PrincetonUniversity
A Princeton Profile, 2004-05
The Schools
The School of Architecture
The School of Architecture, Princeton's center of teaching and research in architectural design, history, and theory, provides students with a course of study that reflects contemporary and emerging issues in architecture. Its roots reach back to 1832, when Professor Joseph Henry, an amateur architect and scientist, taught a course on the history of architecture. The formal study of architecture began in 1882 when the Department of Art and Archaeology was founded and Professor Allan Marquand offered a course in the history of Christian architecture. The School of Architecture was opened in 1919; its official opening was delayed due to World War I.
Principal degrees offered by the school include a bachelor of arts (A.B.), a master of architecture (M.Arch.), and a doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.). The master of architecture program, accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), is intended for students who plan to practice architecture professionally. The curriculum for the master's degree emphasizes design expertise in the context of architectural scholarship. Architecture is approached as a cultural practice involving both speculative intelligence and practical know-how, with an emphasis on the pivotal role the architect plays in the development and construction of buildings, cities, and landscapes. Students are encouraged to construct a personal course of study around a core of required courses that represent the knowledge essential to the education of an architect today. Graduates of the program are qualified to take the state professional licensing examination after the completion of a required internship. The four-year doctoral program focuses on the history, theory, and criticism of architecture and urbanism, landscape, and building technology. The approach is interdisciplinary, covering a range of possible areas of concentration. Working closely with the faculty of the school and allied departments in the University, students build individual programs of study leading to the general examination, which is normally administered at the end of the second year, and then to the research and writing of the dissertation.
Students at the School of Architecture benefit from its small size and thorough integration with the University community. In recent years, the school has enrolled approximately 70 graduate students and roughly the same number of undergraduates. Its curriculum always has responded to changes in the profession and in architectural education, providing students with courses that reflect contemporary and emerging issues in architecture. The School of Architecture has remained committed to its original goals: providing undergraduates with a well-rounded liberal arts education and a strong basis for additional studies in architecture, and offering graduate students a comprehensive education in design, technology, and the history and theories of architecture.
Most of the school's facilities are housed in the Architecture Building, including undergraduate and graduate design studios, seminar rooms, Betts Auditorium, an exhibition gallery, faculty and administrative offices, the School of Architecture Library, the Audio-Visual Library, and the Computer-Aided Design and Imaging Facility. Additional facilities for work related to building and construction technologies are located in the Architecture Laboratory, a facility separate from the Architecture Building.
The School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS)
Engineering education at Princeton began in 1875 with the appointment of a professor and a course of study designed for civil engineering. A program in electrical engineering, the first in the United States, was founded in 1889. Three new areas of study in engineering -- chemical, mechanical, and mining -- were added in 1921, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) was formally established. A professor of aeronautical engineering was appointed in 1942 and charged with the task of developing a curriculum of study in that discipline. The Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering (ORFE) was founded in 1999. Principal degrees offered by the school include a bachelor of science in engineering (B.S.E.), a master of science in engineering (M.S.E.), a master of engineering (M.Eng.), and a doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.).
The Engineering Quadrangle (E-Quad), built in 1962, houses five departments: chemical, civil and environmental, electrical, mechanical and aerospace, and operations research and financial engineering. Computer science occupies its own building (completed in 1989) and offers an A.B. as well as a B.S.E. degree.
In 1993, new laboratory space was added, with the construction of Bowen Hall and an expansion of the E-Quad. These facilities now house the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM). Completed in fall 2001, the Friend Center for Engineering Education, with 70,500 square feet of library, classroom, and computer cluster space, provides some of the brightest, most inviting, and best-equipped spaces on campus. In spring 2004 there were 718 engineering undergraduates, including 218 women. Additionally, 492 graduate students were enrolled. More than 125 faculty members serve the six departments.
Interdepartmental programs directed through the school include applications of computing, architecture and engineering, engineering biology, engineering and management systems, engineering physics, environmental studies, geological engineering, materials science and engineering, and robotics and intelligent systems.
Total engineering research expenditures for fiscal year 2003 were $48.5 million. Research initiatives include earthquake engineering, earth-observing systems, fiberoptic networks, materials science, photonics and optoelectronics, polymer science and technology, nanotechnology, and theoretical computer science.
The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
The Woodrow Wilson School was founded at Princeton University in 1930 as the School of Public and International Affairs. A professional school that prepares talented women and men who seek careers in public service, it offers a rigorous education for undergraduates and graduate students. Its degree programs include a two-year course of study leading to a Master in Public Affairs (M.P.A.), a one-year program for mid-career professionals leading to a Master in Public Policy (M.P.P.), and a Ph.D. program in public affairs.
In its early days the school was a small, interdisciplinary program at the undergraduate level. Beyond normal course work, students took part in semester-long ''policy conferences'' in which they focused on policy issues and conducted original research in order to formulate policy recommendations. These conferences are still key to the school's undergraduate curriculum.
In 1948 a graduate professional program was added, and the school was named in honor of President Woodrow Wilson. That program was greatly strengthened in the 1960s through a generous gift from Charles Robertson '26 and Marie Robertson.
The fledgling school shaped the internationalist outlook of a new generation of leaders that emerged from World War II. It counts among its alumni two secretaries of state, a secretary of defense, several senators and governors, a chair of the Federal Reserve Board, leaders of nonprofit organizations, many ambassadors, and other influential policymakers.
Today the school emphasizes policy-oriented research and learning in its graduate program, serving interests in both domestic public policy and international affairs. M.P.A. candidates follow a core curriculum and then branch into one of four fields of concentration: development studies, domestic policy, economics and public policy, or international relations. Two joint-degree programs (in law, and in urban and regional planning) and three certificate programs (in demography; science, technology, and environmental policy; and health and health policy) expand the graduate curriculum.
Both undergraduate and graduate students have the opportunity to gain real-world experience either domestically or internationally. Undergraduate task forces have included work abroad in Australia, Great Britain, Hong Kong, and South Africa, or have studied U.S. domestic issues such as prescription drug coverage and electoral reform. Graduate students are required to complete a policy workshop -- recent workshops have focused on currency unions, education, human rights, poverty, conflict resolution, economic sanctions, and international humanitarian law. Graduate students also gain professional experience during the required summer internship between their first and second years.