'08ers, you willing to answer some questions?

tiger08
Mon, 20 Dec 2004 14:55:02 +0000

what tunanfish said is on the mark, and he forgot to mention that Sean Wilentz is now nominated for a Grammy (for best album notes).

My freshman seminar was definitely a “this is why I came to Princeton” class. I was in the Secretaries of State seminar taught by Dean Slaughter and William Burke-White. (http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/04/1101/6a.shtml) We went incredibly in-depth, covering all the key Secretaries of State from Jefferson to Albright. In addition to the history aspect of the course, we learned international relations theory and applied it to the views and actions of the secretaries.

One highlight was when former Secretary of State George Shultz came and spoke with our seminar. We were also able to go through papers of John Foster Dulles, Henry Kissinger, and George Kennan at Princeton’s manuscript library (they have the original Long Telegram).

If they offer the Secretaries of State seminar next year and you’re interested in international relations and U.S. foreign policy, apply.

Don’t pick your seminar based on residential college. Your college has nothing to do with whether you should take a certain seminar, unless you’re very lazy and don’t like to walk five minutes to class. My seminar wasn’t even held in a residential college.

I think it’s safer to apply for seminars in which you are genuinely interested, not those that sound mildly interesting and would fulfill a distribution requirement.