<p>Hi all, I’m here to set the record straight on a few issues.</p>
<p>It’s true that Yale has about twice as many grad students per undergrad than Princeton (I checked the Times QS survey). I imagine that the ratios of grads to undergrads who share a faculty is comparable across the universities, although I can’t point to statistics that say so. </p>
<p>It’s true that Yale has professional schools and Princeton (minus its architecture school) does not. But how important is it to you to take that class in glass blowing or the uniform commercial code relative to another course to complete your liberal arts education, like Syriac or a politics class? Answers to this question will vary, and to some degree this question approximates in intent the question, “big school v. smaller school?” I, for one, knew I wanted to focus on a liberal arts education, so a university with many professional schools only meant less proportional funding for the programs I wanted to study.</p>
<p>I disagree that “undergraduate focus is primarily dependent on student-faculty ratios.” As a matter of fact, I would be highly skeptical of any attempt to define something as vague and subjective as “undergraduate focus” with one metric. I don’t know what “undergraduate focus” means at Yale, but I can tell you what it means at Princeton.
At Princeton, “undergraduate focus” refers first and foremost to the approachability of professors, who are always willing to reschedule office hours to meet with you or to schedule a lunch with you. It also, more specifically, refers to very close advising you get junior and senior year during your independent work. Some of you may know this, but at Princeton you have essentially three pieces of independent work: two junior papers (a fall one attached to a seminar, a spring one in which is just between you and a faculty member) and a senior thesis. It varies when people actually start on their theses, but it’s common to correspond with your thesis adviser (or even meet with them) during the summer after your junior year.
That means at least 3 professors (less if you pick the same adviser more than once) who know you academically inside and out and can potentially write very good recommendations. I think this is something unique about Princeton and was a factor in my decision to come here. Other schools may have “senior thesis” requirements, but they tend to have the character of large essays rather than year-long projects. </p>
<p>Finally, I don’t know why Princeton gets a rep as “more elite” than other Ivies. It’s true we lean a little bit more to the right than others, but as a strong Democrat I’m not put off by it at all, and I don’t think that is in any sense a measure of elitism. The eating clubs get a bad rep, but only from those who have never seen one, much less been in one. They sometimes project an image of a 19th-century men’s club, but that’s all it is, an image, no more than a 1920s-themed party is an actual speakeasy under prohibition. This is especially true now that the University financial aid covers eating club fees. </p>
<p>I should end by saying that it’s true this is a biased post…but after all, I do go to Princeton. :)</p>