Mathematics at Princeton

Colleges & Universities Princeton University
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<p>Many of the fine math related programs at Princeton are also found at MIT. However, when it comes to the theater and the fine arts Princeton offers more on campus activities. </p>

<p>Princeton has many distinctive strengths in the fine arts such as the theater. Princeton University’s Triangle Club is the oldest collegiate musical-comedy troupe in the nation, and the only college group that creates an original, student-written musical each year that is presented on a national tour. Triangle shows are completely conceived, written, produced and performed by Princeton undergraduates. Brooke Shields '87 and James Stewart '32 enjoyed their participation in the Triangle Club. See: [Princeton</a> Triangle Club - Home](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/~triangle/]Princeton”>Princeton Triangle Club) </p>

<p>The Princeton Shakespeare Company (PSC) dedicated to producing three to four Shakespearean works each year. In addition to each season’s performances, PSC dedicates itself to integrating Shakespeare’s works into student life using workshops, readings, guerrilla theater and other entertaining events. Theatre Intime has provided theatrical support and facilities for generations of Princeton students. Students are solely responsible for every aspect of the theater – from acting to directing, fund raising to administrating. The Black Arts Company is a student-managed theater experience dedicated to celebrating and exploring the cultural experiences of people from the African Diaspora through performance. Our company primarily seeks to present to the greater Princeton community a rich and transformative tapestry of African-American, pan-African, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Latino life experiences by producing plays written by people of color. Princeton University Players (PUP) specializes in musical theater. PUP produces Broadway plays for the Princeton stage. Quipfire is one of Princeton’s improvisational comedy troupes, and it’s made up of witty students not afraid to get on stage without having a clue as to what they’re about to do. The three or four shows a year feature a series of improv games, where Quipfire! calls on its audience to come up with names, places and objects (such as rubber chickens and blenders) to inspire its skits. Fuzzy Dice is another improv theater group that features a skit with four faces, four keywords and four plot lines. The highlight of their performance is the long form which is literally making an entire sitcom on the spot composed from a single keyword provided by the audience. The Princeton Stand-Up Comedy is a group dedicated to the fine art of stand up comedy. The Princeton South Asian Theatrics (PSAT) which they claim is the nation’s first South Asian theater group perform two comedy plays each year. The Princeton Chinese Theatre is a group dedicated to performing Chinese theatre plays in Chinese. The French Theater Workshop, L’Avant-Scene offers students an original combination of linguistic, cultural and dramatic training. Based on the “cours d’interprétation” used by the French conservatories, L’Avant-Scenè explores French dramatic styles and history in French. L’Avant-Scène introduces students to acting techniques and allows them to discover the richness of the French dramatic repertoire. Offered exclusively in French, it gives French language students a chance to improve language skills. There are six or more theaters on the Princeton campus.</p>

<p>The McCarter Theatre is a professional company theatre on the Princeton campus. See: [McCarter</a> Theatre](<a href=“http://www.mccarter.org%5DMcCarter”>http://www.mccarter.org) . McCarter Theatre Center is recognized as one of this country’s leading regional theaters, and is the only organization in this country that is both a professional producing theater and a major presenter of the performing arts. McCarter Theatre Center for the Performing Arts in Princeton is one of the most active cultural centers in the nation, offering over 200 performances of theater, dance, music and special events each year. Over 200,000 people watch the performances each season. McCarter offers audiences diverse programs of theater, music, dance, and special events featuring artists of national and international repute from a wide variety of disciplines and styles. It is probably safe to say that with few exceptions, virtually every important concert artist of the past quarter century has been a part of McCarter music at one time or another. McCarter has a company to perform plays, thus establishing the first resident professional theater in America on a university campus. Over the last 30 years over 60 different dance companies and/or solo artists helped make the art of dance a cornerstone of the McCarter program, presenting a total of more than 200 performances. McCarter was honored with the 1994 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. </p>

<p>The Lewis Center for the Arts is the home of fine arts at Princeton. See: [Theater</a> - Lewis Center for the Arts](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/arts/arts_at_princeton/theater/]Theater”>Theater & Music Theater - Lewis Center for the Arts) There are many courses where you can read Shakespeare, Greek tragedies, modern plays, etc. If you want to read, watch, act, work as a stage hand, etc. there are many theater options at Princeton. </p>

<p>Princeton fosters small social groups. The residential colleges are small residential communities where students get to know “everyone”. See: [Princeton</a> University - Video feature: ‘Welcome to Princeton’s residential colleges’](<a href=“Video feature: 'Welcome to Princeton's residential colleges'”>Video feature: 'Welcome to Princeton's residential colleges') Many alumni have fond memories of the time they spent in coed eating clubs where they knew everyone and were friends with everyone. See: [Princeton</a> University - Video feature: ‘Eating Clubs at Princeton’](<a href=“Video feature: 'Eating Clubs at Princeton'”>Video feature: 'Eating Clubs at Princeton')</p>

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<p>Pton Alumnus! Thanks! This was helpful! :)</p>

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<p>So you like to play a little ping pong.</p>

<p>Well, it is time to up your game and play with the big boys. The Princeton table tennis team has qualified for the national tournament for five straight years. See: [Table</a> tennis returns to nationals for sixth straight year - Princeton Alumni Weekly | The Weekly Blog](<a href=“http://blogs.princeton.edu/paw/2011/04/table_tennis_re.html]Table”>http://blogs.princeton.edu/paw/2011/04/table_tennis_re.html) </p>

<p>If you did have the opportunity to visit Princeton you would find research opportunities in math, small classes taught be outstanding professors, plays on weekends, and national competition level table tennis.</p>

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<p>Math club doesn’t have weekly board game nights - we have them maybe 4 times per semester (although there are weekly board game nights happening on campus). The library is not opened 24 hours (I think closes at 2?) but people definitely pull all nighters in Fine… if you go to the common room at 3 am, you’ll most likely find people hanging out and doing problem sets.<br>
I definitely feel like the math community at princeton is a big advantage… from day one I felt like I was part of the math department. I know and hang out with a lot of the grad students and attend tea whenever I can. We try to have lots of events at the beginning of the year to help freshmen meet math majors and grad students and get all their questions answered.</p>

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<p>Princeton sounds to me like a very welcoming university especially for math students! I feel from what I have read that you are really treated as a unique person.</p>

<p>Now, could anyone by any means compare it to Harvard’s community for undergraduate math majors?</p>

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<p>From what I’ve researched, at Harvard, applied math and pure math are entirely different departments and are located in different buildings. Applied math is in actually in the engineering school. I honestly don’t know what that does for math/applied math people at Harvard, but it sounds a lot like there is a pretty solid distinction between those two concentrations there.</p>

<p>Of course no one knows for sure since Harvard math majors never leave their dorms :)</p>

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<p>Why is everyone supporting this view? (that harvard math majors study all day)?
I know they study a lot, but so do students at MIT, princeton etc, right?</p>

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<p>Princeton has one of the most incredible research groups working in math today- many of the best young researchers in the world are grad students, assistant professors, post-docs and alums. </p>

<p>As an undergraduate, you will learn from top people in virtually every field- analysis (Fefferman, Stein, Klainerman, Sarnak), geometry and topology (Gabai, Kollar, Katz, Pandharipande (?)), number theory (Bhargava, Wiles)… I’m sure I’m leaving a number of important profs out… my point is, you can learn standard undergrad math from the classic textbooks and work out proofs and problems on your own. But having some of the most talented peers around (at places like Princeton and MIT) should spark an interest and motivation to tackle some very difficult subject material as an undergraduate. </p>

<p>Also, you need to know a lot of math to start writing and one of the advantages with the junior paper and senior thesis is that it forces you to think like a research mathematician quite early in your career.</p>

<p>I would say senior year for a Princeton math major is a lot closer to the first and second year of a PhD program than it is for other majors and for math majors at most other schools.</p>

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<p>needless to say, applied math at Princeton is amazing as well… E Weinan, Daubechies and faculty from other groups (computational biology, Bendheim, engineering)… if you have a research topic or interest, you can go to an authority on the subject matter -a lot of ex-Bell Labs and NJ pharma scientists work at Princeton as research faculty (non-teaching)…</p>

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<p>confused, it’s really just a joke. Only the kids in Math 55 really don’t have much time to do anything else because, well, their problem sets take on the order of forty hours a week. Other jokes along the same line:
Harvard computer science majors create social networks; Princeton computer science majors have social lives.
Princeton sociology majors go on to become the first lady. Harvard sociology majors have yet to touch their first lady.
The Princeton Band came up with a few more, but I can’t think of them off the top of my head.</p>

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<p>OK! I got the joke. I just wondered about the truth in it! :)</p>

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<p>Where do math majors end up going for grad school after Princeton?</p>