Schools, the Arts, Interdisciplinary Studies

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 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 understood as a cultural practice involving both speculative intelligence and practical know-how. 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, urbanism, landscape, and building technology. The approach is interdisciplinary, covering a broad range of research interests from an architectural perspective. Working closely with the faculty of the school and allied departments in the University, students build individual programs of study involving at least two years of course work, general examinations, and a 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 60 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 Engineering and Applied Science

Like the overall University, the engineering school is unique in combining the strengths of a world-leading research institution with the qualities of an outstanding liberal arts college. In both its teaching and research, Princeton Engineering emphasizes technical excellence as well as the multidisciplinary collaborations that make technology effective in solving pressing societal problems. The school is committed to preparing all students—engineers as well as non-engineers—to become leaders in an increasingly technology-driven society.

In its research, the engineering school emphasizes fundamental discoveries that drive many forms of technology at once. Engineering faculty and students collaborate with colleagues in industry, the natural sciences, humanities, social sciences, and public policy to build on these discoveries and forge multi-dimensional solutions. Current areas of strength and growth include research in human health, energy and the environment, and security. The school has 130 faculty members who, in 2005, conducted about $47 million in research funded by government, industry and foundations.

Engineering education at Princeton began in 1875 and grew into the formal creation of the School of Engineering and Applied Science in 1921. Throughout its history, the school has helped create and support new fields of study, including aeronautical engineering in 1942 and the operations research and financial engineering in 1999. The Center for Innovation in Engineering Education, created in 2005, supports cross-disciplinary teaching initiatives and opportunities for internships, entrepreneurialism, and independent research. Principal degrees offered by the school include a bachelor of science in engineering (B.S.E.), a bachelor of arts (A.B.), a master of science in engineering (M.S.E.), a master of engineering (M.Eng.), and a doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.). In spring 2007 there were 794 engineering undergraduates, of whom 32 percent are women. In 2006–07, the school enrolled 508 graduate students, including 25 percent women.

The Engineering Quadrangle (EQuad), 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. The Friend Center for Engineering Education was completed in 2001, with 70,500 square feet of library, classroom, and computer cluster space that provide some of the brightest, most inviting, and best-equipped spaces on campus.

The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs

The Woodrow Wilson School was founded in 1930 as the School of Public and International Affairs. It offers an undergraduate major and a professional school that brings together teaching and research in economics, politics, sociology, psychology, history, and other disciplines within the University to prepare talented women and men for careers in public service, particularly government service in the area of international affairs. It offers a rigorous education for undergraduates and graduate students. Its graduate 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.

The graduate program was added in 1948 when the school was named in honor of Woodrow Wilson, the 28th U.S. president, former governor of New Jersey, and former president of the University. The graduate program was greatly strengthened in the 1960s through a $35 million gift from Marie Robertson, wife of Charles Robertson ’26.

The school counts among its alumni two secretaries of state, a secretary of defense, numerous senators and governors, a chair of the Federal Reserve Board, many U.S. and foreign government officials, ambassadors, leaders of non-profit organizations, and other influential policymakers.

The school emphasizes policy-oriented research and teaching in its graduate program. M.P.A. candidates follow a core curriculum and then branch into one of four fields of concentration. An M.P.A.-J.D. joint-degree program and five certificate programs expand the graduate curriculum.

Both undergraduate and graduate students have the opportunity to gain real-world experience in domestic public policy or international affairs. The undergraduate program is the only selective major at Princeton. Undergraduates participate in policy seminars, which can include travel in the U.S. and abroad. Graduate students are required to complete a policy workshop for a real-world client, with recent workshops focusing on such subjects as immigration policy, managing elections in post-conflict environments, microfinance, nuclear non-proliferation, and the right to primary education. Graduate students also gain professional experience during a required summer internship between their first and second years of study.

In the fall of 2006 the Woodrow Wilson School launched the “Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative” to encourage more of the nation’s best and brightest students to pursue careers in the U.S. federal government, especially in the international relations arena. The six-year program, beginning in a student’s junior year, includes a summer federal government internship, approximately two years of federal government service after college, and graduation from the M.P.A. program at the Woodrow Wilson School. In the summer of 2007 the school expanded its M.P.P. program.

The Creative Arts

The University Center for the Creative and Performing Arts is designed to put the creative and performing arts at the heart of the Princeton experience. The center will soon become the hub of a dedicated arts neighborhood on campus.

Music Study. Princeton attracts student musicians who want a broad liberal arts education and the chance to pursue their musical interests. The Department of Music offers courses in composition and theory as well as music history and literature. Several courses that incorporate student performance are offered each year.

Creative Writing. The Program in Creative Writing offers undergraduate students the unique opportunity to pursue original work in fiction, poetry, and translation under the guidance of renowned practicing writers. Throughout the academic year, a reading series brings to campus several distinguished poets and novelists to read from their work.

The Princeton Atelier. The Princeton Atelier brings professional artists to campus to work on a project they want to explore before developing it for the professional art world.

Theater and Dance. The Program in Theater and Dance offers workshop courses in writing, acting, directing, design, dance, performance history, criticism, and choreography—all taught by professional artists and critics. The program also presents a series of student-acted productions each year. Modern dance courses focus on technique, composition, and choreography while the program’s modern dance concert presents works choreographed by students, faculty, and guest artists.

Visual Arts. The Program in Visual Arts introduces students to the studio arts in the context of a liberal arts education. Courses are offered in ceramics, drawing, film theory and history, painting, photography, digital photography, printmaking, sculpture, and film and video. Facilities include painting and drawing studios; a computer lab for digital photography; darkrooms; digital cameras; light kits and audio equipment; a computer lab for video editing; a printmaking shop; and ceramics and sculpture studios.

Councils, Institutes, and Centers

Princeton has academic units that are interdisciplinary in nature and draw faculty members and students together through teaching and research. A sampling of these is listed below:

Bendheim Center for Finance

Center for African American Studies

Center for Innovation Technology Policy (CITP)

Center for Innovation in Engineering Education (CIEE)

Center for the Study of Religion

Council of the Humanities

Council on Science and Technology

Davis Center for Historical Studies

Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics

Princeton Center for Theoretical Physics

Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI)

Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS)

Princeton Neuroscience Institute

Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM)

Program in Law and Public Affairs

University Center for the Creative and Performing Arts

University Center for Human Values

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