What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$41 to $36,094 a year, depending on income.
College Scorecard 2024 estimate
See the price at your income ↑Sticker price
Full cost before aid: $84,040 a year. Average need-based aid package: $80,837.Aid and debt
68.8%
receive need-based grants
$21,251
average debt at graduation
Not reported by this school: merit aid.
Getting In
Key dates
Test scores
SAT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 1490–1560 · 60% of the class submitted
ACT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 34–35 · 20% of the class submitted
What they value
- Very important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- Class rank
- GPA
- SAT/ACT scores
- Personal essay
- Recommendations
- Extracurriculars
- Special talent
- Character
- Considered
- First-gen status
- Legacy status
- Where you're from
- Volunteer work
- Work experience
- Not considered
- In-state residency
- Demonstrated interest
What this means for you
Princeton rates four things you can work on as Very Important: course rigor, your essay, your recommendations, and your activities.
MoreLess
Rigor means AP, IB, and dual enrollment carry real weight — make sure your mix of AP or IB courses is strong. The essay is weighted like your GPA. Choose recommenders who can be specific about you, not just confirm your transcript. And depth in a few activities beats a long list.
Princeton doesn't consider demonstrated interest in admissions at all — visits and follow-up emails won't move the needle here.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section C7 (admissions factors)
Princeton just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-Princeton essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
72% of Princeton classes have fewer than 20 students.
72%
under 20 students
16.7%
20 to 49
11.3%
50 or more
Every class section counts, labs and seminars included; first-year courses tend to be larger. Princeton CDS 2025–26, I-3.
8:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
73.2%
first-years from out of state
94%
live on campus
Who attends
- White31%
- Asian24.6%
- Hispanic9.5%
- Black7.8%
- Multiracial7.2%
- Unknown / other6.4%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. Princeton CDS 2025–26, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
72.8% of Princeton students graduate in 4 years.
72.8%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2019
97%
finish in 6 years
Entered fall 2019
98.6%
return after first year
Finishing late means paying for extra semesters, so the 4-year rate is the one that shows the cost.
Students with Pell Grants
98% finish in 6 years, against 97% of all students.
Pell Grant students finish at about the same rate as everyone else.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Princeton.
A small, wealthy New Jersey town where the campus meets the high street directly — Gothic quadrangles on one side of Nassau Street, shops and restaurants on the other.
MoreLess
The campus runs south from Nassau Hall down to Lake Carnegie and is contained enough that most students get through four years without a car. New York and Philadelphia are each about an hour away by train.
The City
College town
Princeton, NJ
Best For
Notable alumni
Notable Alumni
Michelle Obama
First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She graduated here in sociology in 1985, writing her senior thesis on the experience of Black Princeton graduates, and went on to Harvard Law School.
Class of 1985
Jeff Bezos
Founded Amazon in 1994 and built it into the largest online retailer in the world. He graduated here in electrical engineering and computer science in 1986, with highest honours.
Class of 1986
Sonia Sotomayor
First Latina justice of the United States Supreme Court. She graduated here in history in 1976 and won the Pyne Prize, the highest distinction the university gives an undergraduate.
Class of 1976
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Wrote The Great Gatsby, and set his first novel, This Side of Paradise, on this campus. He entered with the class of 1917 and withdrew twice without finishing — the second time to join the army.
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
Traditions
Traditions
The senior thesis
Every senior writes one, or in some engineering departments completes a substantial independent project, working one-to-one with a faculty adviser. A shorter junior paper the year before is the rehearsal for it. It is the single structural fact that shapes the last two years here.
Precepts and first-year seminars
Lectures are paired with precepts — small discussion sections where students are expected to argue the material rather than take it down. About 75 first-year seminars are offered each year, each capped at 15 students and taught by a faculty member.
The eating clubs
First- and second-year students live and eat in one of seven residential colleges; most juniors and seniors then join one of the eating clubs on Prospect Avenue, which is where much of upperclass social life sits. Students who want none of it can stay on a college meal plan, and some do — but this is the shape of the social calendar, and worth knowing before deciding.
Weekend escapes from Princeton
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Princeton
New York City
About an hour by trainNJ Transit runs from Princeton Junction, a short shuttle ride from campus, into Penn Station.
Philadelphia
About 1 hourSouth down Route 1 or by rail, for the museums, the Italian Market and a city that is cheaper than New York.
The Jersey Shore
About 1 hour 15 minutesAsbury Park, Point Pleasant and the barrier-island beaches — the standard warm-weather escape.
Getting there and game days
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Newark Liberty International (EWR)
About 50 minutes from campus
Flies international — you can start a trip abroad from here.
Pro sports nearby
- Philadelphia Eagles NFLAbout 1 hour away
- Philadelphia Phillies MLBAbout 1 hour away
- Philadelphia 76ers NBAAbout 1 hour away
- New Jersey Devils NHLAbout 1 hour away
Internships and jobs nearby
Career Proximity
Princeton sits in the middle of New Jersey's pharmaceutical corridor, with New York and Philadelphia each about an hour away by train.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Bristol Myers Squibb
- Johnson & Johnson
- Novo Nordisk
- Educational Testing Service
- Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
The Route 1 corridor between Princeton and New Brunswick, with New York and Philadelphia each about an hour away
Who thrives here
Who Thrives Here
Princeton admits 4.4% of applicants and offers no early decision plan at all, so there is no binding-application shortcut to improve those odds. It is small for a research university: 5,916 undergraduates, 8 students per faculty member, 72.0% of classes under 20, and 94% living on campus. The defining requirement is the senior thesis, written one-to-one with a faculty adviser, and lectures come paired with precepts — small sections where students are expected to argue the material rather than take it down. Princeton reports no fraternity or sorority membership in its own filing; most juniors and seniors join one of the eating clubs on Prospect Avenue instead, which is a social structure worth understanding before committing to it. On cost, 68.8% of undergraduates are awarded need-based aid, need is met in full, and the average graduate borrows $21,251. One number needs context: 72.8% finish in four years against 97.0% in six, because the four-year figure counts only degrees completed by August 31 of the fourth year — a single extra semester moves a student out of it.