Video feature: Open Doors: Princeton Graduate School

Grad School video index

Princeton University's Graduate School offers numerous resources to support advanced degree candidates, including programs and policies that help students meet the needs and demands of personal and family life while successfully pursuing their academic programs. Here, DeForest McDuff holds his child as he receives the hood for his Ph.D. in economics from Chief Marshal Douglas Clark during the Graduate School's Hooding ceremony in 2009.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski


Video stills by Nick Barberio

In this video, students and faculty discuss the opportunities and traditions that are found in Princeton University's Graduate School, which offers advanced degrees spanning the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering.

"The environment here is very collegial," says Jennifer Huynh, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology. "Students have access to multiple departments to take courses in, so even though I'm a student in the sociology department, I've taken courses in political science, economics, the Woodrow Wilson School of public policy. So there's this wonderful cross-fertilization of ideas."

At Princeton, doctoral education available in all disciplines emphasizes original and independent scholarship, while master's degree programs in architecture, engineering, finance, public affairs and public policy prepare candidates for careers in public life and professional practice.

All graduate-level programs share a number of distinctive features: a high level of engagement between distinguished faculty and outstanding students; a campus environment that fosters a community of scholars; a depth of financial support that allows concentration on academics; and degree programs with demonstrated success in educating graduates for careers in academia, government, and the nonprofit and corporate sectors. Complementing and enriching these degree-granting programs are interdisciplinary units that promote a wide range of intellectual activities and research across departmental and divisional boundaries.