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E-PrinceEvery summer, a group of roughly 80 incoming freshmen arrive on campus earlier than their classmates to participate in the Freshman Scholars Institute (FSI). According to the University, this program is designed to prepare students who might have an insufficient ...(back to the article)
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A kid who graduated from my high school was an athlete who was invited to FSI, and I wasn't (we didn't graduate the same year, but not far apart). After getting to know some kids who went to FSI while at Princeton, I realized the reason that this person was invited to FSI and I was not must be because of what kinds of classes we'd taken in high school. I know this person was a good student and has done very well at Princeton, but they didn't take almost AP course the school offered in the last two year of high school. Even though we came from the same high school, I pretty much maxed out the highest courses available, which Princeton must have viewed as preparatory, even though my HS wasn't great. This person hadn't, and Princeton seemed to think that FSI would help make up the difference.
I think that's probably fair. Lots of students just don't have the same academic background as the average Princeton student, even if they have showed high capacity and done well in their environment. I sure felt that when I was a freshman from a fairly lousy public high school and in seminars with kids who had graduated from some of the best high schools in the nation. I can only image that would be exacerbated for students who hadn't had the opportunity to take as many advanced courses as I had.
The groups of these students who this especially applies to are students from disadvantaged backgrounds, for obvious reasons.
Athletes who excelled at their sports enough to be recruited to play at the college level probably also fall into the group of students who haven't taken as many advanced courses - not because they are stupid, but because high school athletics often requires huge time commitments (and sometimes course elective commitments). I don't know a single high-performing athlete that I went to high school with who would have even been able to fulfill the kind of schedule I did because of the time that was required of athletes in our sports programs.
The way I understand it, FSI is meant to bridge the gap. Doesn't it offer a pre-calculus class that wouldn't typically be available? I think the purpose is to help kids who haven't taken courses as advanced as the typical Princeton student get up to speed so they aren't crippled off the bat, and I think that since the university has the high school transcripts of these students, they are probably making, for the most part, the right calls on who they choose to invite.
i mean, there are very good reasons for the school to not make fsi transparent - it makes us look bad for favoring recruited athletes and URMs in admissions
yeah, Mr Hat's point is pretty spot-on. We need to remember that in making FSI transparent, we are making it transparent to everybody, not just those already affiliated with Princeton such as incoming students and their parents. It means that students like Jian Li, those who didn't get in and who may feel that these FSI participants are got an unfair advantage in admissions, will have even more fuel for their crusade.
Now, there are a couple other things that need to be mentioned in this debate, and I haven't seen or heard them brought up:
1) what is the matriculation rate for students who do get invited?
2) what is the time-frame and turnover window to invite/recruit students who have decided to accept their admission to Princeton to attend FSI?
yes, these are practical issues, but they're highly relevant to any decision to expand the FSI program. I'm all for inviting more people, but let's first find out how many in the subset of invited folks actually choose to attend.
This is especially relevant since the process of identifying/inviting possible candidates takes time, and the turnover window for this is less than two months (which includes graduation - further sapping administrative resources).[FYI: to the best of my knowledge, FSI doesn't really ramp up recruitment of participants until after they've accepted their admission to Princeton because well, it's wasted resources to try to recruit someone for a Princeton pre-orientation program when they aren't even accepted or don't matriculate].
completely agree with the author. I fell under the "black kid" category of FSI and I'm the first in my family to go to college. There were a bunch of athletes there that came from fairly well to do families and no one could give a straight answer as to why they were there. a lot of athletes actually. There was actually two crowds if you will, us and the athletes. More transparency is needed into what the heck this program is
Why does the author ignore the fact that, in addition to athletes, many members of FSI are URMs?
They are many programs like FSI at other universities too. I.e, Cornell's pre-freshman summer program
http://www.sce.cornell.edu/ss/programs.php?v=PR...
I was a first generation college student (my father does not have an advanced degree and my mother has a nursing degree) and I went to a public high school that did not offer advanced placement courses (none). I was not informed about nor invited to FSI (for what it's worth).
Lol FSI exists ONLY to benefit athletes, the only reason any other students besides athletes are invited is so that the school can have an excuse to fall back on. I don't have a problem with that (I know how important summer training is, just as well as I know that some athletes need a leg up before they start out their freshman year) but either expand the program or be upfront about it. And if mr hat is right, then it looks like expanding the program is the only option that's beneficial for everyone.
most athletes are stupid
They invite more athletes because they want them to not fail when they get to Princeton and have no time.