U. welcomes nearly 500 new admits

Princeton Preview, a revised version of the program formerly known as April Hosting, hopes to convince admitted students to come to the University.

Because all students have been admitted using regular decision, Princeton Preview will take place during both this weekend and next to accommodate all admitted students.

The Admission Office “had to rethink how [to] welcome admitted students to campus because [there would be] at least double the number of students visiting, if not more than that,” Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye explained. “[We] decided we would take a fresh look at the entire program.”

In years past, Rapelye said, some students have been unable to visit, in part because of the concentration of hosting programs at peer institutions around the same time.

“[We] thought we could better accommodate them if we had two programs and meet the needs of all of our visitors; the students and the parents,” Rapelye said.

The Admission Office began planning for the two events this fall and has been working with the residential colleges to plan events and find students to host all of the prospective students. Each residential college has a corps of Preview Captains, who are undergraduates responsible for recruiting hosts and planning events.

“[We] try to get people enthusiastic about hosting,” Preview Captain for Butler College Nushelle de Silva ’11 said. Butler Captains were each assigned a zone and given $100 to use toward a study break to meet with interested students.

In addition to recruiting their required number of hosts, Brian Jeong ’11 and Christian Rolon ’11, Preview captains for Forbes College, are planning a field day at Princeton Stadium for the prospective freshmen.

The Preview Captain program has successfully recruited enough hosts for this weekend, Rapelye said, adding that the program still needs more hosts for the second weekend.

Mathey Director of Studies Kathleen Crown and Whitman Director of Studies Cole Crittenden both noted in e-mails to The Daily Princetonian that upperclass residents of the four-year residential colleges have been among those signing up to host admitted students.

“We have done very well in recruiting, and many juniors and seniors in [Whitman] have volunteered to host,” Crittenden said.

“This is unusual since it is generally freshmen who volunteer most readily, and we’re really pleased with the willingness of our upperclass students to help out,” he said.

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One of the most notable additions to the hosting program is the inclusion of an activities fair, which will help student groups on campus tell admitted students about the kinds of extracurricular activities available to them at Princeton, as well as recruit potential new members from among next year’s freshmen.

“It’s a great opportunity for current students to talk about something that they’re obviously passionate about and that has been part of their undergraduate experience with someone [that] is considering Princeton,” Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne said of the activities fair.

New to the April hosting weekend is also, of course, Whitman College. The Whitman dining hall will be closed tonight, as well as next Thursday night, to all Princeton students.

“We’d like to think of this as the decision to allow prospective students to eat at Whitman College,” Rapelye explained. “The only way we could handle the crowds that we’re going to have, given the size of the Whitman dining room, was to ask our students for one night to just choose another dining room so that our guests could have the pleasure of eating in the Whitman dining room.”

On Friday night, prospective students will dine under the large tent on Alexander Beach, but Thursday posed a logistical problem.

The administration hopes to rely on the goodwill of Princeton students, Rapelye said. “There are lots of great places to eat on campus. [Whitman] is one of the places” to feed this large a crowd, she added.

“It wasn’t our decision to close the dining hall to current students, although we were consulted and are very happy to have prospective students get a chance to visit our dining hall,” Crittenden said.

Whitman students, who are being compensated with $15 in Paw Points, are not too unhappy about the inconvenience.

“It’s better that than having the pre-frosh mixed [among] all the colleges,” Eric Schlossberg ’10 said.

Forbes resident Chris Rucinski ’10 said he understands that the Admission Office would want the prospective students to dine in Whitman because “it’s no secret that Whitman is the best dining hall.”

In addition to the closure of the Whitman dining hall for dinner tonight and next Thursday, upperclassmen will not be able to use their two extra meals on those days.

In spite of these changes, Princeton Preview will be a familiar experience for undergraduates who went through the program’s predecessor, April Hosting.

“We decided that this was our moment to ... put a new face on the program,” Rapelye said of the refurbished hosting program. But, she added, they decided to keep many things the same.

The financial aid office will, as usual, hold office hours for admitted students and their families.

Financial aid is an individual decision for each student, but it is hard to tell whether these office hours, which provide individual appointments, will convince students to choose Princeton over schools that have revamped their financial aid programs in recent months, Rapelye said.

“The fact that we’re willing to work with them every step of the way and that we are available to them ... I certainly think will be appreciated by the families,” she noted.

Back again this year is “This Side of Princeton,” at which student groups will perform pieces of their repertoire for both prospective and current University students.

“[Performers] were really excited about the opportunity to showcase what their group does and what they’re about to students and their families,” Dunne said after meeting with the Performing Arts Council.

Dunne also noted that, regardless of the program’s new format, the experience will be much the same.