Students who need to take leave after admission but before enrollment can request to defer your enrollment from the Office of Admission, maintaining admission status but enrolling in a future year. Students who have already enrolled and need to take a leave of absence or reinstate admission must consult with their advisers through the Office of the Dean of the College for protocols on leave and readmission. Each year, a number of Princeton undergraduates interrupt their studies for a variety of reasons.

If you have the opportunity to pursue activities of value to you, such as clubs or programs within your college or greater community, we recommend getting involved in the areas of interest. However, these activities are not expected for students with high external responsibilities, such as full-time/part-time work and/or at home responsibilities. We encourage students to articulate these responsibilities on the application, as they are still valued as extracurricular commitments that speak to your time management alongside your academic work.

We ask that students do their best to request this material, but students will not be at a disadvantage if their school is not able or willing to provide a transcript. If you are unable to provide this material after requesting it, you should indicate this in your application in the additional information section.

No. Students have enrolled at Princeton without completion of traditional high school programs. The most important factors for academic review include strong recent academic success, such as rigorous college coursework aligned with your intended areas of study, and the courses taught for credit at Princeton.

A resume is not required, but can be encouraged if you’ve had a nontraditional trajectory and the resume serves as a road map for the years of school and/or work since high school. Extensive detail is not required, as this can simply be a list of bullet points, accounting for all years. We do not require employment or military records as proof of employment or service, but students are welcome to submit them if they prefer.

If you have not recent courses, the next best option is to consider anything written from a similar academic program, such as the Warrior-Scholar Project, even if this was not a for-credit course and/or no grade was provided. If you have no similar recent academic program, you may consider either requesting an assignment from an instructor, or writing an expository essay on a topic of your choice. It is also helpful if you can explain your circumstances and available options in the application.

Optional means optional, so these are not required, and most students do not submit additional nonacademic recommendations. However, many nontraditional applicants do find it helpful to submit optional references from individuals who know them better than their required academic references, such as supervisors or colleagues from work or the military, who can speak to their character, work ethic and other personal qualities that they would bring to our campus

If you are currently enrolled in college coursework, either full-time or part-time, you should submit at least two academic recommendations from within the past 2-3 years, ideally in courses similar to those offered at Princeton, such as those listed in our General Education Requirements. In-person courses are preferred, but if your only options are from online courses and/or courses of a different nature, then you can submit letters from these courses instead.

We require all students to submit all transcripts from high school and (if applicable) all transcripts from college and postsecondary work. The greatest emphasis in admission review will be on your most recent work; older work performance will not factor in negatively if it was not as strong. However, we still require these records so we can see the full overall academic picture of your trajectory. School reports should be sent by the most recent institution you attended.

While available college coursework is often the ideal choice, some programs that may not grant credit or even provide grades can assist with this preparation. An example would include the Warrior-Scholar Project for active duty/military applicants, which can still provide valuable academic skills to prepare for the rigor of our curriculum.