Princeton Preview to be an overnight event once again

Princeton Preview will once again be an overnight event this spring for the first time in three years, according to Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye.

Princeton Preview is an annual event for all of the admitted students and their families to visit the University and attend panels, classes and open houses hosted by different student organizations or academic departments.

This year, Preview will occur on April 11-12 and April 20-21. Students will check in on Day One from 8-11 a.m. and Preview will end by 11 a.m. the next day.

"For the past two years, we had moved the scheduling of Princeton Preview to a one-day event in an abundance of caution because we had meningitis on our campus,” Rapelye explained, adding that shortening Preview to a one-day event was a campus-wide decision to protect both incoming and current students.

Deputy Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne said that the overnight component of Princeton Preview will provide an opportunity for prospective students to have more social interaction during their visit and experience co-curricular life at the University.

"One of the things that's been missing that we're really happy to have return is an opportunity for students to get a better window into the full life of Princeton students," Dunne said.

Rapelye said that the overnight component of the event will allow for a full day’s and a full evening’s worth of activities. There is now freedom to program a myriad of new possibilities for Preview's scheduling.

Rapelye noted that there will be some more flexibility in terms of when the This Side of Princeton Arts Showcase can be held, whereas the past two years it had to be scheduled to end in the early evening to account for families’ travel needs.

She also said that residential colleges will be able to host programs in the evening, though the colleges are still in the planning stages for what these programs might look like.

Rapelye said that the parent program will mirror the student program during the day and families will be invited back the next morning for a breakfast send-off and reception to answer any questions they may have. She noted that, as has been in years past, there will be a parent reception in the afternoon of the full day where she and University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 will meet and speak with the visiting families.

Re-extending Preview into an overnight event, she added, has eliminated pressure to end programming early enough for families to be able to leave the University to travel home. A two-day time frame allows for parents to have more flexibility in terms of what they might want to do on campus or in town in the evening of the first day, since there will be no rush to leave as programming would not end until the next day.

The logistics of hosting prospective students for an overnight event involves recruiting student hosts, a process run by Preview Captains in residential colleges.

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"In part it works because so many students have such strong affinity for Princeton and love their Princeton experience and want to create these opportunities for visiting students," Dunne noted.

Rapelye explained that visiting parents will likely stay somewhere in town or in the nearby area.

She noted that the success of Princeton Preview even as a one-day event was reflected in the last two years’ yield.

"What we've found in the last two years is that we had a better yield each of the past two years with our one-day event. That was quite a surprise, or unexpected," she noted.

The desire to switch back, according to both Rapelye and Dunne, has to do with the two-day event allowing for more programming at night in residential colleges as well as student organization open houses.

"It's very hard to predict what the yield will be this year, but we know that we were able to achieve a full experience for the students on campus just by the fact that the yield went up," she added.

Rapelye noted that this year's Tiger Tuesday event, a visit day for early admitted students, was the largest yet with over 300 students and families from all over the country in attendance.

"The students who are here [for Preview] trying to decide between Princeton and some other really great choices for their college experience are really energetic and engaged and curious about life at Princeton and the student hosts are really excited to showcase all that they love. It really has an upbeat, positive vibe," Dunne said.

Orientation for the Class of 2020 will be different next fall, as the program has beenexpandedunder the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, Dunne explained. He noted that student Preview hosts will also be given some talking points about the orientation program so that they can share up-to-date information with the visiting prospective students.

Rapelye said that both early action and regular decision students will be welcome to the Preview events.

"[We're] looking forward to both [Preview] events and to welcoming the admitted students to campus... and we hope they'll accept our invitation to come to campus," she said.

Senior Assistant Dean of Admission Lindsay Bigoness deferred comment about this year's Preview to Rapelye.