• On your way down campus, stop in Murray Dodge Café, located in the basement of Murray Dodge Hall to pick up some free cookies or tea! Murray Dodge Café offers free cookies and tea every day from 3 p.m. to midnight—it is a  much-loved spot on campus!
• After you’ve stopped in Murray Dodge Café, head into the Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM). PUAM is an encyclopedic museum, including modern and contemporary art, prints and drawings, Asian art, African art, Ancient, Byzantine and Islamic art; American art, photography and art of the Ancient Americas. I enjoy taking time to relax by walking through the museum or reading a book in one of the back rooms where a cozy spot overlooks Prospect Gardens. 

• Spend a couple of minutes reading a book in Prospect Gardens.
• It is an absolutely beautiful spot where flowers seem to bloom year-round and dozens of students move throughout the space.

• Sit in Frist Campus Center for a few hours. People play pool, buy tickets to student events, pick up mail and packages, buy candy from the C-Store, watch football games, attend Princeton Student Events Committee (PSEC) events and advertise for student events here. They also grab coffee, visit the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning to receive tutoring, attend events in the Women*s Center or LGBT Center, chat with Undergraduate Student Government (USG) representatives and attend classes. It is one of the busiest hubs of student motion on campus—it’s kind of our campus living room. 
• While you’re in Frist, visit the East Asian Library on the third floor. I didn’t discover the Jones section of the library and the fourth floor stacks until my second year; when I finally made my way there, it felt like I’d found Narnia. 

• Guyot Hall was once home to the E. M. Museum of Geology and Archaeology. Nowadays you can visit several fossils on display in the atrium including the Antrodemus, a dinosaur excavated in 1941 during a dig led by Professor Glenn Jepson ’27.
• While you're heading down campus, visit the outdoor amphitheater in Butler College. When I lived in Butler as a sophomore, I spent many spring afternoons working in the amphitheater. It's a beautiful and quiet spot and feels like an escape from the hustle and bustle on campus.
• Walk down to Poe Field! Weather is hard to predict, but if it is sunny and warm you are likely to find students playing frisbee, soccer or relaxing and working on Poe Field at the bottom of campus. I love to spend warm afternoons relaxing or reading on Poe, but it's also the easiest way to get down to the Princeton Towpath, which is a popular spot for students to run. Personally, I don't like running, but it's nice to be able to go for a walk and immediately feel like you are miles away from campus.
• From Poe, you can also check out the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, the Carl C. Icahn Laboratory, head across Streicker Bridge to visit the Frick Chemistry Laboratory or cross campus to visit the beautiful, new Lewis Center for the Arts by the Princeton "Dinky" Station. 

Right now, I’m sitting in a café in Copenhagen, waiting for the next film in the festival to start. 

How did I get here? Last semester, I took a class called “Vernacular Filmmaking” with Professor Erika Kiss. I wrote a final paper for the course on Thomas Vinterberg, a Danish filmmaker. 

This paper inspired me to look further into Danish cinema. I spoke to my professor about it, and she encouraged me to apply for funding to explore this research further. I applied, explaining my interest, and was granted funding to study in Copenhagen for a week. During this time, I’ll be researching Danish cinema and learning about documentary filmmaking at CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen International Film Festival. 

Before I came to Princeton, the only films I watched were comedies and blockbuster hits with my family. All I knew was that I liked French and Norwegian and reading lots of books. 

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Since then, I’ve discovered so many fields. I’ve truly embraced the idea of interdisciplinary studies and taken classes about philosophy, politics, literature, languages, anthropology and film. 

As a high school student, the only path I could picture was studying English and becoming a lawyer. 

Now, it’s not so easy to plan my future. I can imagine being an anthropologist, a politician, a professor, a filmmaker, a businesswoman and even an archaeologist (inspired by my latest class on the Vikings). 

I’m enjoying my week so far in Copenhagen. I can’t wait until I find my next spark and study something completely new and exciting. 

Toward the end of my senior year in high school, I skyped my mom from my school in Norway and teasingly said, "I’m going to spend next year in China!" It was a joke, I wanted to scare her a bit and see how she yelled that I was not going to be so far away from home again. Moving away from home when I was just 16 years old and studying in a boarding school in Norway had been a great adventure, yet it had also been hard to leave my family behind when I was so young. It was this distance and fear of forever being away that was making my decision to pick a university so hard. I did not know where to go. I knew my mom was also afraid that we would gradually grow more distant, so going to China was, in all seriousness, a complete joke. Instead, she was ecstatic when she heard my false news. She soon started telling me about all her adventures in China when she had lived there before I was born. She asked me a million questions and grew more excited as I mumbled and tried to satisfy her curiosity by reading the information in the pamphlet I held in my hand.

I had gotten my Princeton acceptance packet a few days earlier. Inside it, I had found a brochure about the University’s Bridge Year Program. At first, I ignored it; taking a gap year was not a thing people did in Spain, and it felt more like something high school students in Hollywood movies would do. And it did sound really movie-like: "a tuition-free program that allows a select number of incoming freshmen to begin their Princeton experience by engaging in nine months of University-sponsored service at one of five international locations." Why would the University want its students to start off their degree by going away? I read over it and glanced at the pictures, never actually thinking that months later it would be me who would be standing on a mountain in Yunnan. The five locations offered that year were India, China, Peru, Senegal and Brazil; China felt both the furthest and coolest.

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After that Skype call, I reread the brochure, I researched the program and read blog entries from current and past participants. Suddenly, spending a year in China seemed more exciting. I also wanted to befriend the taxi drivers of Kunming and learn how to cook Chinese dishes like the past participants said they had done. I wanted to learn Mandarin and hike around Western China, learn more about community-based initiatives and how to appreciate a new culture. So I decided to apply.

In order to start my application and be able to do the program, I first had to be a Princeton student, so I quickly accepted the University offer. Ironically, it was this possibility of a bridge year in China that made my college decision so easy. Looking back now, I find it funny; I could very easily not have selected to participate in the Bridge Year Program. But I think it was more the fact that Princeton was offering that opportunity to its admitted students, that it saw the many benefits of spending time abroad, of experiential learning and highlighted the importance of multicultural understanding that made me pick the University. I had a great high school experience where I had learned to view education as much more than classes and textbooks, and it seemed that Princeton also thought being outside of the classroom could bring many benefits.

That year in China has defined not only my Princeton experience but also my identity in more ways that I could possibly describe. It made me passionate about so many things that are now vital to me, it made me a more adventurous and confident person, it completely altered my worldview and deepened my interest in a whole new region. It even brought me closer to my family, as I was able to share a similar experience to the one that my mom had living in China when she was in her thirties. It was this - a joke about a brochure - that made it possible for me to be writing this blog post from my room on Princeton’s campus, yet I still think that imagining oneself participating in the opportunities that each University offers, and thinking about which ones can make one grow most might be a great way of making this college decision. Good luck, everyone!

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This blog post was co-authored by Ellie Maag and Patricia Chen. 

Every year, Princeton students perform in two monologue performances. One is "Me Too Monologues," and the other is "The Vagina Monologues." Here are our impressions of what it was like to perform in these shows. 

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"Me Too Monologues" started in 2009 by students at Duke University. The project acted as a peer outlet for insights on race and identity. Since Princeton adopted it in 2015, "Me Too Monologues" has transformed into a mental health initiative. Scripts are submitted anonymously by students and performed by peers.

As an actress in "Me Too Monologues," the process of developing the performance was just short of being an emotional roller coaster. It’s hard to swallow the fact that the stories are written by current Princeton students and that for every performance, there is a possibility that they could be in the audience. The script you pick is a seed that you cherish and water. It becomes your responsibility to internalize the message and magnify the voice. Sometimes, it can be difficult to detach yourself from the writer’s struggles.

"Me Too Monologues" has been the most impactful theater performance I have ever been a part of. Along with the other eight performers, we covered the topics of anxiety, depression, rape, self-harm, sexual assault and more. It’s a continuous uphill climb to destigmatize perceptions of mental health problems and bring awareness to how close to home it actually is.

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When I came to Princeton, I was placed in a living arrangement with three other women who became some of my closest friends. 

First-year winter. One of them signed up to perform in the show “The Vagina Monologues” by Eve Ensler. They were assigned to perform the last piece, called “My Revolution Begins in the Body.” We would meet in the bathroom to brush our teeth before bed, and she would recite it to me, conjuring up beautiful imagery before my eyes. 

Two years pass. Each of them were stuffed with treasured conversations and conferences that helped me come into my own as a feminist. 

Sophomore year. We bought “Milk and Honey” by Rupi Kaur. Our copy was passed from room to room, getting dog eared marks, gentle highlights and furrowed pencil marks. 

This year. I performed in "The Vagina Monologues." By now, I realize the show is not as perfect or revolutionary as I thought it was. But, I find the same thoughtfulness in performing. And the audience is shocked through many parts of the show. 

My partner and I spent months pouring over 557 words. We explored each tint and hue of every word, letting them drip thoughtfully from our lips. 

I realized that this is the whole purpose of "The Vagina Monologues." It's to help you find a community, delve deeply and take a moment to reflect on issues that you'd like to further explore. 

Sharpen your pencil and take out a notepad because in the next few minutes I am going to divulge the secret formula every Princeton student utilizes to help them make the most out of their college experience.

1) Originality is your legacy.

Originality doesn’t always come in the form of a novel idea or an earth-shattering revelation. Sometimes, it is neither tangible nor intended for the public eye. Originality is a magical concoction that brands your experiences as your own. It goes from the path you take to class to the choices you make for your senior thesis. Stop comparing your trail to the trails of your peers. Stop worrying about whether or not you’re living up to people’s expectations.

2) You can’t have it all.

I came to Princeton with the ambitions of a naïve first-year student, wanting to go to all the guest lectures, sponsored study breaks, supplementary classes and more. But that simply wasn’t feasible. I had to divorce myself from the high school mindset that I could do it all. Be aware that Princeton offers you more than you can ever dream of taking on. 

3) Take act one and two with a grain of salt. Stop seeking advice from people who tell you how to make the most out of your Princeton career.  

Here is the final and most important key: there is no secret ingredient. Four years. People always say that’s all you have. Yet, 36 academic months, 144 weeks, 1008 days…that’s still quite a lot whichever way you put it. Everyone around you is telling you to make the most out of your Princeton career but why is no one telling you how?

The fact is that no one knows and no one should know. There is no “most” in experience. Trying to quantify it is meaningless. Time is fickle. Some people become lost, trying to figure it all out. Too aware of time? You stay stuck in the past, nostalgic for the old days and resentful that it’s all going too fast. Too ignorant of time? You neglect that it’s there and end up standing with a diploma and a million things you haven’t done. My advice? Forget about navigating time. It only serves to complicate. Besides, this is your story. Your plot. Your set of characters. And if you don’t start filling the pages, who will?

Recently, I attended an event sponsored by Princeton Students for Gender Equality (PSGE), a student group on campus dedicated to facilitating discussion on, spreading awareness for, and taking action towards gender equality and inclusion.

The event was called a Period Packing Party. It was part of a weeklong initiative put on by PSGE to celebrate menstruation, a subject that often remains taboo in our society. Together, the volunteers helped put together menstrual kits to donate to a local Trenton homeless shelter. An abundant supply of tampons and pads was collected from a combination of what the group originally had and donations from students who had heard about the event. It was incredibly heartwarming to see people uniting and working for a much needed cause.

The event took place at Frist Campus Center, the heart of campus and student life. The location allowed the event to be visible and attract students that were passing by. We spread ourselves among three tables and got to work. Volunteers at the first table packed the brown bags with pads. I was at the second table where we added tampons to the mix. Then the bags were passed down to the final station where they were rolled up, stapled and placed neatly in boxes, ready to be on their way.

The event was a success. We packaged over 300 period kits in total. People came together for the cause and stayed for the conversations.

It’s easy to get lost in the opportunities at Princeton. Yet setting aside time and prioritizing a cause important to you is a way for young people to take charge of their untapped power and mobilize together for meaningful change.  

If you have the opportunity to attend Princeton Preview, you will be matched with a current student. This student will be your host during your time on campus. They will eat a meal with you, let you stay in their dorm and show you what life is really like at Princeton.

When I came to Preview during my senior spring, I was nervous about what would happen. Would my host be nice? What if she was involved in activities that I just had no interest in? However, those fears were quickly suppressed once I met my host, Alex. Alex was a senior in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department (the department I was most interested at the time and am currently majoring in) and had recently finished her thesis about African penguins. Considering I am a huge animal lover, I was immediately excited to learn more about her Princeton experience. She told me she spent a summer doing research in South Africa, was involved in musical theater on campus, was an RCA (residential college advisor) and had many friends and wonderful experiences at the University. She took the time to answer all of my questions about the school and give me a sense of why she loves Princeton.

Alex quickly picked up on what I was most interested in—Jewish life and animals—and directed me towards the different places on campus that I should visit while I was here, namely the Center for Jewish Life and Guyot Hall (which have become my two favorite buildings since matriculating). Being able to see the school through the eyes of a current student was so helpful in making my decision to attend Princeton.

However, this story doesn’t end here. While many students have limited communication with their host after preview, Alex and I have been good friends ever since. After first meeting, we talked all summer, and she continued to help me prepare for my introduction to Princeton. When I was confused about how to apply for a freshman seminar, she walked me through the process and even proofread my essays for me. When I didn’t know where to buy sheets or other supplies for my room, she told me about the Bed Bath and Beyond college pick-ups where you can purchase the items anywhere and pick them up at the closest store to your school. She also offered to meet up with me when I got here so that I had a friendly face to see amongst thousands of new faces.

Today, Alex is still one of my good friends, and I owe my attendance at Preview to that. She’s truly been a mentor to me over the past four years. She connected me with the penguin place at which she did her thesis research, which is the reason I got to spend my first summer in college in South Africa working with penguins. She’s helped me with job searches, thesis advice, class suggestions and so many other things.

While I can’t say this type of host-pre-frosh friendship happens for everyone at Preview, I can say this is a classic example of the types of friendships you form with other students at Princeton. There is no age gap between friendships here, meaning you have friends older than you who can be mentors, and you have friends younger than you that you can mentor. The frienships you form at Princeton are incredible and special. I am so thankful I attended Preview, and I know that Alex and I will remain friends long after I graduate.

Princeton follows a unique calendar system, where winter break is part of fall semester and students take their finals in January. Because of this set up, between the end of finals period and the start of the new semester, Princeton has a week of break formally known as Intercession. Some people take this opportunity to relax at home. Others go on trips with their friends. Regardless, it’s arguably the most carefree week in the academic year. With the burden of fall semester lifted from my shoulders and the work of the upcoming semester still unknown, I found myself with minimal obligations and time that I otherwise would never have.

During the break, I took an opportunity to delve into career exploration through the Princeternship Program. Every semester, Princeton’s Career Services offer students experiential internships with partner organizations from an assortment of fields. Most of these connections were established through the Princeton alumni network. Participants rank their top three choices and go through an interview process that is more geared towards matching students with the appropriate internship than it is about competition.

I participated in a shadowing internship along with two other students at The Cornea Laser and Eye Institute in Teaneck, New Jersey. Because I was coming from Princeton, I woke up at 5 a.m. to embark on the long three-hour commute to Teaneck. I arrived there at around 9 a.m. and the three of us proceeded to change into appropriate attire, putting on a white lab coat, hair net and surgical mask.

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Throughout the day, we were exposed to numerous aspects of the profession and met with people at various stages in their lives. In the morning, we chatted with a medical student who was at the end of his residency. He explained his reasons for going into optometry (which I thought were rather convincing) and offered us advice on the long process that is medical school.

Our host, Dr. Peter Hersh, was a Princeton alumni himself. Before the internship, I read up on his work and researched procedures he performed at the institute. I was a bit star struck to learn that Dr. Hersh was among the group of people who pioneered and published the first research paper on laser correctional procedure.

I was grateful for the opportunity to observe eight separate surgeries and learn more about the techniques that Dr. Hersh had polished. He was very patient and thorough in his explanations. Despite being extremely busy, he took the time to walk us through what he was doing every step of the way and answer any lingering questions after each procedure.

This opportunity not only made me rethink my future career path, it also demonstrated the power of the Princeton alumni network. Near the end of the day, the conversations moved to similarities and differences between his Princeton experience and ours. Experiencing this undeniable connection with Dr. Hersh that bridged over three decades was an incredible feeling.