anybody heard anything about waitlist?
@Sarrip Did your child’s college counselor recommend applying to 17 schools?
According to this: https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/03/26/princeton-pleased-offer-admission-1823-students-class-2024
the number of accepted students (1823) is way down from the normal of roughly 1900 a year that they normally admit. I find this a bit odd because I would expect them to increase the number of admits in light of the situation with COVID-19. Maybe they are reaching more heavily into their waitlists? Any thoughts on this? Also, does anyone know how many students were waitlisted this year?
There is no “normal” number of accepted students. They admitted as low as 1570 for the Class of 2007 and as high as 2282 for the Class of 2015.
Son remains torn between Princeton, Harvard and Yale…goes back and forth everyday. Although obviously a personal decision for each kid and honestly can’t really go wrong with any choice, he still is undecided and clock is ticking to May 1st. Plans to study economics and math or applied math…being unable to visit schools is frustrating…anyone have any feedback or thoughts we can work off…any reasons to vote for Princeton?
Well, if you are counting on any financial aid, I would say Princeton will give you the most, followed by Harvard and then Yale.
What appealed to my son about Princeton was that it is undergraduate focused, making it easier to forge bonds between student and faculty.
He would be attending Princeton if he had gotten in there, but will be attending Harvard instead.
I second that. Undergraduate focus, beautiful campus and FA were what made Princeton my #1, but my older son’s heart was somewhere else. He didn’t get into Princeton and had to settle for his #1 pick - Harvard.
Same story with my younger one this year - I was hoping for Princeton because of the above, but for some reason Princeton doesn’t like our family. So he had to “settle” for Yale. He is extremely happy and that’s all that matters.
My guess is that the university is reducing the number of admits this year because the yield has been unexpected high in the last two years, resulting in class sizes about 40-50 students larger than the target size. This forced the university to create some ad hoc dormitory space (e.g., converting part of the university’s writing center into dorm rooms). It’s possible that the university will be using the wait list this year as a tool for managing class size, but I’d still expect that the class of 2024 will be smaller than usual.
Thanks for the input on Princeton. Seems everyone has great choices, congrats to all your children. Also seems a lot of positive things to say about Princeton. We are still waiting on the financial aid info. Hopefully this week.
@PAdude - you didn’t get FA in the portal or with your acceptance packet?
@Sarrip , didn’t apply for it initially… so only sent in info a few days after RD notification
@PAdude - Gotcha!! Not sure if you saw the message that I sent you.
FWIW we are still waiting on financial aid, as well.
@HopkinsFan - I must say that Princeton gave the best FA of most of the schools that DD20 applied to. Even those that offered full tuition merit left me with a contribution of a not much of a difference of Princeton’s FA package.
Princeton’s generous FA is well known, and so it was for us, too. The cost of my S2 to attend Princeton was cheaper than my S1’s in-state flagship public university. However, FA is one thing, what people fail to calculate into account is the institutional financial support for the students throughout their undergrad years. This is where Princeton is also truly impressive. Whatever the student’s academic and EC endeavors, Princeton seems to fully support financially. Many of their courses take place around the globe, for example, in Athens, Greece, for a course on Green archaeology; in Kyoto, Japan, for a course on Japanese art, etc. My S2 traveled to Spain, Canada and Sweden with his music group just in his first three semesters at Princeton – fully funded by the university and not a dime out of my own pocket. His request for a pre-med internship this summer for two months in Uganda was approved (until it got canceled recently due to the Covid-19). I heard that a few years ago a student requested a funding for gold nuggets for his Senior Thesis research, and it was approved. About a year ago, a fellow classmate of my son’s requested a funding worth about $20,000 to set up a photography studio for students on campus, and it was approved.
Of course, not every student needs or even wants to travel or do internships or do research requiring gold nuggets and whatnot. The point is that the “cost” of attending a university, other than the tuition, room and board, for enhancing the student’s academic and EC endeavors, should be a part of one’s financial calculations when considering which college to choose.
When we first set out on the whole process of college application two years ago, we came up with the list of those criteria that was important to us in searching for which colleges to apply to. These were: undergrad focus; teacher to student ratio; undergrad population vs. grad; endowment per student, programs and facilities relevant to my S2’s intended field of studies and participation; residential college system; and financial aid.
My S2 was admitted to seven colleges out of state, all within top 10 in the USNWR ranking except for Dartmouth (ranked #12?). Out of seven, Princeton’s FA offer was the most generous, and it met all of the above criteria the best, so the decision to commit to Princeton was no brainer and swift. The experience at the Preview Day made the decision all the more certain and absolute. It’s no surprise that Princeton’s alumni participation rate is perennially among the very top year after year. It’s a testimony to students’ happiness, satisfaction and gratitude to the institution.
S just committed yesterday and it feels amazing to have a conclusion to the whole college applications process! A year ago, there would be no universe in which we could imagine him picking Princeton over MIT. But in the end, he was drawn to the math department (and its apparent daily afternoon teas) like a moth to a flame. I will echo what others say about financial aid; Princeton was beyond generous in comparison to peer offers.
Congratulation for completing a long and arduous journey!
I don’t know whether you and your son had a chance to visit Princeton before Covid-19, but if you haven’t (as well as for those others who are unfortunately missing out on the Preview Day experience), here are some movie suggestions as another but more entertaining form of “virtual tour” of the campus and the town:
Admission - a fun movie to watch especially for those who have been admitted to Princeton. A sigh of relief.
A Beautiful Mind - particularly for math majors with lots of scenes shot actually on campus.
I.Q. - a very fun romance genre starring Walter Matthau as Einstein and Meg Ryan as his fictional niece. Most of the film was shot not only on campus, but I was surprised that the movie had lots of scenes inside the Institute for Advanced Study where Einstein held his office, as well as a liberal display of the charming town of Princeton itself with bucolic surroundings.
The Imitation Game - A historical drama of interest particularly to math majors although none of the movie footage is shot on campus. It’s about Alan Turing (Ph.D. '38 Princeton) and his role in cracking Nazi codes in WWII.
The Great Gatsby - Not about Princeton per se but a work of one of the greatest American writers, F. Scott Fitzgerald. His another famous novel, “The Other Side of Paradise,” is based on his own experience attending Princeton.
@TiggerDad Thanks for the suggestions…what a great idea! We just finished up MIT movies so this gives us a new list to tackle!
Ironically, our Princeton visit was probably my son’s least favorite tour. He left thinking, “not for me.” I’m so glad he reached out to some contacts he made through the math world in lieu of having a Preview experience. Plus, his interview changed his perspective entirely. He came home raving about how that was the kind of person he sees himself becoming.
There have also been some amazing parents who reached out to me and provided invaluable guidance and chronicles of their own children’s paths. It’s a complicated journey to navigate; I don’t think he could have made a ‘wrong’ choice, but I do think he made the best choice. I’m grateful to all who have helped along the way!
Just curious, for those who have had to contact Princeton’s Financial Aid office, what was your experience?
In our case, our experience was very negative. Princeton’s initial FA offer made attending financially impossible for us. I sent an e-mail to their FA office, and after a week with no response followed up. They got back to us with a somewhat curt 2 sentence reply, saying that there wouldn’t be any adjustments to our daughter’s financial aid, and they just didn’t seem interested in working with us at all.
The only other school we contacted about financial aid was Johns Hopkins, and they were very eager to work with us, trying to find ways to increase their FA. It turns out that after financial aid, Princeton’s COA was almost 50% higher than JHU.
Had Princeton given us the same financial aid as JHU, my daughter quite possibly would have accepted, but as it stands their offer is simply unaffordable to us. We gave JHU a strong look, but in the end it looks like my daughter will be going to the University of South Carolina Honors college with a full ride offer.
So for us it’s all water under the bridge now, but I was under the impression that Princeton was much more generous than most schools with financial aid, which is the reason why we applied. I’m just curious if our negative experience is common or unique.