Fewer selective majors at Princeton than at Ivy peers

Though the Wilson School and various certificate programs require prospective students to complete applications, Princeton has fewer exclusive departments than do Harvard and Yale, each of which offers five selective majors. By requiring applications, these programs are able to ensure that students are committed to the area of study, administrators said, but the daunting process of completing yet another application may also dissuade students from applying.

Wilson School professor and former Undergraduate Program chair Stanley Katz said that the application process was created “because there were not enough resources to provide enough [support] for the number of applicants.”

Katz added, though, that he does not think having an application process is ideal. “Students compete with each other enough,” he said, adding that he would be in favor of eliminating the application process altogether if the school were to hire more faculty members.

The Wilson School’s selective admission process is meant to help identify students who are actually interested in public policy and not attracted to the school’s prestige, Katz added.

This is similar to the purpose behind the Program in American Studies’ application, program director Hendrik Hartog said. In practice, however, the program is far less competitive than the Wilson School, Hartog said.

“We are selective in a formal sense,” Hartog explained. The application is “only to ask people to think seriously about why they want to get a certificate in American Studies. I hardly think of us as selective.” The program has only turned one person down in the last 10 years, he added, noting, “We probably did that to tell them to resubmit their application.”

Other certificate programs requiring students to submit applications include the Program in Urban Studies and the Center for African American Studies.

Yale, by contrast, offers five majors that require applications, Joseph Gordon, the acting dean of Yale College and the dean of undergraduate education, said in an e-mail. Admission rates vary, he added, but two of the most popular majors usually admit “about half of applicants.”

This selectivity has “advantages that are both logistical and pedagogical,” Gordon said. “I suppose that the faculty could offer a major in Architecture without as much studio and collaborative learning components, but they would not feel that they were properly preparing them for further academic or professional work in Architecture if they did so.”

Harvard College Associate Dean Stephanie Kenen noted in an e-mail that the number of competitive concentrations has “decreased in recent years.”

The associated application processes “can help students hone their intellectual interests” as well as ensure that concentrators are prepared for the senior honors theses often required by the programs, Kenen added.