The Wilson School received 158 applications for its undergraduate concentration program this year, representing a slight increase from last year's number.
This year's application deadline — Monday at 5 p.m. — followed the trend of previous years in drawing applicants from a wide variety of interests and backgrounds.
The number of applicants this year was only a fraction more than the 145 applications received last year.
"The number of applications we received this year was well within the normal range," said Stanley Katz, chair of the faculty and director of the undergraduate program at the Wilson School.
"I don't see any substantial change at all either in interest for the program or in the volume of applications," he said.
One major attraction to the program is the ability to create your own program of study encompassing both elements of the social sciences and particular geographical areas and political issues.
"I applied to Woody Woo so that I wouldn't have to select just one subject area to concentrate in," Andrew Watkins '04 said.
"I am interested in all the social sciences and the Woodrow Wilson School would restrict my course selection much less than politics or history would," he explained.
Another typically admired feature of the program is the policy task force, which places juniors in small groups with faculty advisers to conduct research into current problems in public and international affairs. These task forces are offered in a number of universities throughout the world, encouraging study abroad.
"I also like the public policy side because in Woody Woo, I would be dealing with the real issues rather than theory."
Unlike most application processes, students said they tend to enjoy applying for WWS.
"I knew that I wanted to apply to the Wilson School when I first came to Princeton," Sam Todd '04 said. "The application was short, yet comprehensive. It forced me to deeply examine my reasons for applying and reinforced my desire to study public policy."
Decisions are typically sent out by the end of March.
For more than seventy years the Wilson School has been providing a select group of Princeton undergraduates with a strong background in public policy and international affairs. Founded as a small interdisciplinary program for undergraduates in 1930, the Woodrow Wilson School expanded to include a graduate program as well in 1947. The school's undergraduate program has become one of the most prestigious courses of study at the University.
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