Graduate School to welcome 608 new advanced-degree candidates

Princeton University's Graduate School admitted 1,231 of the 10,964 students who applied for the 2014-15 academic year, with the school's international reputation and strong financial aid program attracting students from around the world. Of the admitted students, 608 had accepted the school's offer of admission as of June 15. The overall Graduate School admission rate is 11 percent, the same as last year. 

"We are delighted with the extremely strong applicant pool, and with the fact that the Graduate School at Princeton continues to attract outstanding students in all departments," said Sanjeev Kulkarni, dean of the Graduate School. "It is encouraging that we are continuing to see an increasing number of applications from international students."

The 6,004 international students who applied made up 55 percent of the total applicant pool, while the 4,960 U.S. citizens and permanent residents made up 45 percent.

Among all applicants, 574 were underrepresented American minorities, including 363 Latino/Hispanics, 196 African Americans, 10 American Indians and five Pacific Islanders. Of the total number of minority students, 94 received offers of admission. Of the admitted students 459, or 37 percent, are women and 772, or 63 percent, are men. International students were admitted from 64 countries, with the largest number of students expected from, in order, China, Canada, India and France.

"The Graduate School's outreach and efforts to recruit and retain U.S. students from historically underrepresented backgrounds continue to be very successful," Kulkarni said. "Princeton is committed to increasing the diversity of its graduate student body, and we have made efforts on a variety of fronts. The Princeton Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (PSURE), an eight-week program for promising students from a broad range of undergraduate institutions who express interest in pursuing doctoral degrees and hope to pursue a career in college or university teaching and research, continues to generate outstanding applicants."

The standard 12-month doctoral fellowship will increase to $29,600 from the current stipend of $28,600, an increase of 3.5 percent over last year's figure.

"Princeton's outstanding faculty, programs and support packages attract top students, who in turn contribute to the strength and reputation of the Graduate School," Kulkarni said.

Academic fields admitting the highest proportion of applicants were the natural sciences with 14 percent admitted, followed by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs with 14 percent admitted. The percentage of admitted applicants for other fields was 11 percent for engineering, 10 percent for the School of Architecture, 9 percent for the humanities and 9 percent for the social sciences.

The average Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores for admitted students were 163 out of 170 on the verbal section, 161 out of 170 on the quantitative section and 4.5 out of 6 on the analytical writing section.