Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs

The undergraduate program of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs is a departmental concentration for juniors and seniors enrolled at Princeton University.

Students have the opportunity to study major problems of contemporary public policy by means of a multidisciplinary program rooted in the social sciences. The program is unique not only in its emphasis on the description of social and political reality, but also in its adherence to its foundational principle that rigorous analysis can be marshaled to enhance the well-being of individuals and societies. Thus the program combines the study of “what is” with “what should be” in the context of domestic and international affairs.

Only undergraduates at Princeton University are eligible to apply to the Woodrow Wilson School. Current sophomores may attend the admission meeting in February; current freshmen may attend the school’s open house in September. Prospective Princeton students who want more information about the Woodrow Wilson School should contact the University Admission Office at (609) 258-3060.

Each year the school admits 90 students who are selected on the basis of their academic record, their strength of preparation, the perspectives they would bring to the school, and their commitment to the study of public and international affairs.

Among the 90 students admitted each year, a small number are admitted as certificate students. Certificate students generally concentrate in the sciences or engineering while enrolled in the Woodrow Wilson School. They have fewer course requirements than concentrators.

While there are no specific requirements for admission, it is highly recommended that candidates take courses in public affairs, or in disciplines such as economics, politics, history, sociology, and psychology. These courses should both reflect the student’s interests and provide the opportunity for students to demonstrate that they can do well academically in the social sciences. Such courses also enable prospective school students to learn whether they want to further pursue the kind of courses that will be part of the Woodrow Wilson School curriculum.

The most distinctive aspect of the Woodrow Wilson School undergraduate curricular experience is the policy task force. The school offers about 11 task forces each term; juniors enroll in one task force in the fall and another one in the spring. In each of these exercises, a limited number of students work together with a faculty director and one or more seniors or graduate students toward proposing solutions to current problems in public and international affairs. Each junior conducts targeted research on a topic carefully chosen to shed light on the larger problem that is central to the group. Topics for independent work are therefore derived from the overall needs of the task force. The tools students employ in their task force are likewise a function of the topics to which the group’s work is addressed. Woodrow Wilson School students are thus encouraged to use any intellectual discipline or skill that may help solve a problem.

In the policy task forces, faculty directors and guest lecturers provide background information, bibliographic references, and ideas on possible interviewees, but the students are expected to take responsibility for both the organization and the outcome of the exercise. Each junior’s paper is read in draft by the faculty director and then rewritten so as to form one product of the group’s effort. The final product is a report with policy recommendations drafted after debates within the entire group.

The second major component of the Woodrow Wilson School academic program is the coursework. Upon admission, each student prepares a program of study for the junior and senior years in consultation with the program director. Departmental courses should form a coherent program of study, normally combining both techniques of analysis from the social science disciplines and courses that give the student substantive depth in a particular policy area. Areas of specialization typically combine a policy issue (urban education, international trade, security, environmental policy, etc.) and a particular geographic region or nation (Africa, Latin America, Europe, India, the United States, etc.).

Although not a requirement, study abroad has become a regular part of the Woodrow Wilson School program. Study abroad during junior year is limited to those universities at which task forces may be offered. In recent years task forces have been offered at the University of Cape Town in South Africa; Oxford University in England; the Chinese University of Hong Kong; the University of Melbourne in Australia; the Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Chile or at the Universidad de Chile, in Santiago, Chile; the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary; and the Institute of Political and Social Sciences in Paris, France.

For Woodrow Wilson School concentrators, the policy task force fulfills the junior independent work requirement of the University. The senior thesis, the third major component of the school’s program, constitutes the independent work of the senior year. The senior thesis is a scholarly paper focused on the policy issue in public or international affairs that is of greatest interest to the student.

The school has several endowments to support summer thesis research for student at the end of the junior year. These funds are designated for any student throughout the University with research topics in public or international affairs. More limited funds are available to Woodrow Wilson School students for summer policy internships.

The school attracts students with a wide variety of interests, and its graduates spend their lives in an equally diverse range of careers. They have worked in teaching, journalism, law, medicine, business, politics, non-governmental organizations, and many other fields.