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Princeton University

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Education

   CAPTION: Princeton University

   Princeton University Coat of Arms
     __________________________________________________________________

   Motto Dei sub numine viget
   (Under God's power she flourishes)
   Established 1746
   Type Private
   Endowment US $12.7 billion
   President Shirley M. Tilghman
   Staff 1,103
   Undergraduates 4,635
   Postgraduates 1,975
   Location Borough of Princeton,
   Princeton Township,
   and West Windsor Township, New Jersey, USA
   Campus Suburban, 600 acres (2.4 km²)
   (Princeton Borough and Township)
   Athletics 38 sports teams
   Nickname Tigers
   Website www.princeton.edu

   Princeton University is a coeducational private university located in
   Princeton, New Jersey in the United States of America.

   According to the university, it is the fourth-oldest institution of
   higher education in the U.S. and is one of the eight Ivy League
   universities. Originally founded at Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1746 as
   the College of New Jersey, it relocated to Princeton in 1756 and was
   renamed Princeton University in 1896.

   Princeton has traditionally focused on undergraduate education and
   academic research, though in recent decades it has increased its focus
   on graduate education and now offers a large number of top-rated
   professional Master's degrees and PhD programs in a range of subjects.
   Its library holds over six million volumes. Among many others, areas of
   research include anthropology, geophysics, entomology, and robotics,
   while the Forrestal Campus has special facilities for the study of
   plasma physics and meteorology.

   Princeton has never had any official religious affiliation, rare among
   American universities of its age. At one time, it had close ties to the
   Presbyterian Church, but today it is nonsectarian and makes no
   religious demands on its students. The university has ties with the
   Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Theological Seminary and the
   Westminster Choir College of Rider University.

About Princeton

   Many campus buildings have neo-Gothic archways and lanterns
   Enlarge
   Many campus buildings have neo-Gothic archways and lanterns

   Princeton offers two main undergraduate degrees: the Bachelor of Arts
   (A.B.) and the Bachelor of Science in engineering (B.S.E.). Courses in
   the humanities are traditionally either seminars or semi-weekly
   lectures with an additional discussion seminar, called a "precept"
   (short for "preceptorial"). To graduate, all A.B. candidates must
   complete a senior thesis and one or two extensive pieces of independent
   research, known as "junior papers" or "JPs." They must also fulfill a
   two-semester foreign language requirement and distribution
   requirements. 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. A.B. candidates typically have
   more freedom in course selection than B.S.E. candidates, though both
   enjoy a comparatively high degree of latitude in creating a
   self-structured curriculum.

   Princeton offers postgraduate research degrees (most notably the
   Ph.D.), and ranks among the best in many fields, including mathematics,
   physics, astronomy and plasma physics, economics, history, political
   science, philosophy, and English. However, it does not have the
   extensive range of professional postgraduate schools of many other
   universities—for instance, Princeton has no medical school, law school,
   or business school. Its most famous professional school is the Woodrow
   Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (known as "Woody Woo"
   to students), founded in 1930 as the School of Public and International
   Affairs and renamed in 1948. The university also offers professional
   graduate degrees in engineering, architecture, and finance.

   The university's library system has over eleven million holdings
   including six million volumes; the main university library, Firestone
   Library, housing 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 priceless manuscripts
   such as MS. 71, s.x/xi, generically known as the Blickling homilies. In
   addition to Firestone, many individual disciplines have their own
   libraries, including architecture, art history, East Asian studies,
   engineering, geology, international affairs and public policy, and Near
   Eastern studies. Seniors in some departments can register for enclosed
   carrels in the main library for workspace and the private storage of
   books and research materials.

   The university is also home to the third-largest university chapel in
   the world, the Princeton University Chapel. Known for its gothic
   architecture, the chapel houses one of the largest and most precious
   stained glass collections in the country. Both the Opening Exercises
   for entering freshmen and the Baccalaureate Service for graduating
   seniors take place in the University Chapel.
   Walker, Class of 1903, and Cuyler Halls are Princeton dormitories in
   the Collegiate Gothic style.
   Enlarge
   Walker, Class of 1903, and Cuyler Halls are Princeton dormitories in
   the Collegiate Gothic style.
   Fine Hall, the home of the Department of Mathematics. It is the tallest
   building on campus, although its height above sea level is not higher
   than the University Chapel, significantly uphill from Fine.
   Enlarge
   Fine Hall, the home of the Department of Mathematics. It is the tallest
   building on campus, although its height above sea level is not higher
   than the University Chapel, significantly uphill from Fine.
   Clio Hall.
   Enlarge
   Clio Hall.

   The campus, located on 2 km² of landscaped grounds, features a large
   number of Neo-gothic-style buildings, most dating from the late 19th
   and early 20th centuries. It is situated about one hour from New York
   City and Philadelphia. The first Princeton building constructed was
   Nassau Hall, situated in the north end of Campus on Nassau Street.
   Stanhope Hall (once a library, now administrative offices) and East and
   West College, both dormitories, followed. While many of the succeeding
   buildings—particularly the dormitories of the Northern campus—were
   built in a Collegiate Gothic style, the university is something of a
   mixture of American architectural movements. Greek Revival temples
   (Whig and Clio Halls) abut the lawn south of Nassau Hall, while a
   crenellated theatre (Murray-Dodge) guards the route west to the
   library. Modern buildings are confined to the east and south of the
   campus, a quarter overlooked by the 14-story Fine Hall. Fine, the Math
   Department's home, designed by Warner, Burns, Toan and Lunde and
   completed in 1970, is the tallest building at the University.
   Contemporary additions feature a number of big-name architects,
   including IM Pei's Spelman Halls, Robert Venturi's Frist Campus Centre,
   Rafael Vinoly's Carl Icahn Laboratory, and the Hillier Group's Bowen
   Hall. A residential college by Demetri Porphyrios and a science library
   by Frank Gehry are under construction. Much sculpture adorns the
   campus, including pieces by Henry Moore (Oval with Points, also
   nicknamed "Nixon's Nose"), Clement Meadmore (Upstart II), and Alexander
   Calder (Five Disks: One Empty). At the base of campus is the Delaware
   and Raritan Canal, dating from 1830, and Lake Carnegie, a man-made lake
   donated by the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, used for rowing.

   Princeton is among the wealthiest universities in the world, with an
   endowment just over 11 billion US dollars ( #4th largest in the United
   States) sustained through the continued donations of its alumni and
   maintained by investment advisors. Some of Princeton's wealth is
   invested in its art museum, which features works by Claude Monet and
   Andy Warhol, among other prominent artists.

   Princeton consistently ranks among the best universities in the world,
   with seven consecutive number one (#1) rankings for its collegiate
   offerings by U.S. News & World Report.. Comprehensively, the 2006
   Academic Ranking of World Universities, popularized by The Economist
   and produced by Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Institute of Higher
   Education, ranked Princeton the 8th best university in the world (tied
   with the University of Chicago) in terms of quality of scientific
   research leading towards numerous awards. Furthermore, in the annual
   rankings by the The Times Higher Education Supplement, based on a
   subjective peer review by scholars, Princeton placed 10th
   internationally . Finally, in its 2006 evaluation of universities on
   the dual basis of distinction in research and international diversity,
   Newsweek ranked Princeton 15th in the world.

   Princeton hosts two Model United Nations conferences, PMUNC in the fall
   for high school students and PICSIM in the spring for college students.
   Princeton also runs Princeton Model Congress, held once a year in
   mid-November. The 4-day conference is for high schoolers from around
   the country and the fierce competition give the conference its pretige.

   Princeton University also recently purchased a supercomputer, Orangena,
   from IBM, as of 11/2005 the 79th fastest in the world ( LINPACK
   performance of 4713; compare up to 12250 for other U. S. universities
   and 280600 for the top-ranked supercomputer, belonging to the U. S.
   Department of Energy).

Financial aid

   Princeton University was named by the Princeton Review (which, despite
   its name, is unaffiliated with the University) as one of the most
   affordable colleges in the nation. In 2001, Princeton was the first
   university to eliminate loans for all students who qualify for aid,
   expanding a program instituted three years earlier in which loans were
   replaced with grants for low and middle-income students. The move
   followed a series of enhancements to Princeton's aid program beginning
   in 1998, which included:
     * admitting international students on a " need-blind" basis along
       with U.S. students,
     * removing the value of the family home from the formula that
       calculates how much parents are expected to contribute to college,
     * reducing the contribution rate on student savings, and
     * decreasing summer savings expectations for lower- and middle-income
       students.

   Princeton has no plans to match financial aid initiatives by its peers,
   Yale and Harvard, which eliminate family contributions altogether for
   low-income students. According to Princeton Director of Financial Aid
   Don Betterton, "We're satisfied with our program the way it is."

   Princeton is also named by both U.S. News & World Report and Princeton
   Review to have the fewest number of students graduating with debt. The
   Office of Financial Aid estimates that Princeton seniors on aid will
   graduate with average indebtedness of $2,360. That compares to the
   national average of about $20,000 for graduating seniors who have
   borrowed, according to the office. Statistics show that for the Class
   of 2009, close to 60% of incoming students are on some type of
   financial aid.

Undergraduate program

   Undergraduates at Princeton University agree to conform to an academic
   honesty policy called the Honour Code. 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 they take at
   Princeton. (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 student-run Honor Committee. Because of this
   code, students take all tests unsupervised by faculty members.
   Violations of the Honor Code incur the strongest of disciplinary
   actions, including suspension and expulsion. Out-of-class exercises are
   outside the Honour Committee's jurisdiction, but students are often
   expected to sign a pledge on their papers that they have not
   plagiarized their work ("This paper represents my own work in
   accordance with University regulations.").

   More than 95 percent of students live on campus in dormitories.
   Freshmen and sophomores live in residential colleges. Later-year
   students have the option to live off-campus, but very few do, because
   rents in the Princeton area are extremely high. Undergraduate social
   life revolves around a number of coeducational " eating clubs," which
   are open to upperclassmen and serve a similar role to that which
   fraternities and sororities do at some other campuses.

   Princeton has a competitive "need-blind" admission policy, accepting
   students into the incoming class based on merit, not ability to pay
   tuition fees. Despite these policies, Princeton's student body is often
   regarded as more culturally conservative or traditional than the
   student bodies of peer institutions. The administration has
   aggressively pursued a diversification policy: it is a member of the
   Davis United World College Fund, and students from these international
   schools can expect to have their full needs, as assessed by Princeton,
   met by the fund.

   Princeton is also home to one of the world's top-ranked debating
   societies, the American Whig-Cliosophic Society ("Whig-Clio"), which is
   a member of the American Parliamentary Debating Association and has
   twice hosted the World Universities Debating Championships. Whig-Clio
   also incorporates a number of other student activities and is the
   oldest college political literary and debate society in the country.

History

The College of New Jersey

   Established by the " New Light" Presbyterians, Princeton was originally
   intended to train Presbyterian ministers. The college opened at
   Elizabeth, New Jersey, under the presidency of Jonathan Dickinson as
   the College of New Jersey. (A proposal was made to name it for the
   colonial Governor, Jonathan Belcher, but he declined.) Its second
   president was Aaron Burr, Sr.; the third was Jonathan Edwards. In 1756,
   the college moved to Princeton, New Jersey.

   Between the time of the move to Princeton in 1756 and the construction
   of Stanhope Hall in 1803, the University's sole building was Nassau
   Hall, named for William III of England of the House of Orange-Nassau.
   The University also got one of its colors, orange, from William III.
   During the American Revolution, Princeton was occupied by both sides,
   and the college's buildings were heavily damaged. The Battle of
   Princeton, fought in a nearby field in January of 1777, proved to be a
   decisive victory for General George Washington and his troops. Two of
   Princeton's leading citizens signed the Declaration of Independence,
   and during the summer of 1783, the Continental Congress met in Nassau
   Hall, making Princeton the country's capital for four months. The
   much-abused landmark survived bombardment with cannonballs in the
   Revolutionary War when General Washington struggled to wrest the
   building from British control, as well as later fires that left only
   its walls standing 1802 and 1855. Rebuilt by Joseph Henry Latrobe, John
   Notman, and John Witherspoon, the modern Nassau Hall has been much
   revised and expanded from the Robert Smith designed original. Over the
   centuries, its role shifted from an all-purpose building, comprising
   office, dormitory, library, and classroom space, to classrooms only, to
   its present role as the administrative centre 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.

   The Princeton Theological Seminary broke off from the college in 1812,
   since the Presbyterians wanted their ministers to have more theological
   training, while the faculty and students would have been content with
   less. This reduced the student body and the external support for
   Princeton for some time. The two institutions currently enjoy a close
   relationship based on common history and shared resources.
   Nassau Hall, the University's oldest building. Note the tiger
   sculptures beside the steps (See discussion above).
   Enlarge
   Nassau Hall, the University's oldest building. Note the tiger
   sculptures beside the steps (See discussion above).

   The university was becoming an obscure backwater when President James
   McCosh took office in 1868. During his two decades in power, 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
   honour.

Princeton

   In 1896, the college officially changed its name from the College of
   New Jersey to Princeton University to honour the town in which it
   resided. During this year, the College also underwent large expansion
   and officially became a university. Under Woodrow Wilson, Princeton
   introduced the preceptorial system (1905), a then-unique concept that
   replaced the standard lecture method of teaching with a more personal
   form where small groups of students, or precepts, could interact with a
   single instructor, or preceptor, in their field of interest.

   In 1969, Princeton University first admitted women as undergraduates.
   In 1887, the university had actually maintained and staffed a sister
   college in the town of Princeton on Evelyn and Nassau streets, called
   the Evelyn College for Women, which was closed after roughly a decade
   of operation. After abortive discussions in 1967 with Sarah Lawrence
   College to relocate the women's college to Princeton and merge it with
   the university, 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 barely finished these plans
   by 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.
   The courtyard of East Pyne Hall
   Enlarge
   The courtyard of East Pyne Hall

   Princeton University has been home to scholars, scientists, writers,
   and statesmen, including four United States presidents, two of whom
   graduated from the University. James Madison and Woodrow Wilson
   graduated from Princeton, Grover Cleveland was not an alumnus but
   served as a trustee of the University for some time while spending his
   retirement in the town of Princeton, and John F. Kennedy spent his
   freshman fall at the University before leaving due to illness and
   transferring to Harvard. The entertainer and civil rights figure Paul
   Robeson grew up in the Borough of Princeton, and artisans from Italy,
   Scotland, and Ireland have contributed to the town's architectural
   history. This legacy, spanning the entire history of American
   architecture, is preserved through buildings by such architects as
   Benjamin Latrobe, Ralph Adams Cram, McKim, Mead & White, Robert
   Venturi, and Nick Yeager.

Residential colleges

   Cleveland Tower at the Old Graduate College in the noontime autumn sun.
   Watercolor.
   Enlarge
   Cleveland Tower at the Old Graduate College in the noontime autumn sun.
   Watercolor.

   The undergraduate residential colleges are the residential-dining
   complexes that house freshmen, sophomores, and a handful of junior and
   senior resident advisers. Each college consists of a set of
   dormitories, a dining hall (e.g., Ricardo A. Mestres Hall), a variety
   of other amenities (study spaces, libraries, performance spaces,
   darkrooms, and the like), and a collection of administrators and
   associated faculty.

   At present, Princeton has five undergraduate residential colleges. Two
   of these, Wilson College and Forbes College (formerly Princeton Inn
   College), date to the 1970's; the others were created in 1983 following
   the CURL (Committee on Undergraduate Residential Life) report
   suggesting colleges as a solution to a perception of fragmented campus
   social life. Each college houses approximately 500 freshmen and
   sophomores and has a dining hall and other residential amenities
   (computer clusters, game rooms, small libraries). Rockefeller College
   and Mathey College are located in the northwest corner of the campus;
   their Collegiate Gothic architecture often graces University brochures.
   Like most of Princeton's Gothic buildings, they predate the residential
   college system and were fashioned into colleges from individual
   dormitories. Wilson College and Butler College, located south of the
   centre of the campus, were built in the 1960s, with Wilson serving as
   an early experiment in Residential Colleges. Butler, like Rockefeller
   and Mathey, was 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, Butler College
   is slated for demolition and quick replacement following the completion
   of a sixth residential college in 2007. Forbes College, located
   slightly southwest of the southwest corner of the campus, is a former
   hotel, purchased by the university and expanded to form a residential
   college. The "Princeton Inn College" was one of the first residential
   colleges in the 1970s along with Wilson College. Butler and most of
   Forbes are in a different municipality, Princeton Township, from the
   rest of the main campus, which is in Princeton Borough. Princeton broke
   ground for a sixth college, named Whitman College after its principal
   sponsor, eBay CEO Meg Whitman ' 77, in late 2003. The new dormitories
   will be constructed in the neo-Gothic architectural style and have been
   designed by renowned architect Demetri Porphyrios.

   A variant on the present college system was originally proposed by
   University President Woodrow Wilson in the early twentieth century.
   Wilson's model was much closer to Yale's present system, which features
   four-year colleges. Lacking the support of the Trustees, the plan
   languished until 1968, when Wilson College was established, capping a
   series of alternatives to the eating clubs. A series of often fierce
   debates raged before the present underclass-college system emerged. The
   plan was first attempted at Yale, but the administration was initially
   uninterested; an exasperated alum, Edward Harkness, finally paid to
   have the college system implemented at Harvard in the 1920s, leading to
   the oft-quoted aphorism that the college system is a Princeton idea
   done at Harvard with Yale's money.

   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, which the latter won. (Wilson preferred a central location for
   the College; West wanted the graduate students as far as possible from
   the noisy, dissolute undergraduates.) The G.C. is composed of a large
   Collegiate Gothic section, crowned by Cleveland Tower, a local landmark
   that also houses a world-class carillon. The attached New Graduate
   College houses more students. Its design departs from collegiate
   gothic, and is reminiscent of Butler College, the newest of the five
   pre-Whitman undergraduate colleges.

   Each residential college hosts social events and activities, guest
   speakers (such as Edward Norton, who showed a special sneak-preview of
   Fight Club on campus), and trips. Residential Colleges are best known
   for their performing art trips to New York City. Students sign up to
   take trips to see the ballet, the opera, and Broadway shows.

Athletics

   The Princeton Review declared the university the 10th strongest "jock
   school" in the nation. It has also consistently been ranked at the top
   of the Time Magazine's Strongest College Sports Teams lists. Most
   recently, Princeton was ranked as a top 10 school for athletics by
   Sports Illustrated. Princeton is best known for its men and women's
   crew teams, winning several NCAA and Eastern titles in recent years.

   Princeton won a record 21 conference titles from 2000-2001. By the end
   of 2004, Princeton had garnered 36 Ivy League conference titles from
   2001-2004 sports seasons. In 2005, its women's soccer team made the
   NCAA Final Four, the first Ivy League team to do so. The Tigers have
   taken every field hockey conference title since 1994.

   Princeton's basketball team is perhaps the best-known team within the
   Ivy League, nicknamed the "perennial giant killer". From 1992-2001, a
   nine year span, Princeton's men's basketball team had entered the NCAA
   tournament 6 times—from a conference that has never had an at-large
   entry in the NCAA tournament. For the last half-century, Princeton and
   Penn have traditionally battled for men's basketball dominance in the
   Ivy League; Princeton had its first losing season in 50 years of Ivy
   League basketball in 2005. Princeton tied the record for fewest points
   in a Division I game since the 3-point line started in 1986-87 when
   they scored 21 points in a loss against Monmouth University on December
   14, 2005.

   Princeton's men's lacrosse team has enjoyed much success since the
   early 1990s and is widely recognized as a perennial powerhouse in the
   Division I ranks. The team has won thirteen Ivy League titles (1992,
   1993, 1995-2004, 2006) and six national titles (1992, 1994, 1996-1998,
   2001). Dave Morrow, a member of the 1992 championship team, is the
   founder of Warrior Lacrosse, the official supplier of the Princeton
   team.

   The Princeton women's volleyball team has won 13 Ivy League titles, and
   its men's volleyball team in 1998 became the first non-scholarship
   school to make the NCAA Final Four in 25 years.

   On November 6, 1869, Princeton fielded a team of twenty-five
   undergraduates to compete against Rutgers College in the first
   intercollegiate football game that—played under rules consistent with
   soccer—was held on the Rutgers campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
   Rutgers won with a score of six runs to Princeton's four. However,
   Princeton won every football game subsequent from the following week's
   rematch through 1938. The two schools, which compete in other NCAA
   events, have not met in football since 1980. Princeton's rivalry with
   Yale, active since 1873, is the second oldest in American football. In
   more recent years, Princeton has excelled in both men's and women's
   lacrosse, and both men's and women's crew.

Significant places

Nassau Hall

   Nassau Hall
   Enlarge
   Nassau Hall

   Nassau Hall is the main administrative building of the University.

Cannon Green

   Cannon Green is located on the south end of the main lawn. Buried in
   the ground at the centre is the "Big Cannon", the top of which
   protrudes from the earth and is traditionally spray-painted in orange
   with the current senior class year. A second "Little Cannon" is buried
   in the lawn in front of nearby Whig Hall. Both were buried in response
   to periodic thefts by Rutgers students. The "Big Cannon" is said to
   have been left in Princeton by Hessians after the Revolutionary War but
   moved to New Brunswick during the War of 1812. Ownership of the cannon
   was disputed and the cannon was eventually taken back to Princeton
   partly by a military company and then by 100 Princeton students. The
   "Big Cannon" was eventually buried in its current location in front of
   Nassau Hall in 1840. In 1875, Rutgers students attempting 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.

   The Academy Award winning movie, A Beautiful Mind, contains a scene on
   Cannon Green. John Nash plays Go with his college rival while sitting
   on stone benches in the middle of the green. (The benches do not exist;
   like many elements of the Princeton setting, they were introduced for
   the film.)

McCarter Theatre

   McCarter Theater
   Enlarge
   McCarter Theatre

   The McCarter Theatre is recognized as one of this country's leading
   regional theaters. Under the Artistic Direction of Emily Mann, the Tony
   Award-winning McCarter Theatre has demonstrated a commitment to the
   highest professional standards. McCarter's vision is to create a
   theatre of testimony, engaged in a dialogue with the world around it,
   paying tribute to the enduring power of the human spirit and scope of
   the imagination.

   A hallmark of the Theatre Series is the creation of new work. Since
   1991, over 20 new plays and adaptations have had their World or
   American premieres at McCarter including: Emily Mann's Having Our Say,
   Athol Fugard's Valley Song, John Henry Redwood's The Old Settler, and
   Stephen Wadworth's adaptations of Marivaux. McCarter premieres have
   been produced in cities across the country. In the past, the shows of
   Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, Thornton Wilder's Our Town,
   and Joseph Kesserling's Arsenic and Old Lace made their world premieres
   at McCarter.

   McCarter Theatre is also the unofficial home of the famous Princeton
   Triangle Club, a comedy theatre troupe whose alumni include Brooke
   Shields and Academy Award-winning actor Jimmy Stewart.

Princeton University Art Museum

   Princeton University Art Museum was established to give students
   direct, intimate, and sustained access to original works of art to
   complement and enrich instruction and research at the University, and
   this continues to be its primary function.

   Numbering nearly 60,000 objects, the collections range chronologically
   from ancient to contemporary art, and concentrate geographically on the
   Mediterranean regions, Western Europe, China, the United States, and
   Latin America. There is a collection of Greek and Roman antiquities,
   including ceramics, marbles, bronzes, and Roman mosaics from Princeton
   University’s excavations in Antioch. Medieval Europe is represented by
   sculpture, metalwork, and stained glass. The collection of Western
   European paintings includes examples from the early Renaissance through
   the nineteenth century, and there is a growing collection of
   twentieth-century and contemporary art.

   Among the strengths in the museum are the collections of Chinese art,
   with important holdings in bronzes, tomb figurines, painting, and
   calligraphy; and pre-Columbian art, with examples of the art of the
   Maya. The museum has collections of old master prints and drawings and
   a comprehensive collection of original photographs. African art is
   represented as well as Northwest Coast Indian art. Other works include
   those of the John B. Putnam, Jr., Memorial Collection of
   twentieth-century sculpture, including works by such modern masters as
   Alexander Calder, Jacques Lipshitz, Henry Moore, Claude Monet and Pablo
   Picasso.

Undergraduate admissions

   In 2006, Princeton's overall acceptance rate was 10.2%, accepting 1792
   students from a pool of 17,563 applicants. 599 of these were accepted
   Early Decision out of a total 2236 ED applicants, for a 26.8% Early
   Decision acceptance rate. Regular Decision was much harsher, with
   acceptances going to only 1193 out of 15327 applicants (this includes
   deferred ED students as well), for a 7.8% admittance rate.

   On September 18, 2006, Princeton University announced an end to its
   Early Decision program starting for the class of 2012. From the Class
   of 2012 onward, all Princeton applicants will be considered by the
   admissions office in one pool.

Traditions

     * Arch Sings - Free late-night concerts in one of the larger arches
       on campus offered by one or a few of Princeton's fourteen a
       cappella groups. Most often held in Blair Arch or Class of 1879
       Arch.
     * Bonfire - ceremonial bonfire, held only if Princeton beats both
       Harvard and Yale at football in the same season; the most recent
       bonfire was lit November 17, 2006 after a 12-year drought.
     * Beer Jackets - Each graduating class (and each class at its
       multiple-of-5 reunion thereafter -- 5th, 10th, etc.) designs a Beer
       Jacket featuring their class year. The artwork is almost invariably
       dominated by the school colors and tiger motifs.
     * Bicker - Selection process for new-members employed by selective
       eating clubs
     * Cane Spree - an athletic competition between freshmen and
       sophomores held in the fall
     * The Clapper or Clapper Theft - climbing to the top of Nassau Hall
       and stealing the bell clapper so as to prevent the bell from
       ringing and, thus, from starting class on the first day of the
       school year. For safety reasons, the clapper has now been removed
       permanently.
     * Communiversity - an annual street fair with performances, arts and
       crafts, and other activities in an attempt to foster interaction
       between the University and residents of the Princeton community
     * Dean's Date Theatre - tradition of gathering late in the afternoon
       on Dean's Date (see below under "Lingo" outside McCosh Hall to
       watch other students run to hand in their papers before the final
       deadline. Some students perform cartwheels and other antics (if
       they are not running too late).
     * FitzRandolph Gate - at the end of Princeton's graduation ceremony,
       the new graduates process out through the main gate of the
       university as a symbol of their leaving college and entering the
       real world. According to tradition, anyone who leaves campus
       through FitzRandolph Gate before his or her own graduation date
       will not graduate (though entering through the gate is fine).
     * Houseparties - formal parties thrown simultaneously by all of the
       eating clubs at the end of the spring term
     * Lawnparties - parties with live bands thrown simultaneously by all
       of the eating clubs at the start of classes and conclusion of the
       year
     * Newman's Day - students attempt to drink 24 beers in the 24 hours
       of April 24th, origins of the day are shrouded in mystery; may be
       named after Paul Newman. Newman has spoken out against the
       tradition, however.
     * Nude Olympics - annual (nude) frolic in Holder Courtyard 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.
     * Prospect 11 - referring to the act of drinking a beer at all eleven
       eating clubs on The Street in one night. With the recent closure of
       Campus Club, this has become impossible, but the phrase "Prospect
       10" has yet to firmly plant itself in the lexicon.
     * P-rade - traditional parade of alumni and their families, who
       process by class year, during Reunions
     * Reunions - annual gathering of alumni, held the weekend before
       graduation
     * Robo - commonly played team drinking game at Princeton University,
       thought to have originated there. Beirut is equally popular.
     * The Phantom of Fine Hall - a former tradition - before 1993, this
       was the legend of an obscure, shadowy figure that would infest Fine
       Hall (the Mathematics department's building) and write complex
       equations on blackboards. Although mentioned in Rebecca Goldstein's
       1980s book The Mind-Body Problem about Princeton graduate student
       life (Penguin, reissued 1993), the legend self-deconstructed in the
       1990s when the Phantom turned out to be in reality the inventor, in
       the 1950s, of the Nash equilibrium result in game theory, John
       Forbes Nash. The former Phantom, by then also haunting the
       computation centre where courtesy of handlers in the math
       department he was a sacred monster with a guest account, 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.")
     * 21 Club

Old Nassau

   This phrase can refer to:
     * Old Nassau, Princeton's alma mater since 1859, with words by
       then-freshman Harlan Page Peck and music by Karl A. Langlotz.
       Before the Langlotz tune was written, the song was sung to the
       melody of " Auld Lang Syne", which also fits. The text of Old
       Nassau is available from Wikisource.
     * Nassau Hall, to which the song refers, built in 1756 and named
       after William III of England, of the House of Orange-Nassau. When
       built, it was the largest college building in North America. It
       served briefly as the capitol of the United States when the
       Continental Congress convened there in the summer of 1783.
     * By metonymy, Princeton University as a whole.
     * A chemical reaction, an example of a "clock reaction", dubbed "Old
       Nassau" because the solution turns first orange and then black, the
       Princeton colors. It is also known as the "Hallowe'en reaction".

Princeton neologisms

     * Bicker - the process by which students join selective eating clubs,
       similar to fraternity/sorority rush at other schools.
     * D-Bar - the "Debasement Bar," located in the basement of the Old
       Graduate College, is a hangout for graduate students, frequented by
       many undergrads as well.
     * Dean's Date - The last day of reading period; the day when all
       final papers and other written work must be turned in (see also
       "Dean's Date Theatre" above in the "Traditions" section). Exams
       start the day after Dean's Date. So named because extensions beyond
       Dean's Date cannot be granted by a faculty member; they require the
       permission of a Dean.
     * Dinky - One-car train that runs between Princeton Junction and
       Princeton station, a small rail station on the Princeton campus.
       Sometimes called the PJ & B (Princeton Junction & Back).
     * E-Quad - Engineering Quadrangle
     * Getting McCoshed - when a student is sent to McCosh Infirmary (not
       to be confused with the McCosh Hall) for excessive drinking.
     * Getting PMC'ed - when a student is hospitalized for drinking too
       much alcohol. In this case, a student is deemed too drunk to be
       treated by McCosh Infirmary and is instead transferred to Princeton
       Medical Center. The future of this lingo is uncertain due to
       Princeton Medical Center's recent name change to University Medical
       Centre at Princeton.
     * The Haven - Hoagie Haven, a popular and long-lived establishment
       located near the E-quad
     * Hose - As a transitive verb, to be rejected from a selective
       organization, e.g., in eating club bicker, interviews for selective
       courses, etc. (i.e. "You got hosed!").
     * Intersession - The one-week break between winter finals and the
       start of the spring semester. Often the time when seniors hunker
       down to begin writing their senior thesis.
     * Junior Slums - Area of undergraduate housing in the southwest part
       of campus. Includes Henry Hall, Foulke Hall, 1901 Hall, Pyne Hall,
       Laughlin Hall, and Lockhart Hall. So called because these are the
       dormitories that are usually left over from senior Room Draw and
       are thus taken by the juniors. Ironically, this is one of the
       prettiest areas of campus, where film crews usually go to film
       quintessential collegiate gothic buildings and grassy quads.
     * Locomotive - Distinctive Princeton cheer... "'hip, hip, rah, 'rah,
       'rah, tiger, tiger, tiger, sis, sis, sis, boom boom boom bah.
       Princeton. Princeton. Princeton". (The 'Princeton' is
       interchangeable - It's common to replace "Princeton" with a class
       year to toast a particular class, especially during the P-rade, or
       during football games for the cheerleaders to say 'Tigers".
       Princeton is the home of cheerleading, amongst other things.)
     * The Nass - affectionate slang for The Nassau Weekly, a weekly arts
       and humor magazine.
     * Old Nassau - see previous section.
     * Precept - short for "preceptorial." A small seminar-style
       discussion group held as an adjunct to formal lectures.
     * The Prince - The Daily Princetonian, the daily campus newspaper.
     * Prospect 11 - A tradition in which undergraduates visit all eleven
       currently active eating clubs and drink a beer from each one. The
       number is variable, based on the number of eating clubs in
       operation. For example, it was known as the Prospect 13 in the
       1970's and 80's. Since September 2005, and the closing of Campus
       Club, this tradition has been unceremoniously renamed the Prospect
       10. The challenge is not in the drinking, but in the gaining access
       to each of the variably exclusive clubs.
     * Prospect Eleven - An autonomous vehicle built by undergraduate
       students to compete in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. Seeded 10th
       of 23 teams in the finals, out of an original group 195 teams in
       the Challenge. Completed 9.5 miles of autonomous travel in the
       race, finishing 19th - ahead of the undergraduate teams from
       Cornell and Caltech.
     * Prox - Proximity card. RFID-based access control card used to
       unlock dorms and other non-public areas. Also used on campus as a
       verb, as in "Can you prox me in?"
     * Pton - Common abbreviation for the school's name.
     * Reading Period - A ten-day study period between the end of classes
       and the beginning of exams in January and May.
     * The Street - Prospect Avenue, home of the eating clubs.
     * The Wa - The local Wawa convenience store and food market. A Wa Run
       is a trip there.
     * Woody Woo - Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International
       Affairs.
     * Prex - The Princeton record exchange, an independent used music and
       movie store.

   The Daily Princetonian hosts a detailed (if slightly dated) list of
   Princeton jargon; see A Princeton Dictionary.

Lists of Princeton people

     * List of presidents of Princeton University
     * List of Princeton University people

In fiction

     * F. Scott Fitzgerald's literary debut, This Side of Paradise, is a
       loosely autobiographical story of his years at Princeton. A
       Princeton Alumni Weekly article on Princeton fiction called it the
       " Ur novel of Princeton life."
     * In Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, the character Robert Cohn
       attended Princeton.
     * Geoffrey Wolff's The Final Club is a coming-of-age book about
       Nathaniel Auerbach Clay, a fictional member of the Princeton Class
       of 1960 (Wolff was an actual member of this class). The Final Club
       is written as homage to F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise
       and The Great Gatsby.
     * A Beautiful Mind, the Academy Award winning film about the famous
       mathematician John Forbes Nash features a major part depicting
       Nash's initial days at Princeton University. Although the film is a
       fictionalized biography, in real life Nash did receive his
       doctorate from Princeton and is a Princeton professor.
     * The movie I.Q., starring Meg Ryan and Tim Robbins with Walter
       Matthau as Albert Einstein takes place in Princeton. A scene where
       Tim Robbins' character gives a lecture is in Room 302 of the Palmer
       Physics Laboratory, which is now the Frist Campus Centre.
     * The book The Rule of Four, as well as a series of mystery books by
       Ann Waldron, including The Princeton Murders, Death of a Princeton
       President, and Unholy Death in Princeton are set on Princeton's
       campus and the campus of neighboring Princeton Theological
       Seminary.
     * In Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Princeton is one of their
       destinations. However, the film was not shot on the undergraduate
       campus (where the movie implies the protagonists are) but rather in
       the graduate dormitories.
     * In the film Risky Business, Tom Cruise as Joel Goodson proves
       himself Princeton material by becoming a pimp, leading to his
       interviewer's sexual gratification.
     * The movie Spanglish is presented as an essay on a fictional
       Princeton application.
     * The opening montage of Scent of a Woman included shots of the
       Junior Slums (see above in Lingo), Rockefeller College, and detail
       from Nassau Hall. However, in the movie, the location was not
       called Princeton but rather a private boarding school somewhere in
       New England.
     * The University's Frist Campus Centre is also the outside of the
       Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in " House", with shots of
       Lake Carnegie and the Princeton Crew Team in the opening credits.
     * In the Simpsons episode Brother from Another Series, Sideshow Bob
       remarks that his brother Cecil spent "four years at clown college",
       to which Cecil replies, "I'd thank you not to refer to Princeton
       that way."
     * In the film " The Princess Diaries 2", Anne Hathaway as Mia
       graduates from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and
       International Policy with the aim to change the world.
     * In the movie, "Bride of Chuckie", the character Dave, played by
       Gordon Michael Woolvett, is planning on attending Princeton in the
       fall.

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