Princeton University offers a small-town college experience with an exceptional world-renowned education. We think of it as the suburban Ivy League. The undergraduate enrollment isn’t small, but it is manageable with 5,590 students.
Students pick Princeton for a wide variety of reasons beyond brand recognition, but some of our favorites include that there is an enviable student-to-faculty ratio of only 5:1 and more than 400 international internship opportunities available to students. The community is highly residential, with 96% of undergraduates living on campus, and that means that there are so many organic opportunities for teamwork and collaboration. Together, they pursue a liberal arts foundation taught by an exceptional faculty that students can build close relationships with leading towards mentorship and guidance inside and beyond the classroom or lab. The faculty also use innovative methods, like ‘flipping’ their classroom and assigning recorded lectures for ‘homework’ so that the class time can be spent on discussion and exploration, breaking expectations and ‘rules’ to improve the educational experience.
As a top university and a member of the vaunted Ivy League, Princeton isn’t easy to get into. They hold the admissions data tight to the chest, but the acceptance rate is estimated to be between 4% and 6%.
In this post, we’ll share what we believe are the five best majors at this renowned university. To pick the top five, we assess each major on offer to undergraduates based on a criterion that we’ve found reveals the true diamonds. Below, we’ll explain more about how we decided on a top five before sharing our picks!
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What do we mean by best major at Princeton?
Princeton has over three dozen undergraduate majors (previously called concentrations), and they are all amazing, but we look for a few things in particular. First off, the program needs to have resources behind it. That can include financial resources, infrastructural resources, and personnel resources (like faculty), but ideally all three in large quantities. Majors also need to strike a balance between focus and depth. There should be a clear perspective and approach to the major as a result of strong department leadership, but also a depth that encourages exploration and discovery. Finally, we like to see significant post-graduation resources and strong career outcomes.
At Princeton, many of our favorite majors based on this criterion fall into the STEM arena. This isn’t a fluke, and but it also isn’t because the humanities programs aren’t amazing. In fact, it sort of is because the humanities are so strong. Through The Council on Science and Technology (CST) and Studio Lab, Princeton bridges subjects to “support intellectual exchange, course development, and interdisciplinary research and collaborations in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.” So, we aren’t focusing heavily on STEM because the other subjects aren’t spectacular, but the opportunity to study STEM at Princeton is simply exceptional.
Astrophysical Sciences, A.B.
When you study astrophysics at Princeton, you can explore everything out there from planets to stars, quasars to dark energy. The department isn’t massive — it’s actually pretty small — but that’s led to it being very tight-knit and students have access to astounding mentorship and research opportunities. Let’s be clear though that the department isn’t actually all that small. There are nearly two dozen professors in the department. The hardware, too, is enviable. Students have “full access to all faculty members and to the excellent departmental facilities, including our on-campus and remote telescopes and sophisticated computer system.” During junior year, you’ll be able to put all those resources to good use conducting two junior independent research projects, one per semester. Then, during senior year, they up the challenge with an extensive research project, or thesis, guided by a faculty adviser. Students in the astrophysics program at Princeton often have graduate school in mind, but they also go on to education, law, finance, policy, and even space exploration.
Chemical and Biological Engineering, B.S.E.
The Chemical and Biological Engineering program is all about empowering students to create groundbreaking solutions through “unforeseen connections between ideas.” Students in the program are given the flexibility in their course load to pursue what you’re passionate about. Students go on to leadership positions in industry, academia, government, and research. Something we love about this program, though, is that students have to take seven Humanities and Social Science electives, more than most comparable programs at other top-tier universities, and at least one of those courses needs to be in the “Ethical Thought and Moral Values area.” And, within the major, students can take courses like “Energy Technologies in the 21st Century,” “Ethics and Technology: Engineering in the Real World.”
Mathematics, A.B.
If one sentence sums up the mathematics program, it’s best to let them speak for themselves: “Mathematics is a discipline inseparable from scientific and philosophical inquiry.” They apply a theoretical and philosophical mindset to something that most students will have, before attending Princeton, approached most often as a set of mathematical problems to be solved. The department takes foundations very seriously, and all students spend their early years in the program gaining broad expertise before digging into what fascinates them most in the classroom and through research opportunities. Princeton also supports students in incorporating study abroad into their mathematics program. Students can study mathematics for a semester, usually in their junior year, at universities internationally like Oxford, Cambridge, Universite’ de Paris, Bonn University, and more. There are also summer math opportunities as part of the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, and a small number of math programs are supported in doing summer research.
School of Public and International Affairs, A.B.
This sounds like a school, which it is, but it’s also an undergraduate major. It’s a multi-disciplinary liberal arts major designed to launch students into careers in public service such that they can shape policy and public affairs. Students study “policymaking, policy analysis, and policy evaluation” and take courses across the liberal arts including in sociology, psychology, history, and economics. All majors also have to take statistics and have a strong grasp of single-variable calculus as it plays into the economics courses required. During junior year you’ll have to do an independent project, but it’s yours to direct. One of the things we love about Princeton is that you’re in control and have room to explore. Students can also study abroad in their junior year, and it’s highly encouraged for the major. In fact, all students in the major must have completed an approved field or cross-cultural experience in before the second semester of their senior year. This can be completed through study abroad, of course, but also a summer job for a domestic or international organization, ROTC, an approved internship, or long-term service in an underserved community.
Operations Research and Financial Engineering, B.S.E.
This major is the epitome of a liberal arts education, as it pulls together STEM and the humanities to create a major that can be adapted to each student’s personal area of interest. The core of the major is the same for everyone, though. It’s all about “statistics, probability and stochastic processes, and optimization.” Students in the major then layer on top of this core with courses that speak to their passions and interests pulling from every topic and department. Overall, the program of study is designed in consultation with administrators and faculty to ensure cohesion and clarity, and students leave with the ability to address “complex real-world problems.”
If your excited by the idea of studying at Princeton, but also want to prioritize a study abroad experience, look at the Novogratz Bridge Year Program. The program kicks off your college experience with a nine-month international experience that ‘bridges’ between high school and college, and you’d live with a hose family to have a truly immersive experience. Past locations have included Bolivia, Cambodia, and Senegal.
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