School Location:

PRINCETON, NJ

School Type:

PRIVATE RESEARCH UNIVERSITY

How difficult is it to get into Princeton?

At just 4.49%, Princeton’s acceptance rate continues to make the school one of the most competitive in the country. 39,644 students applied to join Princeton’s Class of 2027, and only 1,782 were admitted.

Applicants who are admitted to Princeton typically take a challenging course load with AP and IB classes, and are academic standouts in high school. However, Princeton isn’t just looking for students who took on a rigorous course load, earned a high GPA and aced their standardized test scores, the school wants to admit students who are passionate, driven, and committed to contributing to both their local communities and to the community at Princeton and beyond in significant ways. Princeton indicates that beyond grades, they also consider application essays, recommendations, extracurriculars, talent and character to be very important in the admissions process. So, highlighting your extracurricular involvement, leadership, and other unique experiences will set you apart from the other high quality applicants also applying to Princeton.

What is the campus like at Princeton?

Princeton is located in the quaint and lovely town of Princeton, NJ. There are tons of amazing restaurants and local favorites within a few minutes walking distance from campus such as PJ’s Pancakes or Jammin’ Crepes for breakfast, Olive’s for fresh market food, or Witherspoon Grill, Teresa’s, and Winberries for dinner. Frequent ice cream stops at Bent Spoon or T-sweets is a must. There is a local movie theater that plays free movies for students on the weekends. In town, you have everything else you need from shopping and hair/nail salons to the local library (if you’re getting tired of Firestone Library), CVS, and Starbucks and Small World Coffee. Princeton students often refer to the community as the ‘Princeton Bubble’, because you don’t need to travel very far to run errands or stock up on essentials that you can’t find at the University Store.

Princeton is also a relatively quick and convenient 1-2 hour train trip to the major metropolitan cities of NYC and Philadelphia. Luckily, Princeton University has its own train station with Dinky/bus connections to the Princeton Junction stop on the NJ Transit, making trips anywhere up and down the East Coast, or to Newark airport if you’re from the Midwest or on the West Coast, extremely convenient.

Freshmen and sophomores live in one of the seven residential colleges (think Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, etc.). Once assigned, students live in those mini-communities for two years, and then usually move to independent housing or other areas on campus such as ‘The Slums’ (don’t worry, it’s actually a very beautiful part of campus) as a junior or senior. Some students who become officers of eating clubs will live in their respective clubs (more on that in a second), but in general, nearly all students live on campus all four years, which provides a very connected and special community. It is uncommon for a student to find (or need to find) off-campus housing.

Princeton has a spirited, tight-knit community of students who predominantly live and convene for social gatherings on campus all four years. There are a few sororities and fraternities, but Greek life is not a huge part of the social atmosphere on campus and none of the sororities and fraternities have their own houses.

Princeton also proudly has more than 300 student-run organizations. It’s fun to head to Blair Arch to get an ear of an a cappella group or see diSiac Dance Company put on a spectacular show. Here’s a full list of all of the amazing organizations on campus to check out or get involved in. If you don’t see a club you want to see, students are encouraged to bring people together and start a club of their own.

What is Princeton known for?

What makes the social life at Princeton very unique is the infamous ‘eating clubs’. Dating back to 1879, ‘eating clubs’ were created by students at a time when they were not given sufficient dining facilities on campus. Students created their own spaces “off campus” to eat and hang out. Students now have access to several dining halls or cafés to find great food on campus, but in the winter of sophomore year, students typically ‘bicker’ (a process similar to ‘rushing’) or ‘sign up’ to join one of the 11 eating clubs for junior and senior year*. The awesome part of these eating clubs is that they are co-ed and once admitted, students can enjoy being a part of an additional community of people and have a space to have fun, relax, play games, watch TV, study, etc. Once a member, Princeton students are alumni of their eating clubs for life and can head back there to reconnect with their closest friends long after they’ve graduated. If you hear Princeton students referring to “The Street”, this is a reference to ‘Prospect Street’ on which the eating clubs reside. If Firestone and McCosh Hall are where students ‘work hard’, then ‘The Street’ is where Princetonians ‘play hard’.

• *In addition to choosing to eat at the dining halls or join an eating club, juniors and seniors can also elect to be ‘independent’ and live in housing in which they can foodshop and have a full kitchen to cook their own food.

How diverse is Princeton?

Princeton “aspires to be a truly diverse community in which individuals of every sex, gender identity, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, ability, and socioeconomic status can flourish equally.” That being said, the school has a diverse undergraduate student population. In 2023, 5,598 undergraduate students called Princeton home. Of those, 547 or 9.77% were Hispanic or Latino, 479 or 8.56% were Black or African American, 2,007 or 35.9% were white, and 1,323 or 23.6% were Asian. 132 students’ race and/or ethnicity was unknown, 703 were nonresidents, 8 were American Indian or Alaska Natives, and 6 were Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. International students in the Class of 2027 came from 64 countries, including South Sudan, Ethiopia, France, and Kenya.

How do I apply to Princeton?

Students who want to apply to Princeton must submit a completed application through the Common Application or the Coalition Application.

Students must respond to the Princeton specific questions, which ask:

• One essay about what an applicant intends to study at Princeton
• Two essays about “Your Voice”; one about an applicant’s lived experience as a community member and one about their commitment to service and civic engagement
• Three short answers: one about a new skill an applicant wishes to learn in college, one about what brings them joy, and one about the soundtrack of their life.

Students must also submit a graded written paper, preferably in the subjects of English or history.

All applicants must also submit the following:

• Transcript
• School Report
• Counselor Recommendation
• Two Teacher Recommendations
• Midyear School Report
• Standardized Test Scores (Optional for applications due in the fall of 2024 and 2025)
• Optional
  • Students also have the option to submit an Arts Supplement, if applicable.
  • Interviews: Princeton also offers optional alumni interviews.
• Princeton offers both Single-Choice Early Action and Regular Decision Application options
  • Single-Choice Early Action is a nonbinding application option that allows students to apply early and to receive their decision notification by mid-December.
  • Students who apply to Princeton through Single-Choice Early Action may apply early to any public or international institution, service academy, or other college or university with a non binding rolling admissions process.
  • Single-Choice Early Action applications are due November 1st, while Regular Decision applications are due January 1st.