This is now my fifth reading period at Princeton, but it’s the first one that I’ve been at home for. What is this so-called “reading period,” you may ask? All written work-- papers, projects, etc.-- are due on Dean’s Date at 5 p.m., and then exam period begins after that. So between the time that classes end and written work is due, we have about two weeks to prepare. This year, classes ended on Tuesday, November 24, and Dean’s Date is Tuesday, December 8. Typically on Dean's Date, there's a huge celebration on campus hosted by USG (Undergraduate Student Government) with food and giveaways. Last year, we got cozy blankets and we had various delicious treats from Nina's Waffles, Milk n' Cookies, Dunkin Donuts, Tot Cart, and more, with music by the Princeton Band! 

Personally, I love reading period. Although it can definitely be stressful with papers and exams coming up, Princeton gives you plenty of time to get your work done. When I’m on campus, I study with friends at Firestone Library, attend self-care study breaks and stay up late chatting with my roommate. Princeton really cares about your mental health and well-being, and they understand that you need a sufficient break between the end of classes and the beginning of exams to rest, relax and prepare. And I definitely look forward to celebrating with the Princeton community at 5 p.m. on Dean's Date. 

Now that we’re all caught up, what does reading period look like at home? Though we won't be eating Nina's Waffles on December 8 in McCosh Courtyard together, there are some things that will stay the same. Here’s what my typical day looks like: 

9:30 a.m.: Wake up and post on Instagram (I run social media accounts for local small businesses).

10:00 a.m.: Cook and eat breakfast, typically eggs and toast or a bagel with cream cheese. 

10:30 a.m.: Look up primary sources on Firestone Library online for my paper on Media Lengua, a mixed language in the Andean highlands of Ecuador. This is for my course, “Languages of the Americas.” The databases have just what I need to gather research for my paper! 

11:30 a.m.: Take a break to pet my cat and give her fresh water. 

11:45 a.m.: Start working on my paper for “Writing About Family.” I decide to write on the memoir "Men We Reaped" by Jesmyn Ward. I’m curious about how ideas of home interact with physical descriptions of houses in the text...my thesis is TBD! 

12:15 p.m.: I have somewhat of a thesis for the “Writing About Family” paper, so I move on to brainstorm for my creative project in “Jane Austen: Then and Now.” I’m creating an Instagram account from the perspective of Mary Crawford, a character in Mansfield Park. I start planning out all of my Instagram posts and captions. 

1:00 p.m.: Lunch time! I eat leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner, and after I’m full on mashed potatoes and turkey, I take a break and FaceTime my friends to check-in on how they’re doing during reading period. 

2:00 p.m.: Ten pages of my Junior Paper or a 10-page prospectus are due on Dean’s Date, so I get started on that next. If you haven’t picked up on it by now, my concentration is English, so I have a LOT of papers. I’m writing my Junior Paper on nameless female protagonists in literature. 

2:45 p.m.: One of my brothers, who’s a first-year at TCNJ (The College of New Jersey), joins me now after his classes. We write and study together for a little while, but we’re mostly just talking, laughing and having a good time. He’s become my new study buddy! 

3:30 p.m.: I hop on a Zoom call with my team, Princeton Cheer, to study and chat with them. Normally, during reading period, we book a room in a building on campus to study together, but Zoom works too. 

4:15 p.m.: Time to get ready for work! I picked up a job at J.Crew near my house during the holiday season to make some extra money. I typically work 5-9:30 p.m. on weekdays and longer hours on weekends. I grab a coffee at Gloria Jeans nearby before my shift.

9:45 p.m.: I get home from work, chat with my family and shower.

10:30 p.m.: Finally, Netflix time! Right now, I’m watching The Queen’s Gambit, but I’m also keeping up with the latest season of Grey’s Anatomy on Hulu. 

12:30 a.m.: Bedtime :) 

Reading period surely look different this year, but there are still plenty of ways to stay connected, get your work done and make time for self care. Still have some questions about reading period, papers, and finals at Princeton? Feel free to email me! 

Since the start of high school, I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in engineering and nobody could persuade me otherwise. I applied to Princeton with the sole notion that I would take mathematics and science courses and follow this linear path that would allow me to graduate with a degree in engineering. Many of my friends questioned why I chose Princeton instead of a STEM-oriented university. Yet as I sit here and look back at my first year of college, I realize that it is precisely Princeton’s emphasis on a liberal arts education that has enriched my learning experience through interdisciplinary lectures.

The liberal arts curriculum starts with the First-year Writing Seminar, which all first-year undergraduates are required to take. This intensive writing course embodies the ideals of the philosophy behind academia and scholarship: it teaches students how to think critically and analyze complex issues, skills that are a must for any discipline. As such, Princeton recognizes that our decision to concentrate in engineering or the humanities is just as important as preparing us to become society’s future leaders and researchers. This notion became apparent only after I reached out to a few alumni, a majority of which seemed to have ended up working in a discipline that had little association with their undergraduate concentration. I myself initially grappled with this conundrum as I wondered whether I would dedicate four years of my life toward Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE), my prospective concentration, only to completely abandon all my work after college.

Interestingly enough, while I was working on a problem set for a CBE course, I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t exactly the mass balances and thermodynamics that attracted me to this concentration, but rather the problem solving aspects that it demanded and how it tied my love of mathematics to biomolecular science. Sure, the courses that I take will prepare me for a smooth transition into the workforce. Of greater significance is that Princeton’s liberal arts education will teach me to challenge preconceived hypotheses and theories and think creatively to develop my own. Thus, I now view engineering not simply as applications of science to the real world, but more so an interdisciplinary field characterized by an intersecting network of natural and social sciences, where clear writing and multilingualism foster scholarly communication, artforms in nature inspire innovation and history guides scientific morality and ethics. To be an engineer, we must understand the world around us, and only through a liberal arts education can we achieve such a well-rounded perspective.

I’ve loved following politics since I was a kid — as early as middle school, I would come home in the afternoons from school and turn the TV to political commentary while I did my homework. Accordingly, I’m sure it came as a surprise to no one who knows me when I decided to pick Politics as my major at Princeton, even though it wasn’t what I thought I would pick when I first stepped on campus. However, declaring Politics is one of the best choices I’ve made at Princeton, and I can’t imagine my university experience without it. 

Students who come to Princeton interested in politics and political science tend to choose between two departments: Politics and the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), although some of my classmates who care most deeply about those subjects choose to concentrate in totally unrelated areas. While SPIA is an interdisciplinary program that spans politics as well as history, sociology, and economics, Politics is more precisely focused on political science and theory. Students generally choose Politics over SPIA or vice-versa because of personal subject matter preference, rather than any (likely non-existent) employability or graduate school-related concerns. 

There are also a number of ways to get involved with activities concerning politics, political science or government outside of the classroom. Whig-Clio is Princeton’s umbrella extracurricular political group. Organized within it are the Princeton Debate Panel, Princeton Mock Trial, Princeton Model Congress and more. Even if you don’t want to directly be involved in these sorts of extracurricular activities, Whig-Clio regularly hosts guest speaker events and even Presidential debate watch parties that are open to the whole student body. Outside of this organizing structure are the Princeton College Democrats and the Princeton College Republicans, which are rather directly tied to American political parties and offer community to politically like-minded undergrads. 

If you’re a writer, Princeton has a ton of outlets for you to share your beliefs. Perhaps two of the most prominent are The Princeton Progressive (known to students as “The Prog”), which terms itself “Princeton’s only left publication,” and The Princeton Tory, characterized on its website as “the leading Princeton publication of conservative thought.” Other publications like the Princeton Legal Journal, the Nassau Weekly and even The Daily Princetonian aren’t overtly political in nature but provide fora for students to express their opinions. 

Many students either email me or ask me on my tours about what it’s like to study politics in college, since it’s a subject not usually taught in high schools. I can’t speak to what it’s like everywhere — but at Princeton, it’s been an exceedingly fulfilling experience.

After nearly nine months of doing all of my schoolwork in my bedroom or in my basement, I miss doing work in coffee shops, dining halls and most of all, libraries.  Princeton’s libraries are one of the most amazing parts of the University, so there’s no wonder I miss them.  

Firestone Library is probably the most well-known of the Princeton libraries.  It’s huge, with three below-ground and three above-ground floors.  It’s full of conference rooms, individual desks, couches and books, of course.  Princeton students come here to study all the time.  If I woke up early on a weekend and had a lot of studying to do, I would snag a fourth floor conference room for my friends and I to do our homework together.  If I had a problem set that needed my concentration, I would grab an empty desk on any floor.  And if I had an hour in between classes and needed a break, I would put my headphones on and take a quick nap on the second floor couches (hey, don’t judge). 

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Lots of people also love the Architecture Library for its central location, big windows and relative emptiness.  I spent several evenings working on essays or research at a desk in front of a window, people-watching when I could no longer stare at the screen.  When it started to get dark outside, I’d pop over to Murray-Dodge Cafe and grab a freshly-baked cookie before trekking back to my dorm room for the night.

There’s also a number of study spots on campus that are joked about as places to go when you just want to talk with your friends, but pretend you are studying.  The lower level of Frist Campus Center is one of these places; it seems that the whole student body passes through the building twice a day.  Another one is the Julian Street Library, or “J Street,” located above Wilcox Dining Hall.  Somehow, as soon as you sit down and open up your laptop, a friend you hadn’t talked to in weeks would be passing through and would stop to say hi. 

But my favorite place to study at Princeton would have to be East Pyne.  As a Slavic Languages and Literatures concentrator, my department and many of my courses are housed in this building, alongside our friends in Classics, Comparative Literature, German, Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, French and Italian, and Spanish and Portuguese.  In between classes, I often head to the East Pyne library, one of the most beautiful places on campus, to get some studying done.  It was one of the first places I saw when I visited the University for the first time, and I don’t think I’ll ever cease to be in awe when I pass by.  East Pyne reminds me of how lucky I am and how amazing the school I attend is.

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I can’t wait until the next time I get to set up my laptop and backpack by one of the stained-glass windows of East Pyne.  Till then, I’ll settle for the regular window in my bedroom.  

Independent work is a defining part of the Princeton experience. As a junior, I write a Junior Paper (JP), which, for English concentrators, is a 25-30 page paper of my original research and argument. When it was announced that the semester would be virtual, I was initially nervous about how my JP would work. Would I have access to Firestone library resources? Would I have the virtual support from my JP adviser? Where would I even begin to start thinking about my topic? 

Luckily, the Department of English was more than prepared for virtual independent work. Every junior English concentrator gets assigned to a junior seminar, where we learn to engage with scholars, formulate an argument and close-read texts. The seminar was easily moved online to Zoom. Because there is a very small number of students in the course, we get to have in-depth, interesting conversations each week, and we really get to know each other. To practice for our JP, we submit three papers that each center on a different feature of English scholarly writing, and we also lead the discussion on a text once during the semester. 

English JP advisers are there to talk through your ideas every step of the way. I met with my JP adviser early on in the semester just to share some of the topics I was interested in, and then they pointed me towards various sources that may be helpful for my research. Not only are JP advisers ready to guide you, but other professors in the English department are as well. I’ve reached out to some of my English professors to discuss their research that relates to my topic, as well as just chat during Zoom office hours about my ideas.

Firestone Library also has many resources online for research. I’ve never yet encountered an issue when I needed to access something that wasn’t online, but Princeton librarians are also there to help, should students ever need access to something that they can’t find online. 

For my JP, I’ve decided to write on the role of unnamed female protagonists in literature. I’ll be comparing Zadie Smith’s "Swing Time", which has an unnamed female narrator, to Jane Austen’s "Emma", in which the heroine’s name is both the title of the text and the first word of the opening. As I’m also pursuing a certificate in Gender & Sexuality Studies, I’m interested in the questions: how do we interpret the literary choice to have an unnamed female protagonist: is it merely an implication of a lack of identity (as was previously argued by scholars), or might we center in on the female nameless protagonist, in particular, to understand the gendered implications of this choice? 

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I’m looking forward to exploring my topic further and continuing to have the virtual support that Princeton offers for independent work! 

This fall semester has been very difficult to adapt to, and I can’t imagine the spring semester will be much easier. While I initially believed this semester would be a sprint, it is quickly proving to be a marathon, and I have been struggling for an opportunity to simply catch my breath. With that in mind, I have been wondering whether it would be in my best interest to take a gap year if Princeton is forced to stay virtual for yet another year. I would love to spend my final year as a Princeton undergraduate (since next year, I’ll be a senior) on campus surrounded by my friends and the environment I have grown so fond of. But with so much uncertainty about the COVID-19 pandemic, the question remains: to gap or not to gap?

Taking a gap year would be a good opportunity to think about my future. I could do research for my senior thesis. I could work on self-improvement: time management, eliminating procrastination, as well as productivity. It would allow me a lot of time for self-reflection and even internships. I could do remote internships to prepare when I am actually ready to enter the job market. It would be a valuable experience. The only limitations are physical as I would be trapped indoors, but this might be true regardless. However, I enjoy the structure given while in school. I am hungry for everything I can absorb now, and I would feel restless aimlessly wading through the months, waiting for COVID-19 to subside. I know that there will be experiences I will miss out on either way. I also wonder if I can abate my appetite for the classroom for a whole year. Even beyond that, if I chose not to take a gap year, with so much uncertainty surrounding in person interactions, entering the job market also feels like facing a behemoth. I would have to face employment decisions, which are already nerve wracking, compounded by the unease of a pandemic looming over.

There is also the possibility of COVID-19’s halt on in-person instruction extending longer than a year. I would be faced with the same question: How long am I willing to wait to return to Princeton? I cannot put off my education forever while I wait for the pandemic to blow over, especially with how the progress on developing a vaccine is going. This is not an issue that will be solved anytime soon; this is the message I have been getting from the news, Princeton updates, and conversations with friends and loved ones.

All in all, I think that taking a gap year should be a choice made with intention and should be executed purposefully. While I know that if I do decide to take a gap year, I would take full advantage of it, but I also know that it is a risk I may not be able to take. As a first-generation, low-income student, taking a gap year is a gamble because of financial aid and the murky future of the nation’s political and economic situation. Until the end of my junior year, I will be weighing the pros and cons of taking a gap year and deciding whether it is a risk I am willing to take or not.

Princeton prides itself in offering a multitude of study abroad and travel options, and making those as accessible to everyone as possible.  While COVID-19 has suspended most travel, I find myself reminiscing about past trips, including one university-sponsored trip I took just last year.

My freshman seminar course, FRS 161, was a geosciences course taught by Frederik Simons and Adam Maloof.  Over the course of the semester, we were to work with climate data and MATLAB to explore how climate change affected Italian olive orchards, even spending our fall break in Italy gathering data in the field.  Of course, I jumped at the chance for free travel and worked hard on my application to the class.  To my surprise, I got in, even though I had no programming experience and admittedly struggled with science.  I later found out that Adam and Frederik had read all of our essays personally, and selected a group they thought would be enthusiastic and hard working.  I can attest to the hard-working part — a year later, and I still count that class as the hardest one I have ever taken.  

However, I was sure all the long nights spent at my computer would be worth it once the lab portion of the class came along.  While most Princeton students spent the last day of fall midterms preparing to visit home or sleeping off the late nights studying, I spent it frantically packing my duffel bag and racing to the bus our class would take to the airport.  A bus ride and a plane flight later, I was blinking in the late-morning sun in Naples, Italy, the warmth on my skin in stark contrast to the air-conditioned flight or the chilly October morning I had left behind in New Jersey.   

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Over the course of the eight days FRS 161 spent in Italy, we drove along the beautiful Amalfi coast, collected data from three different olive orchards (where we were welcomed with open arms and presented with gifts of olive oil), visited historic Pompeii and majestic Mt. Vesuvius and shared pasta with our hosts at an Italian monastery.  This was no vacation — we were in the orchards from nearly sun up to sundown, and spent nights doing data entry and modeling.  I recall hours spent calling out pH readings for my classmates to record as we worked by flashlight and headlamp late into the night.  But I also recall running into the cold ocean at the end of a long hike, gleefully grabbing all of the gas station snacks I didn’t recognize from home, and finding stray cats wandering among the ruins of Pompeii.

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Although the days of international travel and unmasked gatherings seem so far away, scrolling through the old photos reminds me that there was a time before this, and there will be a time after.  I eagerly await the day when I can once again apply for Princeton courses that promise international adventure!

This semester I am taking four live Zoom classes, two classes in my department, one for my certificate, and the last one for my Quantitative and Computational Reasoning graduation requirement. I generally start my classes at 11 a.m. and end at 3 p.m., with about two classes a day. As an African American Studies concentrator, a reading-based humanities concentration, I read A LOT of pages for class. I prefer to read throughout the day, so I’ll chop up my readings accordingly, but whatever I don’t get to, I let it be. I read everywhere around the house, but I like to type and take notes at my desk! Having a work space that I can walk away from helps me handle my college course load. On campus, we would definitely have time to go from class to class or walk to a friend’s room to study or hang out, so I like to carve out those times into my Zoom schedule as well. 

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In my classes with about 60-100 students, it's a little harder to participate, so I am usually more present mentally when we review material in small groups during precept. It feels about the same as my on-campus experience with large lectures, but seeing so many faces at once on Zoom can be a little intimidating. My smaller seminars on Zoom have given me a chance to talk more and ask questions during class that I would feel a little more hesitant to ask. I like the way that the virtual setting allows more space for questions with the chat and raise-your-hand features. As a result of these features, I think students are asking more questions during class rather than privately after, which helps me learn more about the material.

The most challenging part of the college experience this semester has been navigating my schedule and internship applications while being a first-generation, low-income and immigrant student. I make time to clean the house and wash dishes! I cook, sometimes during class, because I don’t get to be just a student at home. I must take up that responsibility as a young woman in an immigrant home because I choose to make that load lighter on my mom, but also because that's the expectation of a young woman in my culture. Being on campus alleviates that sometimes, but being home and managing all these parts of me has been pretty draining. 

I have had a lot on my plate, but I am trying my best to be present when I can and say no when I cannot as well. I ask for extensions, take some classes off when I’m very tired, and go to bed early. Saying no is a form of self-care in this college world. Be kind to yourself. Let all of who you are take up space because all of you will be taking up space in whatever institution you choose.

As a first-year student going into college during a global pandemic, I wasn’t sure what to expect when it was time to choose classes. There were seemingly infinite options: comparative literature, philosophy, math, science, gender studies, anthropology, all of them interesting. Having no college experience, it was hard to choose. 

One kind of class that I knew I wanted to take was a freshman seminar. These classes are small (10 to 15 students) and focus on a particular topic for close study. I applied for and got selected to take part in FRS 173, the First Year Painting Seminar. Instead of learning how to paint, we would be looking at the mechanics of painting: colors, textures, shapes and supports.

I had never painted before, and I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to learn a new skill, and express myself through a new medium, one which I was very uncomfortable with but very interested in. I also thought it would be cool to get into an art studio at Princeton, because otherwise, I doubted that I would ever see the inside of an artist’s working space.

Once it was announced that Princeton would be going fully virtual, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But soon enough, some packages began arriving at my door. My entryway became filled with boxes and boxes of art supplies: canvas, paints, brushes, mixes tools, gesso and  watercolor paper. The class was still going to be taught, albeit on a virtual basis, and I’d certainly get to paint  even if my classmates only saw me via Zoom.

We’re now about halfway through the semester, and my weekly three-hour painting seminar is the highlight of almost every week. I was apprehensive about taking a visual arts class virtually, especially coming in with no experience, but it has been stress relieving and a valuable creative outlet for me. I entered the worlds of both painting and college as a newcomer at around the same time, and the two mesh very well. It’s been exciting and impactful to create with other first years, all of us together in our painterly endeavor, even if miles apart.

So far, we’ve painted ketchup bottles, sunflowers, tin foil, sketches from other artists. Will I become a great painter? Probably not. I’ve made my peace with this fact. But will I keep painting after the class is over? That seems pretty likely.

The senior thesis is the capstone project of your Princeton career: it’s normally between 80 and 120 pages, and is an opportunity at once to explore an academic passion and to produce original academic research. It’s also a huge time commitment for seniors. Many seniors begin work — oftentimes, after receiving summer research grants or fellowships — on their theses shortly after their junior year. Procrastinating types often wait until later in the fall (or occasionally, until the new year) to get started.

This year is a little bit different for seniors, and for their theses. The travel grants that so many students look forward to receiving each year, which often afford them the opportunity to journey across the country or abroad to conduct first-hand research for their thesis, were unilaterally canceled due to COVID-19. The vast majority of seniors also don’t have the opportunity to work with their advisers in person; instead, that communication is happening largely over email. Many students who had hoped to work in laboratories have had to revise their thesis plans so that research can be conducted at home. And being off-campus for the fall has meant students don’t have access to libraries and study spaces where, just a year ago, it was common to see seniors, surrounded by books, typing away on their capstone projects. 

But students and the University are adapting. My department, Politics, has worked hard to keep digital research funding available for seniors wherever possible, even if the pandemic has stolen much of the fun from its use. My thesis adviser and I have met over Zoom, and I’m excited and well prepared to begin my work. The University Library has stepped into overdrive, responding to student requests for scanned volumes and access to digital resources normally unavailable to off-campus students.

The senior thesis holds near-mythic status at Princeton; writing one is an experience shared by nearly all Princeton alumni, and many graduates cite it as the most fulfilling endeavor of their academic career. Writing a thesis is a way for seniors to explore future projects and career paths: Wendy Kopp, a member of Princeton’s Class of 1989, laid the framework for Teach for America, which she would go on to found, in her thesis. And, as is the case with most things, it would be impossible to argue the experience of piecing together a thesis will be quite the same this year. But I’ve been heartened by the way students, the faculty, and the University have come together to provide support for seniors in the home stretch of our Princeton careers.