Getting started

Your Sophomore Adviser

The advising system for sophomores differs significantly for A.B. students and B.S.E. students. At the end of their first year, A.B. candidates will have had a chance to choose an academic adviser from among the faculty members who serve as academic advisers in their residential college. Many students decide to stay with their current adviser. Others, because their adviser has gone on leave or because of a change in their own academic interests, choose a new adviser. The residential college dean and director of studies continue to be sources of information and guidance for all students in the college.

If you are a sophomore engineer, your academic adviser is the depart-mental representative (or an academic adviser chosen by him or her) in your proposed field of engineering. Thus, engineering students begin their affiliation with a department and the departmental advising system a year earlier than A.B. students. This does not preclude the possibility of switching departments or programs within engineering. With proper advice, you can change your departmental focus once your sophomore year begins. However, this change should be discussed with the associate dean for undergraduate affairs and the appropriate departmental representatives and/or assigned advisers.

Your relationship with your adviser can be a rewarding aspect of your underclass years. Although students and faculty lead busy lives, you should make time to confer with your adviser occasionally throughout the term—not only during course registration time.

Selecting Courses

As you make course selections this year, you will quickly realize that there is not an unlimited amount of time to try all the courses you would like. You will have to choose courses wisely, with an eye to testing new areas and further exploring interests that you may have already identified. Your academic adviser, dean, and director of studies can assist you in reviewing your academic options and giving shape to your overall academic program; individual faculty members and departmental representatives can offer advice about specific courses and departmental requirements. For engineers, an additional resource is the associate dean for undergraduate affairs in the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

While determining your course schedule during the first two weeks of the fall term and thinking ahead to the spring, you should keep in mind the following criteria. Unless you have strong personal feelings about different course options, you should think of the criteria in roughly the order given below.

1. Preparing for a department or program. You should select courses that qualify you to enter any department or program in which you are interested. Some departments and programs have rather strict prerequisites, some suggest prerequisites but are flexible about the precise choice of courses, and some simply require you to be acquainted with courses in their discipline. If you would like to have prerequisites waived or to substitute other courses for prerequisites, you need the approval of the appropriate departmental representative. Even when departments have no formal prerequisites, you should plan to take one upper-level course in every department in which you are considering concentrating.

Shortly after fall recess, the Undergraduate Student Government and the Office of the Dean of the College jointly sponsor a “Majors Fair.”
Juniors and seniors currently majoring in virtually every department, as well as a number of faculty members, are available to answer your questions at this annual event.

In the spring, prior to course registration, many departments have open houses. At these meetings faculty members will discuss the undergraduate curriculum with interested students. Often departmental concentrators attend these sessions and describe their experiences in the department. If you miss an open house, you should ask the department for the information that is distributed to concentrators. If you have questions, make an appointment with the departmental representative. The earlier in the year you do this, the more time will be left for you to make adjustments in your course schedule. Don’t assume that a department will waive prerequisites or make other adjustments just because it has done so in the past.
Departmental requirements change, and hearsay does not provide adequate guidelines for course selection.

2. Completing University and distribution requirements. If at all possible,
you should fulfill all University and distribution requirements by the end
of the sophomore year. This is particularly true of foreign language and
introductory-level laboratory science and technology courses, both of which are difficult to fit into upperclass schedules. The more you are tempted to procrastinate in fulfilling a requirement, probably the more important it is for you to complete it before you begin your independent work.

3. Exploring the curriculum. You should explore departments and courses that might interest you (aside from potential areas of concentration) or that could be helpful in developing independent work topics. Sophomore year is a good time to do this because you know the opportunities available at the University but do not yet have the pressures of departmental courses and independent work.

One thing we have not mentioned is getting a head start on your departmental courses. Many sophomores believe that if they have made a reasonably firm decision on a departmental major, they should begin taking departmental courses. There is certainly nothing wrong with this strategy, but it may not be the best one for entrance into all departments.

Some departments do encourage early concentration in order to take advantage of special summer research or field study opportunities. Students who plan to study abroad for the term or the year may choose to begin departmental work early. In such cases it can be very useful to take one or two departmental courses during the sophomore year.

Generally, however, students find that they get more out of upper-level departmental courses when they take them in conjunction with their junior and senior independent work, since the courses and research complement each other. Some departments expect their majors to take at least two departmental courses each term of junior and senior years, regardless of how many courses they might have had in the department as sophomores, so that taking departmental courses early does not necessarily result in increased flexibility in the upperclass years.

Choosing a Major

The decision about your major is an important one, perhaps the most important of your undergraduate career. It is a decision that will affect the way you look at the world around you, but it will not determine once and for all who you are and how you will live your life. Concentrating in one area has its rewards, but some students experience the process of choosing as the end of possibilities rather than an opening up of new horizons. They worry that choosing one discipline over another will deprive them of entire areas of experience or career opportunities.

When deciding on a major, you should be aware of what it means and what it does not mean to major in a department.

• • It does not mean that you will have to work in that area for the rest of your life or that you will be unqualified to do anything else.
• • It does not mean that you will (or will not) get a job after graduation.
• • It does not mean that you will take courses in only one department for two years, or that the scope of your undergraduate education is restricted. Although focused on a discipline, you can continue to explore other interests.
• • Choosing a major does mean that you will do independent research under the supervision of a faculty member on a specific topic and from a specific intellectual perspective. You certainly will spend much of your time and energy working within the department, so above all you should enjoy and feel stimulated by your chosen field.

When you think about choosing a department, you should consider its requirements, its opportunities for interdisciplinary study, the accessibility of its faculty members, any special strengths and weaknesses, and whether or not you will be supported in your choice of independent work projects. Because a large part of departmental work consists of individually supervised research projects, you should explore the kinds of independent work that are possible in the various departments.

Each year a number of students find it difficult to choose among departments when asked to pick a major. In some cases, this is because the student is truly interested in two different academic areas; in other instances, the student is torn between what “looks good” as a major and what is personally most satisfying. An often-sought remedy for this dilemma is what other schools call a “double major.” For Princeton students, however, a double major is not an option. While you can certainly pursue your interests outside the major and may even complete the requirements for a concentration in more than one department, your degree and departmental honors are granted in one department only. Work done in departments other than the designated one, including independent work, is recorded
on the transcript.

Advice for Premedical Students on Choosing a Major

An interest in medicine often originates from a fascination with science, and it makes sense to pursue this interest through departmental work. Moreover, many students planning to apply to medical school think that they should major in science and that they will be less competitive candidates as humanities or social science majors. This, however, is not the case. Premedical students should use the same criteria for choosing a major that other students use: What discipline is most interesting and most challenging? Which field draws best on your talents and abilities? Where do you want to do your independent work? Where will you do your best work?

Students who are excited by the opportunities at Princeton to study the liberal arts, engineering, or the social sciences should take advantage of the wonderful faculty and facilities here and major in one of these areas. Premed course work can fit into a nonscience major with careful planning and advice from the premed adviser, residential college deans, and directors of studies.

When deciding on a major, several points are worth noting.

• • Medical schools are interested in applicants who are challenged in the sciences and have demonstrated their abilities in science. They also want to attract candidates who have a broad view of the human condition, an understanding gained through the study of literature, history, and the social and behavioral sciences.
• • Successful medical school applicants demonstrate both ability in science and that broader understanding through a strong academic record. Recent premedical students have majored in English, history, the Woodrow Wilson School, engineering, and psychology, as well as the more traditional science fields. Those with equally strong records have been equally successful in gaining admission.
• • The undergraduate years may be the last opportunity to study the liberal arts in depth; there will be plenty of science in medical school, but little opportunity for Shakespeare, Mozart, classical mythology, or economics.

Special Options

Early Concentration

Students who are reasonably clear about their academic direction and want to engage in departmental independent work during the sophomore year can generally do so through “early concentration.” Early concentrators take four courses and engage in independent work in the spring of the sophomore year. Participation in early concentration will not bind you to a department, and you are free as a junior to enter any other department for which you are qualified. Consult your residential college dean or director of studies for more information.

Independent Concentration

Sometimes students have either broad interdisciplinary interests or interests that cannot be incorporated into an existing department. If you have a clear idea of the area you want to pursue but are unable to find the appropriate departmental “home” for your study, you should investigate the Independent Concentration Program.

An independent concentrator designs his or her own major with the help of at least two Princeton faculty members. Areas of concentration in the program vary widely. Some bridge two or more departments—psychology and religion, history and philosophy, molecular biology and psychology, to name a few examples. Others are in areas that are recognized as disciplines but are not departments or programs at Princeton, such as the ancient world, bioethics, statistics, and urban studies. All requirements for graduation, such as the distribution, language, and writing requirements and the number of departmentals, are the same as those for conventional majors.

If you are interested in the independent concentration option, you should begin to formulate your proposal early in the spring of your sophomore year. The application includes a clear statement of purpose, a list of relevant courses, areas for junior and senior independent work, and letters of support from two or more faculty advisers. You also should be prepared to explain why you cannot pursue your study through a traditional major. The proposal is submitted to the Committee on Examinations and Standing for approval.

For more information, contact the dean or director of studies in your residential college or the associate dean of the college, 406 West College, (609) 258-1998.

Interdepartmental Certificate Programs

Most students can satisfy interdisciplinary interests by combining departmental work with one of several interdepartmental programs. Such programs allow you to combine different but related disciplines in course work and in at least part of your independent work. Many, but not all, interdepartmental programs are organized around area studies (for example, African, East Asian, European, Latin American, Near Eastern, and Russian and Eurasian studies). Others, such as visual arts, creative writing, and theater and dance, are closely associated with departments that permit courses in an interdepartmental program to count toward departmental credits.

All interdepartmental programs grant certificates at graduation. Every program has a director who is available to answer your questions. For descriptions of individual interdepartmental programs and a list of program directors, see the next sections of this handbook.