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Impractical? Perhaps, but the liberal arts curriculum is illuminating

Impractical? Perhaps, but the liberal arts curriculum is illuminating

If you thought you came to college to learn something practical, forget it. Princeton is one of the last bastions of the high-minded, esoteric and abstruse ? the liberal arts education.Come September, when you arrive at this small liberal arts university in central New Jersey, it will be time to begin your new life as an A.B., a candidate for Princeton's Bachelor of Arts degree.Ignore your calculator-toting roommates when they casually mention their course load of "Electromagnetic Field Theory and Optics" or "Mechanics of Solids and Fluids," ad nauseam.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

The forgotten Princetonians

Kiera Duffy can't escape the music. In her world, it's everywhere.Tenors and sopranos echo in the chapel as an audience waits attentively upon every rise and fall in intonation.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

Stranded on an island of seduction and desire

Singles (and even attached) females in search of a good-looking, educated male beware.Millions of people saw him each week, and he has been hailed as the universal, ideal boyfriend.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

Shirley Tilghman named 19th University president

Shirley Tilghman was named the 19th president of Princeton University by the board of trustees in a special meeting held May 5 in Nassau Hall.Tilghman is the first woman to hold the University's highest office and the first president not to hold a degree from Princeton in more than a century."It is a deep honor and privilege to be able to serve the University I love so much," Tilghman said during a press conference following the annoucement in the Nassau Hall Faculty Room, where she was elected by acclamation less than an hour earlier.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

Facing the challenge of your academic life, and winning, 100 pages later

If you thought getting into Princeton was hard, wait until you see what you have to do to get out.Every spring, college seniors across the nation break out the sunglasses, play frisbee, drink beer and work on their tans.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

University revises writing program for Class of 2005

Kerry Walk jokes that her new favorite color is orange. Walk, former assistant director of the writing program at Harvard University, is surrounded by it since she took her new post as director of Princeton's writing program last semester.Beginning this fall, freshmen ? and sophomores who have not yet completed the existing writing requirement ? will be required to take one course through the new writing program, which Walk will head, to fulfill the University's new writing requirement.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

Wisdom wielders

Princeton boasts a large and high-powered faculty worthy of its reputation as one of the best in the nation.These famous scholars, unlike their research-oriented counterparts at other Ivy League schools, often teach undergraduate courses ? maybe even yours. Nobel PrizesIn the past few years, Princeton has consistently produced Nobel Prize winners in various departments.Electrical Engineering professor Daniel Tsui won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1999 for his discovery of the fractional quantum Hall effect.Molecular biology professor Eric Wieschaus shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1995 with two other researchers for their work on fruit fly genetics.In 1994, senior research mathematician John Nash shared the Nobel Prize for Economics with two research teammates for their work on game theory.Creative writing professor Toni Morrison, physics professor Joseph Taylor and researcher Russell Hulse, who works at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, all won Nobels in 1993.Morrison, who also won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel "Beloved," coordinates the Princeton Atelier, a program that gives undergraduates the chance to collaborate with famous professionals in the creative world such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez.Physics professor Val Fitch won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1980 for his discoveries about high-energy subatomic particles.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

Clubs attract 860 members; nine full after second round

Spring Bicker and sign-ins ended in February with 392 students joining Bicker clubs and 116 students joining sign-ins on the second round.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

Into the stacks, for better or for worse

Students get "Stoned" at Princeton all the time.The lure of the 18th-largest library in the country, Harvey S.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

Advisers: Guides through the academic wilderness

Don't worry if you have no idea what courses you want to register for in the fall ? your academic advisers may help you feel a little less clueless.Under a system implemented in 1997, approximately 60 faculty members serve as advisers, with each counseling about 30 freshmen and sophomores.In each college, 10 faculty members advise freshmen while five are assigned to sophomores.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

Lockhart Hall to open as graduate housing in fall

In the wake of an increased graduate school admissions rate and rising real estate prices in Princeton, the University has slated Lockhart dormitory for unmarried graduate student housing for next year, according to Assistant Director of Housing for Graduate Housing Patricia McArdle.Lockhart ? located between the University Store and 48 University Place ? originally was scheduled for renovations next year, along with Dod Hall.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

A nuts-and-bolts education: Engineers face full schedules and classes far from campus

The very idea of engineering at Princeton is enough to send chills down the spines of many A.B. majors.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

Filming flips campus the bird

Meredith Moroney '02 leaned out her window in 1901 Hall with her camera to catch Oscar Award winner Russell Crowe in action during the filming of "A Beautiful Mind" on campus in April.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

Scientist discusses goals of her presidency

Under the austere portraits of George Washington and King George II, flanked by President Harold Shapiro and trustees executive committee chair Robert Rawson Jr.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

Shapiro, PriCom pledge to raise wages after workers' rights campaign

President Shapiro announced the allocation of nearly $400,000 ? the remaining balance of the President's discretionary fund for the 2000-2001 year ? to increase selected University staff salaries in one his final acts as president in May.The announcement was made during the Council of the Princeton University Community meeting on May 1 and supplemented a PriCom recommendation to provide up to $1.5 million to further increase salaries next year."I think that the findings of the Priorities Committee are pressing and important," Shapiro said.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

Solving the world's problems, all as a mere undergraduate

The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs ? known to students as "Woody Woo" ? provides research opportunities for juniors and seniors in domestic and foreign policy.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

Borough targets drinking at clubs

Princeton Borough officials targeted underage drinking at the University's eating clubs this year following the adoption of a N.J.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

Even God rested on the seventh day, but you will not, or so it may seem

Never in the course of human events have so few caused so many so much pain.The nicely embossed brochures the University sends you tell all about the fascinating activities and extracurricular programs available at Princeton.They leave out one important fact, however: Unless your name happens to be Houdini, you will be hard-pressed to sample even a few of them.If you have any intention at all of getting something resembling an education for your $120,000, you are going to be very busy for the next four years with your work alone.Never fear, however, because there are a variety of tactics available for dealing with course chagrin, paper paralysis and homework hysteria.There is, of course, the most obvious and initially painless option: sloth.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

Sixth residential college location set

This past April, the University Board of Trustees approved the tennis courts south of Dillon Gymnasium as the site for the construction of a sixth residential college, according to Vice President and Secretary Thomas Wright '62.The trustees also accepted in full the Final Report of the Sixth Residential College Program Committee, which calls for 100 upperclassmen to be housed in the new residential college and 100 in each of two other existing colleges."The trustees have approved the final report, but the planning work is not finished," Wright said.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

University accepts 11.7 percent of applicants

The University accepted 1,675 of the 14,287 applicants for places in the Class of 2005 ? an 11.7 percent acceptance rate, slightly lower than the 12.2 percent rate for the previous freshman class, according to Dean of Admission Fred Hargadon.Hargadon added that the University saw a higher-than-expected yield, with 1,198 initially accepting offers of admission versus the University's target of 1,165.Of the admitted applicants, just under 50 percent are men and just over 49 percent are women, Hargadon said....Students of color make up 35 percent of the acceptances and 8 percent of the 1,675 high schoolers are international students, he added....Those offered admission include students from all 50 states and 51 countries.Thirty-four percent of the Class of 2005 was admitted in the Early Decision process in December.

NEWS | 07/15/2001

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