For a generation, Princeton's goal has been to make itself into a true "meritocracy," attracting the brightest and most talented students regardless of background or family wealth. Two recently founded preparatory programs for high school students are working one student a time to bring that vision to life.
The Princeton University Preparatory Program and The Daily Princetonian's Class of 2001 Summer Program both aim to bring talented students from low-performing high schools to Princeton for rigorous classes and guidance on college admissions.
PUPP, which draws high school students from the neighboring districts, was founded in 2001 by sociology professor Miguel Centeno to provide academic support and college counseling for students who might not realize their own potential for success.
The students are all on their schools' honor rolls and come from families earning below the state median income.
Centeno approached John Webb, director of the University's teacher preparation program, and began identifying local high schools and planning aspects of the program. In the summer of 2001 the first "cohort" of high school sophomores began taking classes on the Princeton campus.
Ewing High School senior Anna Stange is a member of the first cohort at PUPP.
"The program was awesome, just the learning experiences and then the cultural experiences," she said. The program also brought together people from very different high schools, she added.
Stange said she took courses on composition, literature, music, art appreciation and math during the summer at Princeton.
The college counseling aspect has been more useful than her own counselors at Ewing, who she sees rarely, she said.
"The guidance we've received has been very valuable," she said. "I didn't have any idea where I could apply and be accepted, and about financial aid."
Stange said she will apply to several schools including Swarthmore College, the University of Pittsburgh and Columbia University.
The program has reached its target of about 60 students, said Richard Carter, principal of PUPP.
In addition to the summer curriculum, PUPP students meet regularly during the school year for SAT workshops and English enrichment classes, he added.
Webb said the program staff will be following closely as the first class at PUPP, now seniors, applies to college. "I am fully aware of the competition of the college admissions process and so I am not going to be approaching this naively," he said.
"We are all going to be biting our nails," he added.
However, Webb said the students in the program have impressed him tremendously.
"The Princeton University students who work as teaching assistants assure us that every single one of them could survive at Princeton," he said. "We were not going to have one little bit of trouble placing every one of them in a fine school."
During the fall, University graduate student Jim Moyer in the English department will be helping the seniors as they write their application essays.
"One of the anchors has been our writing programs," Webb said. "[The students] need to be able to write in order to make an impression at the colleges to which they are applying."
Writing — writing newspaper articles — is also the focus of The Daily Princetonian's summer journalism program, which completed its second year in August under the leadership of former 'Prince' editor-in-chief Richard Just '01.
The program aims to get more minority students interested in journalism.
In its first year, the program was open to underrepresented minority high school students. Students from high schools throughout the northeast attended.
Twenty-one students were accepted each year based on their grades, essays and the quality of articles they had written for their high school newspapers, Just said.
For 10 days, the students live on campus and learn about newspaper production, article and editorial writing, as well as receive guidance on the college application process.
The culmination of the program is the production of an issue of The Daily Princetonian written and edited entirely by the program participants.
During this year's program, University Dean of Admissions Janet Rapelye spoke to the students about the college application process.
"The best thing about being an educator is being able to raise expectations," Rapelye said.
For many of the students from low-performing high schools, "Princeton might not even be on their radar screen."
The benefit of preparatory programs is to "raise their own expectations about themselves," she said.
Lizzette Bonilla of Washington, D.C. participated in the 2002 program. Bonilla wrote for her high school newspaper and said the program taught her a great deal about journalism.
"I learned the many doors that a career in journalism can open. Also, I learned that journalism is a platform where you can be heard by the world and especially politicians," she said in an email.
The college preparation aspect of the program opened her eyes towards where she could go to school, she said.
"At first I was thinking of going to a local community college, which was easy to get into. I thought that I couldn't get into any good colleges," she said. "All of that changed after the program because I began to work vigorously on improving my SATs, essays and my school grades."
Bonilla applied to six schools and was accepted at five. She is now a first-year student at the University of Virginia.
Other participants agreed on the value of the college counseling.
"A lot of my prejudices about Princeton were cleared up through listening to the counselors and the vice president talk about Princeton financial aid, campus life and the admissions process," said high school senior Sade Pilot of Trenton in an email.
"I came out of the experience thinking I could actually get into Princeton, something I hadn't thought of before," she said.
When the Supreme Court was faced with the case regarding the University of Michigan's race-based admissions criteria, Just and the program's leaders had to reevaluate the nature of the program.
"The University does not want to be sponsoring race-based programs anymore," he said. The University signed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court supporting the use of race in admissions so long as it is not the deciding factor.
The Wilson School recently ended a program for minority undergraduates because its admissions standards conflicted with the Court's ruling. The program was designed to attract more minorities into graduate study in public policy.
The journalism program is now for students of socioeconomically disadvantaged high schools. "The program's race-based element has been removed," Just said.
PUPP was not affected by the ruling because its admissions criteria are solely academic and socioeconomic, Webb said.
Just said he considers the program a tremendous success so far and is looking for sources of more funding to expand the number of students involved.
"If you want to have a broad impact on the world of college newspapers you have to do it in larger numbers," he said.
Rapelye said high school students get unequal levels of support in applying to college. "If we look across the country, it's not a level playing field," she said.
Even though her contact with the summer journalism program was brief, she said she was impressed. "I wish that this program existed on every college campus," she said.
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