Princeton University

I

Introduction

Princeton University, fourth oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, located in Princeton, New Jersey. One of eight traditional colleges known collectively as the Ivy League.

II

History

The university was chartered in 1746 as the College of New Jersey. First located in Elizabeth and later in Newark, the college moved to Princeton in 1756 and was officially renamed Princeton University in 1896. Among the university's notable graduates and attendees were Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the United States, who was also a professor at Princeton and served as university president from 1902 to 1910; James Madison, one of the framers of the Constitution of the United States and the country's fourth president; the author and critic Edmund Wilson; and the author F. Scott Fitzgerald, who did not graduate but did attend the university for a time.

III

Current Academic Programme

Undergraduate students at the university have the option of pursuing A.B. (Bachelor of Arts) or B.S.E. (Bachelor of Science in Engineering) degree programmes. All A.B. candidates and virtually all B.S.E. candidates write a senior thesis. Since 1905 the university has used the preceptoral system of instruction, through which formal lectures are supplemented by meetings between professors or instructors and small groups of students.

First- and second-year students are assigned to one of five residential colleges, where they live, eat, and socialize. About 70 per cent of all juniors and seniors join one of the non-residential eating clubs adjacent to campus.

The university's graduate school was established in 1901. It offers doctoral programmes in engineering, the humanities, mathematics, the natural sciences, and the social sciences.

IV

Facilities

Administrative and graduate school offices are located in Nassau Hall, which originally housed the entire college. The library system consists of the Harvey S. Firestone Memorial Library and 18 special libraries (which include 15 academic department collections). The Princeton libraries house more than 5 million books and journals, 5 million manuscripts, and 2 million microforms. Housed in the Princeton University Art Museum are collections of ancient, medieval European, Renaissance, modern European, Far Eastern, African, pre-Columbian, and American painting and sculpture. The museum also has holdings of original photographs, master prints, and drawings.

Reviewed by: Princeton University