Princeton University a
private universityPrivate universities are not operated by governments though they may or may not receive funding . Depending on the region, private universities may be subject to government regulation...
located in
PrincetonPrinceton, New Jersey is located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Princeton University has been sited in the town since 1756. Although Princeton is a "college town", there are other important institutions in the area, including the Institute for Advanced Study, Educational Testing...
,
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, and to the east by the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, the Kill Van Kull, Newark Bay, the Arthur Kill, Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Westchester County, New York City, Long Island, and...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The school is one of the eight universities of the
Ivy LeagueThe Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The term is most commonly used to refer to those eight schools considered as a group...
and is considered one of the
Colonial CollegesThe Colonial Colleges are nine institutions of higher education chartered in the American Colonies before the American Revolution . These nine have long been considered together, notably in the survey of their origins in the 1907 The Cambridge History of English and American Literature...
.
Princeton University has traditionally focused on undergraduate education, although it has almost 2,500 graduate students enrolled. A unique blend of research university and
liberal artsLiberal arts are the skills derived from the Classical education curriculum.-Definition:The term liberal arts denotes a curriculum that imparts general knowledge and develops the student’s rational thought and intellectual capabilities, unlike the professional, vocational, technical curricula...
, Princeton does not offer
professional schoolProfessional school may refer to:*Business school*Dental school*Journalism school*Law school*Library school*Medical school*Nursing school*Pharmacy school*Public policy school*Veterinary school...
ing generally, but it does offer professional master's degrees (mostly through the
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International AffairsThe Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school has granted undergraduate A.B. degrees since 1930 and graduate degrees since 1948...
) and
doctoralA doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries represents the highest level of formal study or research in a given field. In some countries it also refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to practice in a specific profession . The best-known example...
programs in the sciences, humanities, and social sciences, as well as engineering.
Founded in 1746 at
Elizabeth, New JerseyElizabeth is a city in Union County, New Jersey, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 120,568, making it New Jersey's fourth largest city . The population of Elizabeth was 126,179 as of the Census Bureau's 2006 estimate...
, as the College of New Jersey, it was moved to Newark in 1747, then to Princeton in 1756 and renamed "Princeton University" in 1896. (The present-day
The College of New JerseyThe College of New Jersey, abbreviated TCNJ, formerly Trenton State College, is a public, coeducational university located in Ewing Township, New Jersey, a northern suburb of Trenton....
in nearby Ewing, New Jersey, is an unrelated institution.)
Princeton was the
fourthThe Colonial Colleges are nine institutions of higher education chartered in the American Colonies before the American Revolution . These nine have long been considered together, notably in the survey of their origins in the 1907 The Cambridge History of English and American Literature...
institution of
higher educationHigher education refers to a level of education that is provided by universities, vocational universities, community colleges, liberal arts colleges, institutes of technology and other collegiate level institutions, such as vocational schools, trade schools and career colleges, that award academic...
in the U.S. to conduct classes. The university, unlike most American universities that were founded at the same time, did not have an official religious affiliation. At one time, it had close ties to
the Presbyterian ChurchPresbyterianism is the religion of a number of different Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, and organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity...
, but today it is
nonsectarianNonsectarian, in its most literal sense, refers to a lack of sectarianism. The term is also more narrowly used to describe secular private educational institutions or other organizations not affiliated with or restricted to a particular religious denomination....
and makes no religious demands of its students. The university has ties with the
Institute for Advanced StudyThe Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is a center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. The Institute is perhaps best known as the academic home of Albert Einstein, John von Neumann, and Kurt Gödel, after their immigration to the United...
,
Princeton Theological SeminaryPrinceton Theological Seminary is a theological seminary of the Presbyterian Church located in the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey in the United States...
, and the
Westminster Choir CollegeWestminster Choir College is a residential college of music located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States.Westminster Choir College educates men and women at the undergraduate and graduate levels for musical careers in music education, voice performance, piano performance, organ performance,...
of
Rider UniversityRider University is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian university located chiefly in Lawrenceville, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States...
.
History
The history of Princeton goes back to its establishment by "
New LightThe First Great Awakening was a period of heightened religious activity, primarily in the United Kingdom and its North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s.-History:...
" Presbyterians; Princeton was originally intended to train Presbyterian ministers. It opened at Elizabeth, New Jersey, under the presidency of
Jonathan DickinsonJonathan Dickinson was a Congregational, later Presbyterian, minister, a leader in the Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s, and a co-founder and first president of the College of New Jersey, which later became Princeton University...
as the College of New Jersey. Its second president was
Aaron Burr, Sr.The Reverend Aaron Burr was a notable divine and educator in colonial America. He was a founder of the College of New Jersey and the father of the third United States Vice President, Aaron Burr , who killed Alexander Hamilton.-Biography:A native of Connecticut, Burr was born in 1716 in present day...
; the third was Jonathan Edwards, all graduates of
YaleRapidMiner is an environment for machine learning and data mining experiments. It allows experiments to be made up of a large number of arbitrarily nestable operators, described in XML files which are created with RapidMiner's graphical user interface...
. In 1756, the college moved to Princeton, New Jersey.
Between the time of the college's move to Princeton in 1756 and the construction of Stanhope Hall in 1803, the college's sole building was
Nassau HallNassau Hall is the oldest building at Princeton University in the borough of Princeton, New Jersey . At the time it was built in 1754, Nassau Hall was the largest building in colonial New Jersey. Designed originally by Robert Smith, the building was subsequently remodeled by notable American...
, named for the Dutch
William III of EnglandWilliam III was a sovereign Prince of Orange by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland, and as William II over Scotland...
of the
House of Orange-NassauThe House of Orange-Nassau , a branch of the European House of Nassau, has played a central role in the political life of the Netherlands — and at times in Europe — since William I of Orange organized the Dutch revolt against Spanish rule, which after the Eighty Years'...
. (A proposal was made to name it for the colonial Governor,
Jonathan BelcherJonathan Belcher was colonial governor of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New Jersey.-Life:Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he attended Harvard University....
, but he declined.) The college also adopted orange as its school color from William III. During the American Revolution, Princeton was occupied by British and American forces on different occasions and, consequently, the college's buildings were heavily damaged. The
Battle of PrincetonThe Battle of Princeton was a battle in which General Washington's revolutionary forces defeated British forces near Princeton, New Jersey....
, fought in a nearby field in January of 1777, proved to be a decisive victory for General
George WashingtonGeorge Washington was the commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War and served as the first President of the United States of America...
and his troops. Two of Princeton's leading citizens signed the
United States Declaration of IndependenceThe United States Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire...
:
Richard StocktonRichard Stockton was an American lawyer, jurist, legislator, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.-Early life:...
and Clergyman
John WitherspoonJohn Witherspoon was a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New Jersey...
, who was later president of the college. During the summer of 1783, the
Continental CongressThe Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that became the governing body of the United States during the American Revolution...
met in Nassau Hall, making Princeton the country's capital for four months. The much-abused landmark survived bombardment with
cannonballRound shot is an obsolete solid projectile without explosive charge, fired from a cannon. As the name implies, round shot is spherical; its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the gun it is fired from.Round shot was made in early times from dressed stone, but by the 17th century, from iron...
s 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 NotmanJohn Notman , a well known American architect, was born in Scotland and educated at the Royal Scottish Academy. Notman worked in the office of William Henry Playfair in Edinburgh prior to emigrating to the United States in 1831. He eventually settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where one of his...
and
John WitherspoonJohn Witherspoon was a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New Jersey...
, the modern Nassau Hall has been much revised and expanded from the original one that was designed by
Robert SmithRobert Smith was a Scottish-born American architect who was based in Philadelphia. Smith's work includes buildings such as Carpenters' Hall, St. Peter's Church, and the steeple on Christ Church—constituted the greater part of the city's early skyline.-Early life:Smith was born in Dalkeith Parish,...
. Over the centuries, its role shifted from an all-purpose building, comprising office,
dormitoryA dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students. In the U.K...
,
libraryA library is a collection of sources, resources, and services, and the structure in which it is housed; it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. In the more traditional sense, a library is a collection of books. It can mean the collection,...
, 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.
In 1812
Princeton Theological SeminaryPrinceton Theological Seminary is a theological seminary of the Presbyterian Church located in the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey in the United States...
was established as a separate institution in the interest of advancing and extending the theological curriculum of the college. The plan met with enthusiastic approval on the part of the College, for they were coming to see that specialized training in theology required more attention than they could give. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church established The Theological Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey in 1812, as the second graduate theological school in the United States (the first being Andover Newton Theological Seminary).
Archibald AlexanderArchibald Alexander was an American Presbyterian theologian and professor at the Princeton Theological Seminary...
, a professor at the college, was its first professor and principal. The Seminary remains an institution of the Presbyterian Church (USA), being the largest of the ten theological seminaries affiliated with the 2.5-million member denomination. The two institutions currently enjoy a close relationship based on common history and shared resources.
James McCoshJames McCosh was a prominent philosopher of the Scottish School of Common Sense.-Biography:McCosh was born of a Covenanting family in Ayrshire, and studied at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, obtaining his M.A. at the latter, at the suggestion of Sir William Hamilton, for an essay on...
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 WilsonThomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States. A leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
, 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 collegeHarvard University and Yale University in the U.S. and Oxford University and Cambridge University have a tradition of pairing their respective residential colleges or Houses with one another. Colleges that are paired are referred to as 'sister colleges,' and have a ceremonial and symbolic...
,
Evelyn College for WomenEvelyn College for Women, often shortened to Evelyn College, was the coordinate women's college of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey between 1887 and 1897. It was the first women's college in the State of New Jersey.-Background:...
, in the town of Princeton on Evelyn and Nassau streets. It was closed after roughly a decade of operation. After abortive discussions with
Sarah Lawrence CollegeSarah Lawrence is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States. It is located in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, north of Manhattan. Sarah Lawrence was founded in 1926 as a women's college and became a coeducational institution in 1968...
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 admission's 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 InnThe Tiger Inn is one of the ten active eating clubs at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. It was founded in 1890, and is one of the five selective clubs where membership is awarded after successful completion of a process called bicker...
's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied.
Campus
The main campus is located within the boundaries of three municipalities:
Borough of PrincetonThe Borough of Princeton is a borough and is one of the two municipalities making up Princeton, New Jersey. It lies in Mercer County, New Jersey, and is completely surrounded by Princeton Township, from which it was formed in 1894...
,
Princeton TownshipSee also: the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey and Princeton, New JerseyPrinceton Township is a township in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States...
, and
West Windsor TownshipWest Windsor Township is a Township in Mercer County, New Jersey, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the township population was 21,907.Princeton Junction is a census-designated place and unincorporated area located within West Windsor Township....
. The James Forrestal Campus is in nearby
Plainsboro TownshipPlainsboro Township is a township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township population was 20,215.Plainsboro was incorporated as a township on May 6, 1919...
. The campuses are situated about one hour from both
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
and
PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia is the largest city in Pennsylvania and the sixth-most-populous city in the United States.In 2008, the population of the city proper was estimated to be over 1.4 million, while the metropolitan area's population of 5.8 million made it the country's fifth-largest...
.
The oldest building on campus is
Nassau HallNassau Hall is the oldest building at Princeton University in the borough of Princeton, New Jersey . At the time it was built in 1754, Nassau Hall was the largest building in colonial New Jersey. Designed originally by Robert Smith, the building was subsequently remodeled by notable American...
, built in 1754, and situated on the northern edge of campus facing Nassau Street. Designed originally by
Robert SmithRobert Smith was a Scottish-born American architect who was based in Philadelphia. Smith's work includes buildings such as Carpenters' Hall, St. Peter's Church, and the steeple on Christ Church—constituted the greater part of the city's early skyline.-Early life:Smith was born in Dalkeith Parish,...
, the building was subsequently remodeled by notable American architects
Benjamin LatrobeBenjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe was a British-born American architect best known for his design of the United States Capitol, as well as his design of the Baltimore Basilica, the first Catholic Cathedral built in the United States...
and
John NotmanJohn Notman , a well known American architect, was born in Scotland and educated at the Royal Scottish Academy. Notman worked in the office of William Henry Playfair in Edinburgh prior to emigrating to the United States in 1831. He eventually settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where one of his...
. 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. 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 CramRalph Adams Cram FAIA, , was a prolific and influential American architect of collegiate and ecclesiastical buildings, often in the Gothic style.-Early life:...
, 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 VenturiRobert Charles Venturi, Jr. is an American architect and founding principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates. Robert Venturi and his wife and partner, Denise Scott Brown, are regarded among the most influential architects of the twentieth century, both through their architecture...
's
Frist Campus CenterFrist Campus Center is a focal point of social life at Princeton University. The campus center is a combination of the former Palmer Physics Lab, and a modern addition completed in 2001. It was endowed with money from the fortune the Frist family Frist Campus Center is a focal point of social life...
,
Rafael Vinoly-Biography:He was born in Montevideo, Uruguay to Román Viñoly Barreto, and Maria Beceiro .He grew up and was educated in Argentina...
's
Carl IcahnCarl Celian Icahn is an American billionaire financier, corporate raider, and private equity investor. In 2008 his net worth was US$14 billion, putting him in an eight way tie for the 46th richest man in the world...
Laboratory, the Hillier Group's Bowen Hall, and
Demetri PorphyriosDemetri Porphyrios is a Greek architect and author who currently practices architecture in London as principal of the firm Porphyrios Associates. In addition to practice and writing, Porphyrios has held a number of teaching positions in the United States, the United Kingdom and Greece. He is...
'
Whitman CollegeWhitman College is one of the six residential colleges at Princeton University, New Jersey, United States. The college is named after Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay, following her $30 million donation to build the college. The structure was designed by architect Demetri Porphyrios...
. Lewis Library, designed by
Frank GehryFrank Owen Gehry, CC is a Canadian Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...
, opened to students in the Fall of 2008.
A variety of sculptures adorn the campus. They include pieces by
Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....
(
Oval with Points, also nicknamed "
NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States and is the only president to resign the office. He was also the 36th Vice President of the United States ....
's Nose"),
Clement MeadmoreClement Meadmore was an Australian-American sculptor known for massive outdoor steel sculptures.-Biography:...
(
Upstart II), and
Alexander CalderAlexander Calder , also known as Sandy Calder, was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing the mobile. In addition to mobile and stabile sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry and jewelry.-Childhood:Born in Lawnton, Pennsylvania, on July...
(
Five Disks: One Empty).
At the southern edge of the campus is
Lake CarnegieLake Carnegie is a reservoir that is formed from a dam on the Millstone River, in the far northeastern corner of Princeton Township, New Jersey. The Delaware and Raritan Canal and its associated tow path are situated along the eastern shore of the lake...
, a man-made lake donated by the steel magnate
Andrew CarnegieAndrew Carnegie was a Scottish industrialist, businessman, entrepreneur, and a major philanthropist....
and used for
crewA crew is a body or a class of people who work at a common activity, generally in a structured or hierarchical organization. A location in which a crew works is called a crewyard or a workyard...
(rowing). It forms the boundary between Princeton Township and West Windsor Township. Beyond the lake and the adjacent
Delaware and Raritan Canal State ParkDelaware and Raritan Canal State Park is a New Jersey state park along the Delaware and Raritan Canal.In 1974, most of the canal system was declared a New Jersey state park. It remains one today, and is used for canoeing, kayaking, and fishing...
, are intramural fields.
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 HallThe American Whig-Cliosophic Society is a political, literary, and debating society at Princeton University and the oldest debate union in the United States...
. Both cannons were buried in response to periodic thefts by
RutgersRutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in the state of New Jersey. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766 and is the eighth-oldest college in the United States...
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 1812The War of 1812, between the United States of America and the British Empire , lasted from 1812 to 1815. It was fought chiefly on the Atlantic Ocean and on the land, coasts and waterways of North America.There were several immediate stated causes for the U.S...
. 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.
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 LegislatureThe New Jersey Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, as defined by the New Jersey Constitution of 1947, the Legislature consists of two houses: the General Assembly and the Senate...
in 1776, was involved in the battle of Princeton in 1777, and was the seat of the
Congress of the ConfederationThe Congress of the Confederation or the United States in Congress Assembled was the governing body of the United States of America from March 1, 1781, to March 4, 1789. It comprised delegates appointed by the legislatures of the states. It was the immediate successor to the Second Continental...
(successor to the
Continental CongressThe Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that became the governing body of the United States during the American Revolution...
) 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 collegeA residential college is an organisational pattern for a division of a university that places academic activity in a community setting of students and faculty, usually at a residence and with shared meals, the college having a degree of autonomy and a federated relationship with the overall...
s, each housing approximately 500 freshmen, sophomores, some juniors and seniors, and a handful of junior and senior
resident advisersA resident assistant , commonly shortened to "RA," is a trained peer leader who supervises those living in a residence hall or group housing facility...
. 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 CollegeWoodrow Wilson College, the first of Princeton University's six residential colleges, was developed in the late 1950s when a group of students formed the Woodrow Wilson Lodge as an alternative to the eating clubs. The Woodrow Wilson Lodge members originally met and dined in Madison Hall, which is...
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.
Rockefeller CollegeJohn D. Rockefeller 3rd College, or "Rocky", is one of six residential colleges at Princeton University. It was founded in 1982, making it the third residential college to be established at Princeton. It is named for John D...
and
Mathey CollegeMathey College is one of six residential colleges at Princeton University. Located in the Northwest corner of the Princeton Campus, its dormitories and other buildings are predominantly in the Collegiate Gothic style...
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 CollegeButler College is one of the six residential colleges of Princeton University, founded in 1983. It houses about 500 freshmen and sophomores, 100 juniors and seniors, 10 Resident Graduate Students, a faculty member in residence, as well as a small number of upperclass Residential College Advisors. ...
, 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 its edgy modernist design, the dormitories on the Butler Quad were demolished in 2007. It 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
municipalityA municipality is an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory and its population and commonly denotes a city, town, or village, or a small grouping of them. A municipality is typically governed by a mayor and a city council or municipal council.The notion of municipality...
, Princeton Township, from the rest of the main campus, which is in
Princeton BoroughThe Borough of Princeton is a borough and is one of the two municipalities making up Princeton, New Jersey. It lies in Mercer County, New Jersey, and is completely surrounded by Princeton Township, from which it was formed in 1894...
.
In 2003, Princeton broke ground for a sixth college that is named
Whitman CollegeWhitman College is one of the six residential colleges at Princeton University, New Jersey, United States. The college is named after Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay, following her $30 million donation to build the college. The structure was designed by architect Demetri Porphyrios...
after its principal sponsor,
Meg WhitmanMargaret Cushing "Meg" Whitman was President and Chief Executive Officer of eBay from March 1998 to March 2008, when she stepped down from her role. In 2006 Whitman endorsed Governor Mitt Romney for president and served in his campaign...
, the former CEO of
eBayeBay Inc. is an American Internet company that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. A majority of the sales take place through a set-time auction format, but subsequent methods include...
and a member of the Princeton Class of 1977. The new dormitories were constructed in the neo-Gothic architectural style and were designed by architect
Demetri PorphyriosDemetri Porphyrios is a Greek architect and author who currently practices architecture in London as principal of the firm Porphyrios Associates. In addition to practice and writing, Porphyrios has held a number of teaching positions in the United States, the United Kingdom and Greece. He is...
. 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
YaleYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
's present system, which features four-year colleges. Lacking the support of the
trusteesThe Trustees of Princeton University is a 40 member board responsible for managing Princeton University's endowment, real estate, instructional programs, and admission...
, 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 HarknessEdward Stephen Harkness was an American philanthropist. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, one of four sons to Stephen V. Harkness, a harness-maker who invested with John D. Rockefeller....
, 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. The Graduate College is composed of a large Collegiate Gothic section crowned by
Cleveland TowerCleveland Tower, designed by Ralph Adams Cram, is a prominent landmark of Princeton University. It is one of the defining architectural features of the Collegiate Gothic Graduate College. The tower was built in 1913 as a memorial to former U.S. President Grover Cleveland, who also served as a...
, a local landmark that also houses a world-class carillon. The attached New Graduate College departs in its design from Collegiate Gothic; it is reminiscent of Butler College, the newest of the five pre-Whitman residential colleges.
McCarter Theatre
The Tony-award-winning
McCarter TheatreMcCarter Theatre is a not-for-profit, professional company on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. It is one of the most active cultural centers in the nation, offering over 200 performances of theater, dance, music and special events each year...
was built by the
Princeton Triangle ClubThe Princeton Triangle Club is a theater troupe at Princeton University. Founded in 1891, it is the third-oldest touring collegiate musical-comedy troupe in the United States, and the only co-ed collegiate troupe that takes an original student-written musical on a national tour every year...
, 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 fall musicals in McCarter. McCarter is also recognized as one of the leading regional theaters in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Art Museum
The
Princeton University Art MuseumThe Princeton University Art Museum is Princeton University's gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1882, it now houses over 72,000 works of art that range from antiquity to the contemporary period...
was established 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 its primary function.
Numbering nearly 60,000 objects, the collections range from ancient to contemporary art and concentrate geographically on the Mediterranean regions,
Western EuropeWestern Europe is the collection of countries in the westernmost region of Europe, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a cultural entity—the region lying west of Central Europe...
,
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, the United States, and
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish, Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,501 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
. There is a collection of
GreekAncient Greece is the civilisation belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the...
and
RomanAncient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
antiquitiesAn artifact or artefact is any object made or modified by a human. In archaeology, an artifact is an object recovered by some archaeological endeavor, which may have a cultural interest. Examples include stone tools such as projectile points, pottery vessels, metal objects such as buttons or guns,...
, including
ceramicsIn art history, ceramics and ceramic art mean art objects such as figures, tiles, and tableware made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery, so excluding glass and also mosaic, normally made from glass tesserae...
, marbles, bronzes, and Roman mosaics from faculty excavations in
AntiochAntioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River...
. Medieval Europe is represented by sculpture, metalwork, and stained glass. The collection of Western European paintings includes examples from the early
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
through the nineteenth century and features a growing collection of twentieth-century and contemporary art.
One of the best features of the museums is its collection of Chinese art, with important holdings in bronzes, tomb figurines, painting, and
calligraphyCalligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of writing . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
. Its collection of
pre-ColumbianThe Pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic to European colonization during the...
art includes examples of Mayan art. The museum has collections of old master prints and drawings and a comprehensive collection of 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. They including works by such modern masters as
Alexander CalderAlexander Calder , also known as Sandy Calder, was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing the mobile. In addition to mobile and stabile sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry and jewelry.-Childhood:Born in Lawnton, Pennsylvania, on July...
,
Jacques LipchitzJacques Lipchitz was a Cubist sculptor.Jacques Lipchitz was born Chaim Jacob Lipchitz, son of a Jewish building contractor in Druskininkai, Lithuania, then within the Russian Empire...
, Henry Moore and
Pablo PicassoPablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso was a Spanish painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. Commonly known simply as Picasso, he is one of the most recognized figures in 20th-century art...
. The Putnam Collection is overseen by the Museum, but it is exhibited outdoors around campus.
University Chapel
Princeton University ChapelConstruction of the Princeton University Chapel began in 1924, and the structure was completed in 1928, at a cost of $2.4 million. It is the second-largest collegiate chapel in the United States , and the third-largest in the world...
is the third-largest college chapel in the world, behind those of
Valparaiso UniversityValparaiso University, known colloquially as Valpo, is a regionally accredited private university located in the city of Valparaiso in the U.S. state of Indiana. Founded in 1859, it consists of five undergraduate colleges, a graduate school, and a law school...
and
King's College, CambridgeKing's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.Founded in 1441, the college's formal name is "The King's College of Our Lady and St. Nicholas in Cambridge". It is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the university.- History :King's was founded in 1441 by...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Known for its
gothic architectureGothic architecture is a style of architecture which flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance 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,
cruciformCruciform means having the shape of a cross.- Cruciform Plan :This is a common description of Christian churches. In Early Christian, Byzantine and other Eastern Orthodox forms of church architecture this is more likely to mean a tetraconch plan, a Greek cross, with arms of equal length or, later,...
church has a collegiate Gothic style and it is made largely from
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a state located in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States...
sandstoneSandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any color, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow,...
and
IndianaIndiana is a U.S. state, the 19
th admitted to the Union. It is located in the Great Lakes region, and with approximately 6.3 million residents, is ranked 16
th in population and 17
th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38
th in land area, and is the...
limestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geologic record...
. It seats two thousand people, many in pews made from wood salvaged from
Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
-era gun carriages. Seats in the chancel are made from oak from
Sherwood ForestSherwood Forest is a Royal Forest in Nottinghamshire, England, that is famous through its historical association with the legend of Robin Hood. Continuously forested since the end of the Ice Age, Sherwood is today reduced to a 423 square-kilometre remnant surrounding the village of Edwinstowe, the...
. The sixteenth century pulpit was brought from France and the primary
pipe organThe pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and loudness throughout the keyboard compass...
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.
Sustainability
Published in 2008, Princeton's Sustainability Report 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. 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
billion1,000,000,000 is the natural number following 999,999,999 and preceding 1,000,000,001.In scientific notation, it is written as 10
9....
, 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
millionOne million or one thousand thousand, is the natural number following 999,999 and preceding 1,000,001. The name is derived from Italian, where mille was 1,000, and 1,000,000 became milione, "a large thousand"....
). 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 MonetClaude Monet also known as Oscar Claude Monet or Claude Oscar Monet
[ giverny.org...]
,
Vincent van GoghVincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter whose work had a far reaching influence on 20th century art for its vivid colors and emotional impact. He suffered from anxiety and increasingly frequent bouts of mental illness throughout his life, and died largely unknown, at the age...
,
Jackson PollockPaul Jackson Pollock was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality and struggled with alcoholism all of...
, and
Andy WarholAndrew Warhola , more commonly known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
among other prominent artists.
Academics
Undergraduate students at Princeton benefit from the resources of a world-class research institution that is simultaneously dedicated to undergraduate teaching. Princeton
facultyA faculty is a division within a university comprising one subject area, or a number of related subject areas...
have a reputation for balancing excellence in their respective fields with a dedication to their students as classroom instructors and as advisors of independent work.
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 ArtsBachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
(A.B.) or the
Bachelor of ScienceA Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years ....
in engineering (B.S.E.).
The
Graduate SchoolA graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
offers advanced degrees spanning the
humanitiesThe humanities are academic disciplines which study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytic, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural and social sciences....
,
social sciencesThe social sciences are the fields of scientific knowledge and academic scholarship that study social groups and, more generally, human society. The social sciences initially were constituted of five fields: Jurisprudence and Amendment of the Law; Education; Health; Economy and Trade; Art...
, natural sciences, and
engineeringEngineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or inventions.The American Engineers' Council...
. Doctoral education is available in all disciplines. It emphasizes original and independent scholarship whereas master's degree programs in
architectureFor a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures for human shelter or use....
,
engineeringEngineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or inventions.The American Engineers' Council...
,
financeFinance is the science of funds management. The general areas of finance are business finance, personal finance, and public finance. Finance includes saving money and often includes lending money. The field of finance deals with the concepts of time, money and risk and how they are interrelated...
, 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 artsLiberal arts are the skills derived from the Classical education curriculum.-Definition:The term liberal arts denotes a curriculum that imparts general knowledge and develops the student’s rational thought and intellectual capabilities, unlike the professional, vocational, technical curricula...
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. Students write and sign the honor pledge, "I pledge my honor that I have not violated the Honor Code during this examination," on every in-class exam. (The form of the pledge was changed slightly in 1980; it formerly read, "I pledge my honor that during this examination, I have neither given nor received assistance.") The Code carries a second obligation: Upon matriculation, every student pledges to report any suspected cheating to the all-student Honor Committee. Because of this code, students take all tests unsupervised by faculty members or teaching assistants. 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
plagiarizedPlagiarism, as defined in the 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, is the "use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work." Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is considered...
their work ("This paper represents my own work in accordance with University regulations.").
Graduate
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
engineeringEngineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or inventions.The American Engineers' Council...
,
architectureFor a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures for human shelter or use....
, and
financeFinance is the science of funds management. The general areas of finance are business finance, personal finance, and public finance. Finance includes saving money and often includes lending money. The field of finance deals with the concepts of time, money and risk and how they are interrelated...
, it has no
medical schoolA medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine.In addition to a medical degree program, some medical schools offer programs leading to a Master's Degree, Doctor of Philosophy , or other post-secondary education. Medical schools can also...
,
law schoolA law school is an institution specializing in legal education.- United States:...
, or
business schoolA business school is a university-level institution that confers degrees in Business Administration. It teaches topics such as accounting, administration, finance, information systems, marketing, organizational behavior, public relations, strategy, human resource management, and quantitative...
like other research universities. The university's most famous professional school is the
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International AffairsThe Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school has granted undergraduate A.B. degrees since 1930 and graduate degrees since 1948...
, founded in 1930 as the School of Public and International Affairs and renamed in 1948 after university president (and US President)
Woodrow WilsonThomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States. A leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
.
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 homiliesThe Blickling Homilies are the second largest collection of anonymous homilies written in Old English. The Blickling Homilies are written in prose and said to have been written down by possibly two different scribes before the end of the tenth century. This might be one of the oldest collection of...
. 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 9.79% of undergraduate applicants in 2009. 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 DecisionEarly decision is a common early admission policy used in college admissions in the United States for admitting freshmen to undergraduate programs. It is used to indicate to the University or College that the candidate considers that institution to be his or her top choice...
program was effectively ended. In 2001, expanding on earlier reforms, Princeton was the first university to eliminate loans for all students who qualify for
aidAid is a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another, given at least partly with the objective of benefiting the recipient country.It may have other functions as well: it may be given as a signal of diplomatic approval, or to...
.
U.S. News & World ReportU.S. News & World Report is an American newsmagazine published in Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek, it was for many years a leading news weekly, although it focused more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
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 aidStudent financial aid refers to funding intended to help students pay educational expenses including tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, etc. for education at a college, university, or private school. General governmental funding for public education is not called financial aid,...
. The Office of
Financial AidStudent financial aid refers to funding intended to help students pay educational expenses including tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, etc. for education at a college, university, or private school. General governmental funding for public education is not called 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
From 2001 to 2008, Princeton University was ranked first among national universities by
U.S. News & World ReportU.S. News & World Report is an American newsmagazine published in Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek, it was for many years a leading news weekly, although it focused more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
(USNWR). After one year at second place in 2009, Princeton returned to the number one spot in 2010, sharing that honor with Harvard University. It has been ranked eighth among world universities by
Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityShanghai Jiao Tong University , located in Shanghai, is one of the oldest and most influential universities in China...
, fifth among top 50 for Natural Sciences by THES, and 12th among world universities by
THES - QS World University RankingsTimes Higher Education-QS World University Rankings is an annual publication that ranks the "Top 200 World Universities", and is published by Times Higher Education and Quacquarelli Symonds . The full listings feature on the Times Higher Education website and appear later on the QS website...
. This last source also ranked the university third in North America, behind Harvard and Yale.
In the "America's Best Colleges" rankings by
ForbesForbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, Forbes magazine, is published fortnightly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published fortnightly, and Business Week...
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 considered among the best in the United States and have been highly ranked. 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 Reviews 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 PsychologyThe Princeton University Department of Psychology, located in Green Hall, is an academic department of Princeton University on the corner of Washington St. and William St. in Princeton, New Jersey. For over a century, the department has been among the foremost psychology departments in the country...
has been ranked fifth in the nation and its individual graduate programs have received high national rankings as well. The
behavioral neuroscienceBehavioral neuroscience, also known as biological psychology, biopsychology, or psychobiology is the application of the principles of biology, in particular neurobiology, to the study of mental processes and behavior in human and non-human animals...
program has been ranked sixth and the
social psychologySocial psychology is a type of social science that is concerned with individuals' thoughts, feelings and behavior as they affect or are affected by other individuals...
program has been ranked seventh. The Department of History is currently ranked second, relinquishing the 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 (
LINPACKLINPACK is a software library for performing numerical linear algebra on digital computers. It was written in Fortran by Jack Dongarra, Jim Bunch, Cleve Moler, and Gilbert Stewart, and was intended for use on supercomputers in the 1970s and early 1980s...
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 EnergyThe United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
).
Princeton University was awarded a "B" for its sustainability initiatives in the College Sustainability Report Card 2009, published annually by the Sustainable Endowments Institute.
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 such as
Edward NortonEdward Harrison Norton is an American film actor, screenwriter and director. In 1996, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. A year later, his lead role as a reformed white power skinhead in American History...
, who showed a special sneak preview of
Fight ClubFight Club is a 1999 American film adapted from the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was directed by David Fincher and stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton plays the unnamed protagonist, an "everyman" who is discontented with his white-collar...
, and trips. The residential colleges are best known for their performing arts trips to New York City. Students sign up to take trips to see ballets, operas,
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
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 NationsModel United Nations is an academic simulation of the United Nations that aims to educate participants about civics, effective communication, globalization and multilateral diplomacy. In standard Model UN, students take on roles as diplomats and participate in a simulated session of an...
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 cappellaA cappella music is vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato style...
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 UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
and Yale UniversityYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
at footballAmerican football, known in the United States and Canada simply as football, and often as Gridiron or Tackle football outside North America, is a competitive team sport known for combining strategy with physical play. The objective of the game is to score points by advancing the ball into the...
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 around 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 tigerThe tiger is a member of the Felidae family; the largest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera. Native to much of eastern and southern Asia, the tiger is an apex predator and an obligate carnivore...
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 bah!" 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 the reunion ceremonies.
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 NewmanPaul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, and auto racing enthusiast...
: '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-United States:*Prospect Avenue , a street that runs close to U.S. Route 71*Prospect Avenue, Hartford, Connecticut, also known as "Governor's Row", houses the Connecticut Executive Residence and runs through the city's West End...
in a single night.
P-rade - Traditional parade of alumni and their families. They process through campus by class year during ReunionsEvery year on the weekend before Commencement, Princeton University holds the most well-attended college reunion in the world. Known simply as "Reunions", this event brings back to campus upwards of 20,000 alumni, and at least that many guests, for a four-day celebration featuring large outdoor...
.
ReunionsEvery year on the weekend before Commencement, Princeton University holds the most well-attended college reunion in the world. Known simply as "Reunions", this event brings back to campus upwards of 20,000 alumni, and at least that many guests, for a four-day celebration featuring large outdoor...
- Annual gathering of alumni that is 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 GoldsteinRebecca Goldstein is an American novelist and professor of philosophy. She has written five novels, a number of short stories and essays, and biographical studies of mathematician Kurt Gödel and philosopher Baruch Spinoza.-Life and career:...
'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 NashJohn Forbes Nash Jr., Ph.D. is an American mathematician whose works in game theory, differential geometry, and partial differential equations have provided insight into the forces that govern chance and events inside complex systems in daily life...
, the inventor of the Nash equilibriumIn game theory, Nash equilibrium is a solution concept of a game involving two or more players, in which each player is assumed to know the equilibrium strategies of the other players, and no player has anything to gain by changing only his or her own strategy unilaterally...
. The former Phantom, by then also haunting the computation center where, courtesy of handlers in the Mathematics Department, he was a sacred monster with a guest account who shared the 1994 Nobel Prize and is now a recognized member of the University community. (Unlike the book, the film version of A Beautiful Mind does not attempt to be factual; its screenwriter called it "a stab at the truth... but not by way of the facts.")
Athletics
The Princeton ReviewThe Princeton Review is an American educational preparation company. It offers test preparation for standardized aptitude tests such as the SAT and advice regarding college admissions. Approximately 70% of the company's revenue comes from test preparation. The company was founded in 1981 by John...
, 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 TIMETime is an American newsmagazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong. As of 2009, Time no longer publishes a Canadian advertiser edition...
s "Strongest College Sports Teams" list. Most recently, Princeton was ranked as a top 10 school for athletics by
Sports IllustratedSports Illustrated is an American sports magazine owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. It has over 3 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men, 19% of the adult males in the United States. It was the first magazine with circulation over one...
.
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.
The university's field
field hockeyField hockey is a team sport in which a team of players attempt to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking the ball with hockey sticks into the opposing team's goal. Its official name is simply hockey, and this is the common name for it in many countries...
team has taken every field hockey conference title since 1994.
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
lacrosseLacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin that is played using a small solid rubber ball and a long-handled racquet called a crosse or lacrosse stick. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose netting that is designed to hold the lacrosse ball...
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 LeagueThe Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The term is most commonly used to refer to those eight schools considered as a group...
titles (1992, 1993, 1995–2004, 2006) and six
national titlesThe annual NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship tournament determines the top Men's Field Lacrosse team in the NCAA Division I, Division II, and Division III....
(1992, 1994, 1996–1998, 2001).
Princeton is well known for its men's and women's crews, which have won several
NCAAThe National Collegiate Athletic Association is a voluntary association of about 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada...
and Eastern Sprints titles in recent years.
Princeton's
basketballCollege basketball most often refers to the American basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Basketball in the NCAA is divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III.-Division I:There are 347 schools in 32...
team is perhaps the best known team within the Ivy League. It is nicknamed the "perennial giant killer," a nickname that it acquired during
Pete CarrilPeter J. "Pete" Carril is a former professional and collegiate basketball coach....
's coaching career from 1967–1996. Its most notable upset was the 1996 defeat of defending NCAA champion UCLA in the tournament's opening round, 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 offenseThe Princeton offense is an offensive basketball strategy which emphasizes constant motion, passing, back-door cuts, and disciplined teamwork. It was used and perfected at Princeton University by Pete Carril, though its roots may be traced back to Franklin “Cappy” Cappon, who coached at Princeton...
" is a legacy of his coaching career. It is employed by a number of other collegiate basketball teams.
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 PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and is one of several institutions that claims to have been the first university in America...
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 UniversityMonmouth University is a private university located in West Long Branch, New Jersey.Founded in 1933 as Monmouth Junior College, it became Monmouth College in 1956, and later Monmouth University in 1995 after receiving its charter....
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.
Football
The first
footballFootball is the name of several similar team sports, all of which involve kicking a ball with the foot in an attempt to score a goal. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer"...
game played between teams representing American colleges was an unfamiliar ancestor of today's
college footballCollege football is American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies. It was the venue through which American football first gained popularity in the United States...
because it was played under soccer-style London Football Association rules. The game, between Rutgers College (now
Rutgers UniversityRutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in the state of New Jersey. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766 and is the eighth-oldest college in the United States...
) 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 UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
in 1870 and a third notable game took place between
Tufts UniversityTufts University is a private research university in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The university is home to the nation's oldest graduate school of international relations, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy....
and
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
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 IDivision I is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States....
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's football helmets are also the basis for
Michigan Wolverines footballThe Michigan Wolverines football program represents the University of Michigan. They have the most all-time wins and the highest winning percentage in NCAA Division I-A history...
's famed winged helmets, as introduced by
Fritz CrislerHerbert Orin "Fritz" Crisler was a head football coach, best known for his tenure at the University of Michigan from 1938 to 1947. He also coached at the University of Minnesota and Princeton University...
, the coach at Princeton before he was hired as the coach of The University of Michigan.
Songs
Notable among a number of songs commonly played and sung at various events such as
commencementGraduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become Graduates. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as Graduands. The date of graduation is often called degree day. The graduation itself is also...
,
convocationA Convocation is a group of people formally assembled for a special purpose.In some Universities for example, the term "convocation" refers specifically to the entirety of the alumni of a college which function as one of the university's representative bodies...
, and athletic games is Princeton Cannon Song, the Princeton University
fight songA fight song is primarily an American and Canadian sports term, referring to a song associated with a team. In both professional and amateur sports, fight songs are a popular way for fans to cheer for their team...
.
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"
"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"Auld Lang Syne" is a Scottish poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to the tune of a traditional folk song...
'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 IIIWilliam III was a sovereign Prince of Orange by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland, and as William II over Scotland...
of the
House of Orange-NassauThe House of Orange-Nassau , a branch of the European House of Nassau, has played a central role in the political life of the Netherlands — and at times in Europe — since William I of Orange organized the Dutch revolt against Spanish rule, which after the Eighty Years'...
. 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
metonymyMetonymy is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept. It comes from the , , "a change of name", from , , "after, beyond" and , , a suffix used to name figures of...
, the term can refer to the university as a whole. Finally, it can also refer to a
chemical reactionA chemical reaction is a process that leads to the transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. They are studied by chemists under a field of science called chemistry. Chemical reactions can be either spontaneous, requiring no input of energy, or non-spontaneous, often coming about...
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 MadisonJames Madison was an American politician and political philosopher who served as the fourth President of the United States , and was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States....
and
Woodrow WilsonThomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States. A leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
graduated from Princeton,
Grover ClevelandStephen Grover Cleveland was both the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. Cleveland is the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
was not an alumnus but served as a
trusteeThe Trustees of Princeton University is a 40 member board responsible for managing Princeton University's endowment, real estate, instructional programs, and admission...
, Chief Justice
Oliver EllsworthOliver Ellsworth , an American lawyer and politician, was a revolutionary against British rule, a drafter of the United States Constitution, and third Chief Justice of the United States...
; for several years while he spent his retirement in the town of Princeton, and
John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
spent his freshman fall at the university before leaving due to illness and later transferring to
Harvard CollegeHarvard College is one of two undergraduate degree granting schools, and the oldest school, of Harvard University, a private university in the United States founded in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature...
. Additionally, First Lady
Michelle ObamaMichelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is the wife of the forty-fourth President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States....
graduated from Princeton.
Literature
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are evocative of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost Generation" of the Twenties...
's literary debut, This Side of ParadiseThis Side of Paradise is the debut novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Published in 1920, and taking its title from a line of the Rupert Brooke poem Tiare Tahiti, the book examines the lives and morality of post-World War I youth...
, 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
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American writer and journalist. He was part of the 1920s expatriate community in Paris, and one of the veterans of World War I later known as "the Lost Generation." He received the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for The Old Man and the Sea, and the Nobel Prize in Literature...
's The Sun Also RisesThe Sun Also Rises is the first major novel by Ernest Hemingway. Published in 1926, the plot centers on a group of expatriate Americans in Europe during the 1920s...
, the character Robert Cohn attended Princeton.
- Geoffrey Wolff
Geoffrey Wolff is an American author and professor emeritus of English at the University of California, Irvine, where he directed the university's acclaimed M.F.A creative writing program until 2006.His brother is fellow author Tobias 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 GatsbyThe Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published on April 10, 1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City during the summer of 1922 and is a critique of the American Dream....
.
- Princeton plays a large part in the second half of Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is a British actor, writer, comedian, author, television presenter and film director. With Hugh Laurie, as the comedy double act Fry and Laurie, he co-wrote and co-starred in A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and the duo also played the title roles in Jeeves and Wooster...
's Making History, in which the protagonist, Michael Young, attends Princeton.
- Mohsin Hamid
Mohsin Hamid is a Pakistani author best known for his novels Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist .-Biography:...
's The Reluctant FundamentalistThe Reluctant Fundamentalist is a novel by Mohsin Hamid that was published in 2007. The novel takes place during the course of a single evening in an outdoor Lahore cafe, where a bearded Pakistani man called Changez tells a nervous American stranger about his love affair with, and eventual...
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
In Her Shoes is a work of Jewish American literature by Jennifer Weiner. It tells the story of two sisters and their estranged grandmother. Considered a work of Chick Lit, the novel was a New York Times best seller.-Plot summary:...
, a novel by Jennifer WeinerJennifer Weiner is a Jewish American author and former journalist.-Background and career:Weiner was born in DeRidder, Louisiana, where her father was stationed as an army physician. She eventually moved to in Simsbury, Connecticut, where she spent most of her childhood...
'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
Paul Muldoon is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet from County Armagh, Northern Ireland as well as an educator and academic at Princeton University.-Life and work:...
.
- Humboldt's Gift
Humboldt's Gift is a 1975 novel by Saul Bellow, which won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and contributed to Bellow's winning the Nobel Prize in Literature the same year....
(winner of the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for FictionThe Pulitzer Prize for Fiction has been awarded since 1948 for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. It replaced the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel.* 1948: Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener...
) features Von Humboldt Fleisher who briefly achieves the position of "Chair in Modern Literature"
Film
- Scenes from the 2009 film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is an American science fiction action film released on June 19, 2009 in the United Kingdom and June 24, 2009 in North America, and was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on October 20, 2009. It is the sequel to 2007's Transformers and the second film in the live action...
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
A Beautiful Mind may refer to:* A Beautiful Mind , about the life of John Forbes Nash, Jr.* A Beautiful Mind , the film adaptation of the same title* A Beautiful Mind , the associated soundtrack album-See also:...
, the Academy Award-winning film about the famous mathematician John Forbes NashJohn Forbes Nash Jr., Ph.D. is an American mathematician whose works in game theory, differential geometry, and partial differential equations have provided insight into the forces that govern chance and events inside complex systems in daily life...
, the depiction of Nash's initial days at Princeton were filmed on campus. Although the film is a fictionalized biography of his real life, Nash did receive his doctorate from Princeton and is currently a Senior Research Mathematician at the university's mathematics department.
- The movie I.Q.
I.Q. is a 1994 romantic comedy film directed by Fred Schepisi, starring Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan, and Walter Matthau. The original music score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith.-Plot details:...
, which stars Meg RyanMargaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra , professionally known as Meg Ryan, is an American film actress whose lead roles in five 1990s romantic comedies - When Harry Met Sally..., Sleepless in Seattle, French Kiss, City of Angels and You've Got Mail - grossed over $870 million worldwide.-Early years:Ryan was...
and Tim RobbinsTimothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
with Walter MatthauWalter John Matthau was an American actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon, as well as his role as Coach Buttermaker in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears...
as Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a theoretical physicist. His many contributions to physics include the special and general theories of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the first post-Newtonian expansion, explaining the perihelion advance of Mercury, prediction of the deflection of...
, takes place in Princeton. 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
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle is a 2004 stoner comedy film. The plot revolves around the two pot-smoking title characters, who decide to go to the fast food restaurant White Castle after smoking marijuana, but when they cannot find the restaurant, they have a series of comical...
. Though the characters visit campus locations filled with undergraduate students, the film was actually filmed in the graduate dormitories.
- In the film Risky Business
Risky Business is a 1983 comedy-drama film written by Paul Brickman in his directorial debut. It is best known for being the film that launched Tom Cruise to stardom.The film also stars Rebecca De Mornay as Lana and Joe Pantoliano as Guido...
, Tom CruiseThomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known by his screen name of Tom Cruise, is an American actor and film producer. Forbes magazine ranked him as the world's most powerful celebrity in 2006. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and won three Golden Globe Awards...
portrays a high school student whose father wishes him to attend Princeton. Joel Goodeson, Cruise's character, is interviewed by a Princeton alum.
- Spanglish
Spanglish is a 2004 American comedy-drama film written and directed by James L. Brooks, and starring Adam Sandler, Paz Vega, and Téa Leoni...
, a film featuring comedian Adam SandlerAdam Richard Sandler is an American actor, comedian, musician, screenwriter and film producer. He is the founder of Happy Madison Productions, a film production company that also developed the television series Rules of Engagement.After becoming a Saturday Night Live cast member, he went on to...
, is presented as an essay on a fictional Princeton application. The film was released in 2004.
- In the movie A Cinderella Story
A Cinderella Story is a teen romantic comedy film starring Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray written by Leigh Dunlap. A modern-day take on the classic story of Cinderella, the plot involves a lost cell phone, rather than the traditional glass slipper. Directed by Mark Rosman, the film also...
, 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
Across the Universe is a American musical film directed by Julie Taymor, produced by Revolution Studios, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It was released in the United States on October 12, 2007. The script is based on an original story credited to Taymor, Dick Clement, and Ian La Frenais...
s Jude, played by Jim SturgessJames Anthony "Jim" Sturgess is an English actor whose breakout role was Jude in 2007's Across the Universe.-Early life:...
, comes to America to find his lost father at the university. While he is there, he encounters Max, played by Joe AndersonJoe Anderson is a British actor known for his performances in Across the Universe, Control, and The Ruins.-Personal life:...
, an actual Princeton student.
- Bruce Wayne, Christian Bale
Christian Charles Philip Bale is an English actor. In addition to starring roles in big budget Hollywood films, he has long been heavily involved in films produced by independent producers and art houses....
's character in the film Batman BeginsBatman Begins is a superhero film based on the fictional DC Comics character Batman, directed by Christopher Nolan. It stars Christian Bale as Batman, along with Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Ken Watanabe, Tom Wilkinson, and Rutger Hauer...
, 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
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers. For more than twenty years, the pair have written and directed numerous successful films, ranging from screwball comedies to hardboiled thrillers Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, known together...
' 2008 film Burn After ReadingBurn After Reading is a American black comedy film written, produced and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film stars George Clooney, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Richard Jenkins, and Brad Pitt. It was released in the United States on September 12, 2008, and it was...
, John MalkovichJohn Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer and director. Over the last 25 years, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures...
plays CIA analyst and Princeton class of 1973 graduate Osborne Cox.
- In the Scott Derrickson
Scott Derrickson is a screenwriter, producer, and director.- Biography :Derrickson has co-written and directed the film The Exorcism Of Emily Rose, which was loosely based on a true story about Anneliese Michel....
2008 remake of the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still, Jennifer ConnellyJennifer Lynn Connelly is an American film actress and former child model. Although starring as early as a teenager in films such as Once Upon a Time in America, Labyrinth and Career Opportunities, she gained critical acclaim following her work in the 2000 drama Requiem for a Dream, and the 2001...
plays the role of Dr. Helen Benson, a professor of astrobiologyAstrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe...
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.
Television
- On Numb3rs
Numb3rs is an American television drama, which premiered on January 23, 2005 on CBS. The series was created by Nicolas Falacci and Cheryl Heuton, and follows FBI Special Agent Don Eppes and his mathematical genius brother, Charlie Eppes , who helps Don solve crimes for the FBI...
, mathematical genius Charlie EppesCharles Edward "Charlie" Eppes is a fictional character and protagonist in the CBS crime drama Numb3rs.Dr. Charles Edward Eppes is portrayed as a young mathematical genius and professor of applied mathematics at the fictional California Institute of Science, CalSci Charles Edward "Charlie" Eppes...
attended Princeton at age 13 for his undergraduate.
- In Weeds
Weeds is an American comedy-drama television series created by Jenji Kohan, produced by Lionsgate Television for the Showtime network.The plot revolves around a widowed housewife from an affluent California suburb who becomes her neighborhood's marijuana dealer to make ends meet...
, 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.
- 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
Family Ties is a television sitcom that aired on NBC for seven seasons, from 1982 to 1989. The sitcom reflected the move in the United States from the cultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s. This was particularly expressed through the relationship between Young...
, "Young Republican" Alex P. KeatonAlex P. Keaton is a fictional character on the American television sitcom, Family Ties, which aired on NBC for seven seasons, from 1982 to 1989. Family Ties reflected the move in the United States away from the cultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s...
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
The Beverly Hillbillies is an American television sitcom. It ranked among the top 12 most watched series on television for seven of its nine seasons, twice ranking as the #1 series of the year, with a number of episodes that remain among the most-watched television episodes of all time...
, Mrs. Drysdale's son Sonny mentions attending Princeton (and Harvard and Yale), and Harvard and Princeton pennants hang on his wall.
- In the primetime drama The West Wing, Sam Seaborn
Samuel Norman "Sam" Seaborn is a fictional character portrayed by Rob Lowe on the television serial drama The West Wing. He is best known for being Deputy White House Communications Director in the Josiah Bartlet administration throughout the first four seasons of the series.-Creation and...
attended Princeton.
- In the NBC comedy 30 Rock
30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that currently airs on NBC on Thursday nights. The series takes place behind the scenes of a fictional live sketch comedy series depicted as airing on NBC; the name "30 Rock" refers to the address of the GE Building where NBC...
, Jack DonaghyJohn Francis "Jack" Donaghy is a fictional character in the NBC sitcom 30 Rock. His character is the Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming for General Electric....
attended Princeton University as an undergraduate.
- In Gossip Girl
Gossip Girl is an American young adult novel series written by Cecily von Ziegesar and published by Little, Brown and Company, a subsidiary of the Hachette Group...
, 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
What I Like About You may refer to:*"What I Like About You" , a 1979 song by The Romantics*What I Like About You , a 2002 TV series starring Amanda Bynes and Jennie Garth...
, Henry GibsonHenry Gibson was an American actor and songwriter, best known as a cast member of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In and for his recurring role as Judge Clark Brown on Boston Legal.-Early life:...
attended Princeton.
- In the season 4 finale of Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry, who also serves as show runner, and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producers, as of the fourth season, are Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W...
, Julie MayerJulie Alexandra Mayer is a fictional character on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives. The character is played by actress Andrea Bowen. She is the daughter of Karl Mayer and Susan Delfino.-Season 1:...
, Susan's daughter, is accepted to Princeton and prepares to leave home.
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