You may request a fee waiver one of two ways:  1) Select the fee waiver option on the Common Application. Your college or school counselor must approve your fee waiver request online or submit your fee waiver form by mail or fax.  2) Select one of the following fee waiver options on the Princeton Supplement: Princeton-specific, ACT, College Board or NACAC. All lower-income students are eligible for the Princeton-specific fee waiver. Students named QuestBridge Finalists should select the QuestBridge fee waiver.

You may request a fee waiver if you are from a lower-income background, or if the application fee is a hardship for your family, and you are applying for financial aid. Please note that applying for a fee waiver will not disadvantage your application in any way. You may learn more about fee waivers on our Application Checklist.

We cannot reconsider applications or offer individual explanations for our decisions. Most of our applicants are well qualified for Princeton. Since the admission staff must select a first-year class from an abundance of highly able and accomplished candidates, and since all applicants are compared to the entire applicant pool, it is extremely difficult to explain why any one student is refused.

Since we don't know until after May 1 how many students will accept our offer of admission, we invite a number of our applicants to stay on our wait list in the event we have remaining spaces in the first-year class. The list is unranked; if spaces become available, we will review the entire group of candidates on the wait list.

Yes. Students who wish to take a year off from their studies may request to defer their enrollment for one year (and sometimes for an additional year). If you pursue this, you may not enroll full time in a degree program at another institution during the deferral period. In recent years, the activities of students taking a year off have included work, community service, travel, military service, arts training and religious studies.

Though you are welcome to indicate on your application if another relative attended Princeton, you are considered a “legacy” applicant only if your mother, father, stepmother or stepfather attended Princeton.  

We require two academic teacher recommendations, and request, but do not require, a letter from your school counselor, college adviser or another school official to accompany the School Report.

No. We offer interviews off-campus by the Princeton Schools Committee. If there are enough volunteers in your area, you will be contacted by an interviewer after you submit your application. If you do choose to visit campus, you will have the opportunity to attend an admission information session, a campus tour or an engineering school tour.

We try to offer each applicant the opportunity to have a conversation with an alumnus/a volunteer. This is a chance for you to learn more about the Princeton experience and for us to learn more about you. Interviews take place after the Admission Office has received your application. You may choose on the application to opt out of the interview and this choice will not put you at any disadvantage in the admission process. If you do not opt out, you may receive an email inviting you to interview with a member of our Princeton Schools Committee in your area (if available).

You should begin reviewing Princeton's application requirements and materials after the spring of your junior year and plan on beginning your application in the summer before or during the fall of your senior year. The online Coalition and Common Application and the Princeton-specific Questions are available in mid-August Learn more about applying for admission.