Out the gates and back again

Most graduates return to campus only occasionally, for Reunions or Homecoming. But for a small number of alumni who also choose to pursue graduate degrees at the University, Commencement is not the end of their academic pursuits at Princeton.

Christian Sahner ’07 earned a master’s degree at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar after he graduated from Princeton. Now Sahner has returned to the University — which he said “launched [him] as an undergraduate” — to pursue a Ph.D. in history.

Sahner, who recalls the undergraduate stereotype of the “sketchy grad student,” said he never imagined coming back to Princeton. He applied to several institutions for graduate school, and while he received multiple acceptances, he ultimately realized that Princeton was the right choice for him.

“The decision [about where] to go to grad school … depends on where I can get the best training and access the best resources,” he explained.

He added that the reason he returned to Princeton was the opportunity to work with several professors, including history professor Peter Brown and near eastern studies professor Michael Cook, who are leading scholars in early Islamic history, his field of interest.

“The chance to work with them was just an opportunity I couldn’t pass up,” Sahner explained.

The prospect of working with a particular professor was also part of the reason Lillian Pierce ’02 returned to Princeton to get her Ph.D. in math. After graduating as valedictorian with a degree in mathematics, Pierce attended Oxford for two years on a Rhodes Scholarship. She then returned to Princeton to work with her senior thesis adviser, math professor Elias Stein, and received her Ph.D. in 2009.

“He is a remarkable mathematician, a superb educator, and a wonderful person, and I have been very lucky to work with him on my doctorate,” Pierce said of Stein in an e-mail. “In fact, even though I graduated in June, we still continue to talk about mathematics together today!”

Pierce, however, did not apply for graduate school at Princeton during her senior year because she thought the University would not accept its own undergraduates as graduate students. She instead accepted an offer from Harvard, but deferred it for two years after winning the Rhodes Scholarship.

“Meanwhile, the chair of the math department’s graduate admissions committee stopped me and said, ‘Why didn’t you apply for grad school here — we were really disappointed not to see an application from you,’ ” Pierce explained. “Once I knew that I could apply, I applied two years later, and came back to Princeton after finishing a master’s at Oxford,” she added.

Upon her return to the University, Pierce said she found the graduate experience very different from her experience during her undergraduate years. As an undergraduate, she had taken a variety of classes in classics, organic chemistry, chamber music performance and, of course, mathematics. As a graduate student, however, her courses were all focused on math.

“I loved the freedom I had as an undergraduate,” Pierce said, adding that “as a graduate student, your field of vision narrows significantly.”

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Sahner noted that, because the University is so focused on undergraduates, there are fewer extracurricular activities for graduate students.

“Life as a graduate student is a lot quieter. There aren’t any eating clubs. The focus is on doing your work and doing it well,” Sahner said. He added that he was active in many extracurricular activities as an undergraduate, but his life “has shifted a bit.”

As a first-year history graduate student, Sahner is currently taking classes and seminars, but in a couple of years, he will have precepts again. Only this time, he will be the instructor leading the discussions rather than the student participating.

“I know all the tricks,” Sahner said. “I think it will make me a more lenient, more loving preceptor.”

Though Pierce was not required to teach classes, she said she opted to lead problem review sessions because she had found them helpful when she was an undergraduate and wanted to “pass along the favor.”

“As an undergraduate, you ask your graduate student TAs [teaching assistants] for help. Then if you go to graduate school, you become, from one day to the next, a graduate student TA, and you suddenly have to know the answers,” she explained, adding that her experiences as an undergraduate have led her to a greater appreciation of the University.

“My experience as an undergraduate at Princeton just made me realize I wanted more Princeton,” she said. “It is simply impossible to ‘use up’ the resources of a place like Princeton; even after being a student at Princeton for nine years, I still feel that I’ve only been able to appreciate a tiny fraction of the knowledge and creativity on campus.”

Still, Sahner noted the general reluctance of the undergraduate student body to remain at the University after graduation.

“Most undergrads can’t imagine returning to this place. For them, Princeton exists in standstill after graduation, like a snapshot,” he said. “But life can continue at Princeton after you graduate, and it can be a rich life — both intellectually and socially.”