining hall, a variety of other amenities—such as study spaces, libraries, performance spaces, and darkrooms—and a collection of administrators and associated faculty. Two colleges,
Wilson College and
Forbes College (formerly Princeton Inn College), date to the 1970s; three others, Rockefeller, Mathey, and Butler Colleges, were created in 1983 following the Committee on Undergraduate Residential Life (CURL) report, which suggested the institution of residential colleges as a solution to an allegedly fragmented campus social life. The construction of Whitman College, the university's sixth residential college, was completed in 2007.
List of residential colleges
#
Butler College
#
Forbes College
#
Mathey College
#
Rockefeller College
#
Whitman College
#
Wilson College
Rockefeller College and
Mathey College are located in the northwest corner of the campus; Princeton brochures often feature their Collegiate Gothic architecture. Like most of Princeton's Gothic buildings, they predate the residential college system and were fashioned into colleges from individual dormitories.
Wilson College and Butler College, located south of the center of the campus, were built in the 1960s. Wilson served as an early experiment in the establishment of the residential college system. Butler, like Rockefeller and Mathey, consisted of a collection of ordinary dorms (called the "New New Quad") before the addition of a dining hall made it a residential college. Widely disliked for their edgy modernist design, the dormitories on the Butler Quad were demolished in 2007. Butler is now reopened as a four year residential college, housing both under- and upperclassmen.
Forbes is located on the site of the historic Princeton Inn, a gracious hotel overlooking the Princeton golf course. The Princeton Inn, originally constructed in 1924, played regular host to important symposia and gatherings of renowned scholars from both the university and the nearby Institute for Advanced Studies for many years. Forbes currently houses over 400 undergraduates and a number of resident graduate students in its residential halls. Butler and most of Forbes are in a different municipality, Princeton Township, from the rest of the main campus, which is in Princeton Borough.
In 2003, Princeton broke ground for a sixth college that is named Whitman College after its principal sponsor, Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay and a member of the Princeton Class of 1977. The new dormitories were constructed in the Collegiate Gothic architectural style and were designed by architect Demetri Porphyrios. Construction finished in 2007, and Whitman College was inaugurated as Princeton's sixth residential college that same year.
The precursor of the present college system was originally proposed by university president Woodrow Wilson in the early 20th century. Wilson's model was much closer to Yale's present system, which features four-year colleges. Lacking the support of the trustees, the plan languished until 1968. That year, Wilson College was established to cap a series of alternatives to the eating clubs. Fierce debates raged before the present residential college system emerged. The plan was first attempted at Yale, but the administration was initially uninterested; an exasperated alum, Edward Harkness, finally paid to have the college system implemented at Harvard in the 1920s, leading to the oft-quoted aphorism that the college system is a Princeton idea that was executed at Harvard with funding from Yale.
Princeton has one graduate residential college, known simply as the Graduate College, located beyond Forbes College at the outskirts of campus. The far-flung location of the G.C. was the spoil of a squabble 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. Ultimately, West prevailed. McCarter Theatre was built by the Princeton Triangle Club, a student performance group, using club profits and a gift from Princeton University alumnus Thomas McCarter. Today, the Triangle Club performs its annual freshmen revue and spring musicals in McCarter. McCarter is also recognized as one of the leading regional theaters in the United States.
Art Museum
The
Princeton University Art Museum was established in 1882 to give students direct, intimate, and sustained access to original works of art that complement and enrich instruction and research at the university. This continues to be a primary function, along with serving as a community resource and a destination for national and international visitors.
Numbering over 72,000 objects, the collections range from ancient to contemporary art and concentrate geographically on the Mediterranean regions, Western Europe, China, the United States, and Latin America. There is a collection of Greek and Roman antiquities, including ceramics, marbles, bronzes, and Roman mosaics from faculty excavations in Antioch. Medieval Europe is represented by sculpture, metalwork, and stained glass. The collection of Western European paintings includes examples from the early Renaissance through the nineteenth century, with masterpieces by Monet, Cézanne, and Van Gogh, and features a growing collection of twentieth-century and contemporary art, including iconic paintings such as Andy Warhol's Blue Marilyn.
One of the best features of the museums is its collection of Chinese art, with important holdings in bronzes, tomb figurines, painting, and calligraphy. Its collection of pre-Columbian art includes examples of Mayan art, and is commonly considered to be the most important collection of Pre-Columbian art outside of Latin America. The museum has collections of old master prints and drawings and a comprehensive collection of over 27,000 original photographs. African art and Northwest Coast Indian art are also represented. Other works include those of the John B. Putnam, Jr., Memorial Collection of twentieth-century sculpture, featuring such modern masters as Alexander Calder, Jacques Lipchitz, Henry Moore and Pablo Picasso. The Putnam Collection is overseen by the Museum, but it is exhibited outdoors around campus.
University Chapel
Princeton University Chapel is the third-largest college chapel in the world, behind those of
Valparaiso University and
King's College, Cambridge,
England. Known for its
gothic architecture, the chapel houses one of the largest and most precious stained glass collections in the country. Both the Opening Exercises for entering freshmen and the Baccalaureate Service for graduating seniors take place in the University Chapel.
Construction on the Princeton University Chapel began in 1924 and was completed in 1927 at a cost of $2.4 million. It was designed by the University's lead consulting architect, Ralph Adams Cram, previously of Boston's architectural firm Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson, leading proponents of the Gothic revival style. The vaulting was built by the Guastavino Company, whose thin Spanish tile vaults can be found in
Ellis Island,
Grand Central Terminal, and hundreds of other significant works of 20th century architecture.
The -long, -high, cruciform church has a collegiate Gothic style and it is made largely from Pennsylvania sandstone and Indiana limestone. It seats two thousand people, many in pews made from wood salvaged from Civil War-era gun carriages. Seats in the chancel are made from oak from Sherwood Forest in England. The sixteenth century pulpit was brought from France and the primary pipe organ has eight thousand pipes and 109 stops.
One of the most prominent features of the chapel are its stained glass windows, which have an unusually academic leaning. Three of the large windows have religious themes: The north aisle windows shows the life of Jesus, the north clerestory shows the spiritual development of the Jews, and the south aisle shows the teachings of Jesus. The stained glass in the south clerestory portrays the evolution of human thought from the Greeks to modern times. It has windows on such topics as science, law, poetry, and war.
Nearby music conservatory Westminster Choir College (a part of Rider University) frequently uses the University Chapel space. Each winter term, the Choir College performs an Evening of Readings and Carols; each May, the school uses the chapel for a commencement ceremony for the Choir College with musical performances from many of Westminster's ensembles.
Sustainability
Published in 2008, Princeton's Sustainability Plan highlights three priority areas for the University's Office of Sustainability: reduction of greenhouse gas emissions; conservation of resources; and research, education, and civic engagement. Princeton has committed to reducing its carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 without the purchase of offsets. The University published its first Sustainability Progress Report in November 2009. The University has adopted a green purchasing policy and recycling program that focuses on paper products, construction materials, lightbulbs, furniture, and electronics. Its dining halls have set a goal to purchase 20% sustainable food products. The student organization "Greening Princeton" seeks to encourage the University administration to adopt environmentally friendly policies on campus.
Organization
With an endowment of US$11.3
billion, Princeton University is among the wealthiest universities in the world. Ranked as the
fourth largest endowment in the United States, the university has the greatest per-student endowment in the world (US$2.23
million). Such a significant endowment is sustained through the continued donations of its alumni and is maintained by investment advisers. Some of Princeton's wealth is invested in its art museum, which features works by
Claude Monet,
Vincent van Gogh,
Jackson Pollock, and
Andy Warhol among other prominent artists.
Academics
Undergraduates fulfill general education requirements, choose among a wide variety of elective courses, and pursue departmental concentrations and interdisciplinary certificate programs. Required independent work is a hallmark of undergraduate education at Princeton. Students graduate with either the
Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) or the
Bachelor of Science in engineering (B.S.E.).
The Graduate School offers advanced degrees spanning the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. Doctoral education is available in all disciplines. It emphasizes original and independent scholarship whereas master's degree programs in architecture, engineering, finance, and public affairs and public policy prepare candidates for careers in public life and professional practice.
Undergraduate
Undergraduate courses in the humanities are traditionally either seminars or lectures held 2 or 3 times a week with an additional discussion seminar that is called a "precept" (short for "preceptorial"). To graduate, all A.B. candidates must complete a senior thesis and, in most departments, one or two extensive pieces of independent research that are known as "junior papers." Juniors in some departments, including architecture and the creative arts, complete independent projects that differ from written research papers. A.B. candidates must also fulfill a three or four semester foreign language requirement and distribution requirements with a total of 31 classes. B.S.E. candidates follow a parallel track with an emphasis on a rigorous science and math curriculum, a computer science requirement, and at least two semesters of independent research including an optional senior thesis. All B.S.E. students must complete at least 36 classes. A.B. candidates typically have more freedom in course selection than B.S.E. candidates because of the fewer number of required classes. Nonetheless, in the spirit of a
liberal arts education, both enjoy a comparatively high degree of latitude in creating a self-structured curriculum.
Undergraduates agree to adhere to an academic integrity policy called the Honor Code, established in 1893. Violations of the Honor Code incur suspension or expulsion, the strongest of disciplinary actions. Out-of-class exercises are outside the Honor Committee's jurisdiction. In these cases, students are expected to sign a pledge on their papers to affirm that they have not plagiarized their work.
Graduate
as seen from just outside Procter Hall at the Old
Graduate College in the noon autumn sun.]]
The Trustees of Princeton University, a 40-member board, is responsible for the overall direction of the University. It approves the operating and capital budgets, supervises the investment of the University's endowment and oversees campus real estate and long-range physical planning. The trustees also exercise prior review and approval concerning changes in major policies, such as those in instructional programs and admission, as well as tuition and fees and the hiring of faculty members.
Princeton offers postgraduate research degrees in many fields in the social sciences, engineering, natural sciences, and humanities. Although Princeton offers professional graduate degrees in
engineering,
architecture, and
finance, it has no
medical school,
law school, or
business school like other research universities. The university's most famous professional school is the
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, founded in 1930 as the School of Public and International Affairs and renamed in 1948 after university president (and US President)
Woodrow Wilson.
Libraries
The university's library system houses over eleven million holdings including six million bound volumes. The main university library,
Firestone Library, which houses almost four million volumes, is one of the largest university libraries in the world and among the largest "open stack" libraries in existence. Its collections include the
Blickling homilies. In addition to Firestone library, many individual disciplines have their own libraries, including architecture, art history, East Asian studies, engineering, geology, international affairs and public policy, Near Eastern studies, and psychology. Seniors in some departments can register for enclosed carrels in the main library for workspace and the private storage of books and research materials. In February 2007, Princeton became the 12th major library system to join Google's ambitious project to scan the world's great literary works and make them searchable over the Web.
Admissions and financial aid
Princeton is one of the most selective colleges in the United States, admitting only 8% of undergraduate applicants in 2010. In September 2006, the university announced that all applicants for the Class of 2012 would be considered in a single pool. In this way, the
Early Decision program was effectively ended. In 2001, expanding on earlier reforms, Princeton was the first university to eliminate
loans for all students who qualify for
aid.
U.S. News & World Report and
Princeton Review both cite Princeton as the university that has the fewest of graduates with debt even though 60% of incoming students are on some type of
financial aid. The Office of
Financial Aid estimates that Princeton seniors on aid will graduate with an average indebtedness of $2,360, compared to the national average of about $20,000.
Rankings
| Arwu w | 8 |
|---|
| Arwu n | 7 |
|---|
| Arwu sci | 3 |
|---|
| Arwu eng | 26 |
|---|
| Arwu life | 45 |
|---|
| Arwu soc | 6 |
|---|
| Gur | 12 |
|---|
| Thes w | 5 |
|---|
| Thes n | 5 |
|---|
| Usnwr nu | 2 |
|---|
| Cgc nu | 2 |
|---|
| Usnwr eng | 18 |
|---|
| Wamo nu | 28 |
|---|
| Forbes | 2 |
|---|
From 2001 to 2010, Princeton University was ranked either first or second among national universities by U.S. News & World Report (USNWR), holding the #1 spot for 9 of those 10 years. After one year at second place in 2009, Princeton returned to the number one spot in 2010, tying with Harvard University. It has been ranked eighth among world universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and fifth among top 50 for Natural Sciences by THES. In the 2010 Times Higher Education World University Rankings Princeton was ranked 5th in the world. In the 2010 QS World University Rankings it was ranked 10th overall in the world, making it 6th among US universities. Its three highest subject rankings were: 6th in Arts & Humanities, 7th in Natural Sciences, and 10th in Social Sciences. Globally it dropped two places from its position of 8th in the THE-QS World University Rankings of 2009 (in 2010 Times Higher Education World University Rankings and QS World University Rankings parted ways to produce separate rankings). . In 2009 the university had been ranked third in North America, behind Harvard and Yale.
In the "America's Best Colleges" rankings by Forbes in 2008, Princeton University was ranked first among all national colleges and universities. The Forbes ranking also takes into consideration national awards won by students and faculty, as well as number of alumni in the 2008 "Who's Who in America" register.
Princeton Graduate School programs are also highly ranked among universities in the United States. In the 2009 U.S. News & World Report "Graduate School Rankings", all fourteen of Princeton's doctoral programs evaluated were ranked in their respective top 20, 7 of them in the top 5, and 4 of them in the top spot (Mathematics, Economics, History, Political Science).
In Princeton Review's rankings of "softer" aspects of students' college experience, Princeton University was ranked first in "Students Happy with Financial Aid" and third in "Happiest Students", behind Clemson and Brown Universities.
The university's individual academic departments have been highly ranked in their respective fields. The Department of Psychology has been ranked fifth in the nation and its individual graduate programs have received high national rankings as well. The behavioral neuroscience program has been ranked sixth and the social psychology program has been ranked seventh. The Department of History is currently ranked first, relinquishing this top spot to Yale intermittently in the last decade.
Princeton University also participates in the (NAICU)'s University and College Accountability Network (U-CAN).
-->
Princeton University has an IBM BlueGeneL supercomputer, called Orangena, which was ranked as the 89th fastest computer in the world in 2005 (LINPACK performance of 4713 compared to 12250 for other U. S. universities and 280600 for the top-ranked supercomputer, belonging to the U. S. Department of Energy).
Grade deflation policy
In 2004, Dean Malkiel successfully implemented a grade deflation policy to curb the number of A's students received. The argument posed by Dean Malkiel was that an A was beginning to lose its meaning as a larger percentage of the student body received them. While the number of A's has indeed decreased since the policy's creation, many argue that this is hurting Princeton students when they apply to jobs or interviews. Malkiel has said that she sent pamphlets to institutions like Harvard Medical to tell them about the policy so that they consider Princeton students equally, but students argue that Princeton graduates can apply to other institutions that know nothing about it. They argue further that as other school purposefully inflate their grades, Princeton students' GPAs will look low by comparison. Further, studies have shown that employers prefer high grades even when they are inflated. The issue remains an ongoing conflict at Princeton; on the one hand, it is losing support from the student body to the point where articles are being written against it and on one occasion students voted against the policy 61 to 9, but at the same time, Malkiel has no plans on changing or removing the policy. It is expected to remain in place even after Malkiel steps down at the end of the 2010-2011 school year.
Student life and culture
University housing is guaranteed to all undergraduates for all four years. More than 98 percent of students live on campus in dormitories. Freshmen and sophomores must live in
residential colleges, while juniors and seniors typically live in designated upperclassman dormitories. The actual dormitories are comparable, but only residential colleges have dining halls. Nonetheless, any undergraduate may purchase a meal plan and eat in a residential college dining hall. Recently, upperclassmen have been given the option of remaining in their college for all four years. Juniors and seniors also have the option of living off-campus, but high rent in the Princeton area encourages almost all students to live in university housing. Undergraduate social life revolves around the residential colleges and a number of coeducational
eating clubs, which students may choose to join in the spring of their sophomore year. Eating clubs, which are not officially affiliated with the university, serve as dining halls and communal spaces for their members and also host social events throughout the academic year.
Princeton's six residential colleges host a variety of social events and activities, guest speakers including visiting professors and other prominent people like Edward Norton, who showed a special sneak preview of Fight Club, and trips. The residential colleges are perhaps best known for their performing arts trips to New York City. Students sign up to take trips to see ballets, operas, Broadway shows, sports events, and other activities.
The eating clubs, located on Prospect Avenue, are co-ed organizations for upperclassmen. Most upperclassmen eat their meals at one of the ten eating clubs. Additionally, the clubs serve as evening and weekend social venues for members and guests.
Princeton hosts two Model United Nations conferences, PMUNC in the fall for high school students and PICSim in the spring for college students. It also hosts the Princeton Invitational Speech and Debate tournament each year at the end of November. Princeton also runs Princeton Model Congress, an event that is held once a year in mid-November. The 4-day conference has high school students from around the country as participants.
Although the school's admissions policy is need blind, Princeton, based on the proportion of students who receive Pell Grants, was ranked as a school with little economic diversity among all national universities ranked by U.S. News & World Report. While Pell figures are widely used as a gauge of the number of low-income undergraduates on a given campus, the rankings article cautions "the proportion of students on Pell Grants isn't a perfect measure of an institution's efforts to achieve economic diversity."
Traditions
Arch Sings - Late-night concerts that feature one or several of Princeton's thirteen undergraduate a cappella groups. The free concerts take place in one of the larger arches on campus. Most are held in Blair Arch or Class of 1879 Arch.
Bonfire - Ceremonial bonfire that takes place in Cannon Green behind Nassau Hall. It is held only if Princeton beats both Harvard University and Yale University at football in the same season. The most recent bonfire was lit November 17, 2006, after a twelve-year drought.
Bicker - Selection process for new-members that is employed by selective eating clubs. Prospective members, or bickerees, are required to perform a variety of activities at the request of current members.
Cane Spree - An athletic competition between freshmen and sophomores that is held in the fall. The event centers on cane wrestling, where a freshman and a sophomore will grapple for control of a cane. This commemorates a historic freshman uprising against a university tradition that only sophomores and upperclassmen were permitted to carry canes, in which freshman attempted to rob sophomores of their canes in defiance of the rule.
The Clapper or 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 has now been removed permanently.
Class Jackets (Beer Jackets) - Each graduating class designs a Class Jacket that features its class year. The artwork is almost invariably dominated by the school colors and tiger motifs.
Communiversity - An annual street fair with performances, arts and crafts, and other activities that attempts to foster interaction between the university community and residents of the Princeton.
Dean's Date - The Tuesday at the end of each semester when all written work is due. This day signals the end of reading period and the beginning of final examinations. Traditionally, undergraduates gather outside McCosh Hall before the 5:00 p.m. deadline to cheer on fellow students who have left their work to the very last minute.
FitzRandolph Gates - At the end of Princeton's graduation ceremony, the new graduates process out through the main gate of the university as a symbol of the fact that they are leaving college. According to tradition, anyone who exits campus through the FitzRandolph Gates before his or her own graduation date will not graduate.
Gilding the Lily - Promotion ceremony at the 25th reunion of a class. Alumnae of the University (aka "Tiger Lilies") enjoy the courting of male classmates, amid song and much drink (see Newman's Day). Traditional chants include: "In Princeton Town the Youth abound, and do young Tigers make. Women return as Gilded Lilies, the men as Frosted Flakes".
Holder Howl - The midnight before Dean's Date, students from Holder Hall and elsewhere gather in the Holder courtyard and take part in a minute-long, communal primal scream to vent frustration from studying with impromptu, late night noise making.
Houseparties - Formal parties that are held simultaneously by all of the eating clubs at the end of the spring term.
Ivy stones -Class memorial stones placed on the exterior walls of academic buildings around the campus.
Lawnparties - Parties that feature live bands that are held simultaneously by all of the eating clubs at the start of classes and at the conclusion of the academic year.
Locomotive - Chant traditionally used by Princetonians to acknowledge a particular year or class. It goes: "Hip... hip... rah rah rah tiger tiger tiger sis sis sis boom boom boom ahh!" Following it are three chants of the class that is being acknowledged. It is commonly heard at Opening Exercises in the fall as alumni and current students welcome the freshman class, as well as the P-rade in the spring at Princeton Reunions.
Newman's Day - 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 has spoken out against the tradition, however.
Nude Olympics - Annual nude and partially nude frolic in Holder Courtyard that takes place during the first snow of the winter. Started in the early 1970s, the Nude Olympics went co-ed in 1979 and gained much notoriety with the American press. For safety reasons, the administration banned the Olympics in 2000 to the chagrin of students.
Prospect 10 - The act of drinking a beer at all ten eating clubs on The Street in a single night.
P-rade - Traditional parade of alumni and their families. They process through campus by class year during Reunions.
Reunions - Massive annual gathering of alumni held the weekend before graduation.
The Phantom of Fine Hall - A former tradition that, before 1993, was the legend of an obscure, shadowy figure that would infest Fine Hall, home to the Mathematics Department, and write complex equations on blackboards. Although mentioned in Rebecca Goldstein's 1980s The Mind-Body Problem, a book about Princeton graduate student life (Penguin, reissued 1993), the legend self-deconstructed in the 1990s when the Phantom turned out to be John Forbes Nash, the inventor of the Nash equilibrium.
Athletics
The Princeton Review, a publication that is unaffiliated with the university, declared Princeton the 10th strongest "jock school" in the nation. It has also been ranked consistently at the top of
Time's "Strongest College Sports Teams" list. Most recently, Princeton was ranked as a top 10 school for athletics by
Sports Illustrated. Princeton won a record 21 conference titles from 2000–2001. By the end of 2004, Princeton had garnered 36 Ivy League conference titles from the 2001–2004 sports seasons.
Princeton's men's and women's squash teams have earned a strong reputation during the past decade. The men have won the Ivy League championship from 2006–2008 and have placed second nationally in five of the past seven championships.
The university's men's lacrosse team has enjoyed significant success since the early 1990s and is widely recognized as a perennial powerhouse in the Division I ranks. The team has won thirteen Ivy League titles (1992, 1993, 1995–2004, 2006) and six national titles (1992, 1994, 1996–1998, 2001).
Princeton is well known for its men's and women's crews, which have won several NCAA and Eastern Sprints titles in recent years. Men's Lightweight Crew has recently won the national and Ivy League championships.
Princeton's basketball team's most notable upset was the 1996 defeat of defending NCAA champion UCLA in the tournament's opening round, Pete Carril's final collegiate victory. In 1989, the team almost became the only #16 seed to win, losing to Georgetown 50–49 after leading 29–21 at the half. During that 29-year span, Pete Carril won thirteen Ivy League championships and received eleven NCAA berths and two NIT bids. Princeton placed third in the 1965 NCAA Tournament and won the NIT championship in 1975. The deliberate "Princeton offense" is a legacy of his coaching career.
From 1992–2001, a nine year span, Princeton's men's basketball team entered the NCAA tournament four times. Notably, the conference has never had an at-large entry in the NCAA tournament. For the last half-century, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania have traditionally battled for men's basketball dominance in the Ivy League; Princeton had its first losing season in 50 years of Ivy League basketball in 2005. Princeton tied the record for fewest points in a Division I game since the 3-point line started in 1986–87 when they scored 21 points in a loss against Monmouth University on December 14, 2005.
Princeton's women's track & field team has also enjoyed great success under Head Coach Peter Farrell.
The Princeton women's volleyball team has won thirteen Ivy League titles and, in 1998, its men's volleyball team became the first non-scholarship school to make the NCAA Final Four in 25 years.
Princeton also boasts a strong women's soccer program. In 2004, the team went to the Final Four in the NCAA tournament. It became the only Ivy League team (men's or women's) to do so in a 64-team tournament.
Princeton Rugby also has a strong presence on campus with over 40 members. The PURFC has won the Ivy League Championships in 2004, 1979 and 1969. Unlike the aforementioned sports, Princeton Rugby is not a recognized varsity sport and athletes are not part of the Princeton Varsity Club.
Football
between Rutgers and Princeton.]] -->
The first
football game played between teams representing American colleges was an unfamiliar ancestor of today's
college football because it was played under
soccer-style London Football Association rules. The game, between Rutgers College (now
Rutgers University) and the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), took place on November 6, 1869 at College Field (now the site of the College Avenue Gymnasium at Rutgers University) in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Rutgers won by a score of six "runs" to Princeton's four. The
1869 game between Rutgers and Princeton is notable because it is the first documented game of any sport called "football" between two American colleges. It is also noteworthy because it occurred two years before a codified rugby game would be played in England. The Princeton/Rutgers game was significantly different from American rules football today but, nonetheless, it was the first inter-collegiate football contest in the United States. Another similar game took place between
Rutgers and
Columbia University in 1870 and a third notable game took place between
Tufts University and
Harvard University in 1875. The popularity of intercollegiate competition in football would spread throughout the country shortly thereafter.
Though Princeton is no longer a part of Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, the Tigers have the most overall national championships of any team in major college football history with 24 consensus and non-consensus national championships dating all the way back to their first one, shared with Rutgers, in 1869.
Since 1901, however, they have 4 consensus national championships, which ranks as tied for 11th all time.
Princeton was also the second school to wear the famed winged football helmet. Michigan State College’s (now Michigan State University) debuted them in 1933, Princeton started wearing them in 1935 and coach Fritz Crisler took them to University of Michigan in 1938.
Songs
Notable among a number of songs commonly played and sung at various events such as
commencement,
convocation, and athletic games is Princeton Cannon Song, the Princeton University
fight song.
Bob Dylan's "Day of The Locusts" was written about his experience of receiving an honorary doctorate from the University. It is a reference to the negative experience he had and it mentions the cicada infestation of Princeton.
"Old Nassau"
"" has been Princeton University's anthem since 1859. Its words were written that year by a freshman,
Harlan Page Peck, and published in the March issue of the
Nassau Literary Review (the oldest student publication at Princeton and also the second oldest undergraduate literary magazine in the country). The words and music appeared together for the first time in
Songs of Old Nassau, published in April 1859. Before the Langlotz tune was written, the song was sung to
Auld Lang Syne's melody, which also fits.
However, Old Nassau does not only refer to the university's anthem. It can also refer to Nassau Hall, the building that was built in 1756 and named after William III of the House of Orange-Nassau. When built, it was the largest college building in North America. It served briefly as the capitol of the United States when the Continental Congress convened there in the summer of 1783. By metonymy, the term can refer to the university as a whole. Finally, it can also refer to a chemical reaction that is dubbed "Old Nassau" because the solution turns orange and then black.
Notable alumni and faculty
Princeton University has been and is home to a renowned group of scholars, scientists, writers, chief justices, and statesmen who include four United States presidents, two of whom graduated from the university.
James Madison and
Woodrow Wilson graduated from Princeton,
Grover Cleveland was not an alumnus but served as a
trustee, Chief Justice
Oliver Ellsworth; for several years while he spent his retirement in the town of Princeton, and
John F. Kennedy spent his freshman fall at the university before leaving due to illness and later transferring to
Harvard College.
508 Princetonia
The asteroid
508 Princetonia is named for Princeton University by
R. S. Dugan, which he found during his time at
Königstuhl Observatory with
Max Wolf in Heidelberg, Germany. He discovered it in 1903 while working on his Ph.D. from
Heidelberg University. The asteroid is located in the main asteroid belt and is about 88 miles in diameter (142 km) according to
IRAS data.
In fiction
Literature
F. Scott Fitzgerald's literary debut,
This Side of Paradise, is a loosely autobiographical story of his years at Princeton. A
Princeton Alumni Weekly on Princeton fiction called it the "ur novel of Princeton life."
In Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, the character Robert Cohn attended Princeton.
Geoffrey Wolff's The Final Club is a coming-of-age book about Nathaniel Auerbach Clay, a fictional member of the Princeton Class of 1960 (Wolff was an actual member of this class). The Final Club is written as homage to F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise and The Great Gatsby.
Princeton plays a large part in the second half of Stephen Fry's Making History, in which the protagonist, Michael Young, attends Princeton.
Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist is partly set at Princeton and the characters Changez and Erica are fictional members of the Princeton Class of 2001. (Hamid was an actual member of the Princeton Class of 1993).
The book
The Rule of Four is set on Princeton's campus and the campus of neighboring Princeton Theological Seminary.
In Her Shoes, a novel by Jennifer Weiner '91: Rose Feller is a Princeton grad. Her younger sister Maggie camps out in a Princeton library.
Watchmen, a graphic novel created by writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colorist John Higgins: Dr. Jon Osterman/Doctor Manhattan, born 1929, attended Princeton University from 1948–1958 and graduated with a Ph.D. in atomic physics.
Admission, a novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz, is largely set at Princeton and features as its protagonist 38-year-old Portia Nathan, an admissions officer at Princeton University. Korelitz worked as a part time reader for Princeton's Office of Admission in 2006 and 2007 and is married to Princeton professor Paul Muldoon.
Humboldt's Gift (winner of the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) features Von Humboldt Fleisher who briefly achieves the position of "Chair in Modern Literature"
Film
Scenes from the 2009 film were filmed at several locations on campus in July and August 2008 as main protagonist Sam Witwicky attends his freshman year at college.
In
A Beautiful Mind, the
Academy Award–winning film about the famous mathematician
John Forbes Nash, the depiction of Nash's initial days at Princeton were filmed on campus. The scene in which Tim Robbins' character gives a lecture was filmed in Room 302 of the Palmer Physics Laboratory, which is part of Frist Campus Center.
The university is one of the destinations of Harold and Kumar, the main characters of
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. Though the characters visit campus locations filled with undergraduate students, the film was actually filmed in the graduate dormitories.
In the film
Risky Business,
Tom Cruise portrays a high school student whose father wishes him to attend Princeton. Joel Goodeson, Cruise's character, is interviewed by a Princeton alum.
Spanglish, a film featuring comedian
Adam Sandler, is presented as an essay on a fictional Princeton application. The film was released in 2004.
In the movie A Cinderella Story, a major part of the storyline revolves around Chad Michael Murray's and Hilary Duff's characters both aiming to attend Princeton to study writing.
Across the Universe's Jude, played by Jim Sturgess, comes to America to find his lost father at the university. While he is there, he encounters Max, played by Joe Anderson, an actual Princeton student.
Bruce Wayne, Christian Bale's character in the film Batman Begins, attends Princeton as an undergraduate. Though he informs butler Alfred Pennyworth that he likes the university "just fine", he drops out and flees to China.
In the Coen Brothers' 2008 film Burn After Reading, John Malkovich plays CIA analyst and Princeton class of 1973 graduate Osborne Cox.
In the Scott Derrickson 2008 remake of the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still, Jennifer Connelly plays the role of Dr. Helen Benson, a professor of astrobiology at Princeton University.
In the movie Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, the main character, Princess Mia, is referred to as a graduate of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
In Stay Alive, a 2006 ghost story/computer-gaming cross-genre movie, the lead female character, Abigail, tells her friends that she got into Princeton, but later admits she was lying.
In The Happening, a 2008 horror movie by M. Night Shyamalan, one of the scenes takes place on Princeton's campus.
She Loves Me Not (1934 film) is a romantic comedy set at Princeton, where Paul Lawton (Bing Crosby) helps cabaret dancer and gangland murder witness Curly Flagg (Miriam Hopkins) hide out on campus disguised as a (male) Princeton student. Much hilarity ensues.
In the movie Toy Story 3 it can be inferred, based on the "Go Tigers" pennant in his room and his Princeton shield screensaver that Andy is going to Princeton.
The main character Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) in the 2010 movie Salt graduated from Princeton University.
Television
On Numb3rs, mathematical genius Charlie Eppes attended Princeton at age 13 for his undergraduate.
On Doogie Howser, M.D., fictional doctor Douglas Howser graduated from Princeton at age 10.
In Weeds, Silas Botwin, the son of the main character, dates Megan, who is accepted to Princeton.
The characters of
House, M.D. work at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. The outside façade of the fictional hospital are represented by exterior shots of the university's Frist Campus Center. Guyot Hall, home to the Geosciences department, is also often visible in the outdoors shots, and so are Fine Hall and the Lewis Library. Four years after the show's first season, fact followed fiction as ground broke on the
University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro.
In the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Carlton Banks' dream school is Princeton University and he eventually attends the university as the series ends.
In Family Ties, "Young Republican" Alex P. Keaton spends the first two seasons of the series preparing to attend Princeton. While visiting for an on-campus interview, Mallory has an emotional crisis. Ultimately, Alex chooses to tend to her rather than complete his interview, thus destroying any possibility of attending Princeton.
In The Beverly Hillbillies, Mrs. Drysdale's son Sonny mentions attending Princeton (and Harvard and Yale), and Harvard and Princeton pennants hang on his wall.
In The Simpsons, Season 8 Episonde 16 "Brother from Another Series," Sideshow Bob cites as evidence of his brother Cecil's jealousy of Bob's success the years he spent training at 'clown college,' to which Cecil replies "I'll thank you not to refer to Princeton that way."
In the primetime drama The West Wing, Sam Seaborn attended Princeton.
In the NBC comedy 30 Rock, Jack Donaghy attended Princeton University as an undergraduate. In Season 4, Episode 4, this is used for comedic effect when Jack says, "I don't have bedbugs, Kenneth, I went to Princeton!"
In Gossip Girl, Blair Waldorf said that the holy trinity among Ivy Leagues Schools' are Harvard, Princeton and Yale. She later referred to Princeton as a "trade school."
In What I Like About You, Henry Gibson attended Princeton.
In the season 4 finale of Desperate Housewives, Julie Mayer, Susan's daughter, is accepted to Princeton and prepares to leave home.
In Mad Men, Season 3 Episode 3 "My Old Kentucky Home," we learn that Paul Kinsey is a member of Princeton's class of 1955 and sang with the Princeton Tigertones.
In 30 Rock, Season 4 Episode 3 (Series No. 61) "Stone Mountain," Tracy sees Kenneth carrying a box of Halloween decorations and says "Orange and Black decorations? Is this Halloween, or Princeton Parents' Weekend? I don't know whether to be scared ... or proud of my cousin?"
On The Cosby Show, Sondra, the eldest daughter, attended Princeton.
In Gilmore Girls, Paris Geller's first boyfriend Jamie is a Princeton student.
See also
Post-secondary education in New Jersey
John C. Green School of Science
References
Further reading
Axtell, James. The Making of Princeton University: From Woodrow Wilson to the Present (2006), 710pp; highly detailed scholarly history
Bragdon, Henry. Woodrow Wilson: The Academic Years (1967)
Kemeny, P. C. Princeton in the Nation's Service: Religious Ideals and Educational Practice, 1868-1928 (1998). 353 pp.
Noll, Mark A. Princeton and the Republic, 1768-1822: The Search for a Christian Enlightenment in the Era of Samuel Stanhope Smith (1989). 340 pp.
Oberdorfer, Don. Princeton University (1995) 248pp; heavily illustrated
Rhinehart Raymond. Princeton University: The Campus Guide (2000), 188pp, guide to architecture
Smith, Richard D. Princeton University (2005) 128pp
Synnott, Marcia Graham. The Half-Opened Door: Discrimination and Admissions at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, 1900-1970 (1979). 310 pp.
Wilson, Woodrow. The Papers of Woodrow Wilson Volume 14-21, ed, by Arthur S. Link et al. (1972-76)
McLachlan, James. Princetonians, 1748-1768: A Biographical Dictionary (1976). 706 pp.
* Harrison, Richard A. Princetonians, 1769-1775: A Biographical Dictionary. Vol. 2. (1981). 585 pp.
* Harrison, Richard A. Princetonians, 1776-1783: A Biographical Dictionary Vol. 3. (1981). 498 pp.
* Woodward, Ruth L. and Craven, Wesley Frank. Princetonians, 1784-1790: A Biographical Dictionary (1991). 618 pp.
* Looney, J. Jefferson and Woodward, Ruth L. Princetonians, 1791-1794: A Biographical Dictionary (1991). 677 pp.
External links
Official website
*
Category:Ivy League
Category:Educational institutions established in the 1740s
Category:1746 establishments
Category:Colonial colleges
Category:Eastern Pennsylvania Rugby Union
Category:Universities and colleges in New Jersey
Category:National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities members
Category:Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools
Category:Association of American Universities
