I had never taken a Korean history class before my junior year of high school. Before, I had my heart set on being an English major, but a particularly difficult sophomore year English class left me feeling lost and confused about what I wanted to do with the rest of my academic career.

I knew I liked History, but I hadn’t really thought about it as a major before because I found European history dense and uninteresting while American history felt distant and unengaging. Unfortunately for me, it just so happened that these were the two areas my history classes primarily focused on. 

So I gave Korean history a shot and fell in love. Korea is interesting in that it lies between China and Japan, two nations with their own rich histories, and that the intersection of the three nations is omnipresent in any era of history you study. This is captured at the heart of the East Asian Studies Department, where there is less of a divide between the three nations but an emphasis on where they interact with each other. 

So I applied to Princeton as an East Asian Studies concentrator, and although I had brief moments where I considered what it would be like to major in something else, I held firm and eventually declared EAS. 

The department and its small size (there are only seven people in my class!) allow me to explore the different ways I want to study East Asia, which is by expanding my language skills, taking classes in politics and public policy in addition to history and culture. 

For anyone else looking to study other regions and cultures, I would recommend going in after getting rid of all preconceived notions and stereotypes of the region you are studying. Allowing yourself to start anew gives you more room for growth, and there’s something weirdly freeing about the fact that you don’t really know a lot about this particular region.  

At this point in my academic career at Princeton, I have no idea where my interests in East Asia will take me. I originally had my heart set on studying the resonance of colonial history in modern-day South Korea, but after taking classes on Chinese history ("China's Frontiers," and "Everyday Life in Mao's China") the crossroads between Korea and China seem too interesting to ignore, and after writing a paper in one of my classes on the lives of women in the Mao Zedong era of China, I have also become more interested in studying the position of gender within East Asia.

What I do know, however, is that I love the East Asian Studies department. I love that it’s small, that I get individualized attention from my professors, and even the building where it’s housed, Jones Hall, is beautiful. I’ve felt at home here since my first-year fall, and I am excited to see what the future will bring. 

On a recent Friday, as I was walking back from Cannon Green with my friend Kelvin, I was approached by a curious graduate student. "Do you know what's going on over there?" he asked, referencing the festivities on Cannon Green.

"It's Declaration Day," I replied. "The Class of '24 announced their majors, so they're taking photos in their class sweaters in front of the banners for their majors."

"Wow," he said. "That's so extra."

I laughed and chatted a bit more with him before walking away. It occurred to me that the Princeton Declaration Day tradition is peculiar and maybe a little "extra," but it was enjoyable nonetheless. In the spring of their sophomore year, students receive a black knit sweater with their class year in knitted orange block letters. On "Declaration Day," after all students have declared their concentrations, students gather on Cannon Green behind Nassau Hall to pose for photographs in front of the banner of their department. Engineering (B.S.E) students declare their concentrations midway through their second semester, but Declaration Day occurs after arts and sciences (A.B) students declare, which is midway through their third semester. 

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I applied to Princeton as a Civil and Environmental Engineering major, and CEE indeed ended up being the department I'm concentrating in. After taking several classes and conducting research in the department, I knew that tackling environmental engineering problems is what I'm most passionate and excited about. My experience is by no means common, though, as many students decide to concentrate in an area other than what they anticipated when they applied. The first semester and a half (for B.S.E students) or three and a half semesters (for A.B students) gives you a chance to try out classes in several departments and see what piques your interest. A friend of mine who anticipated majoring in CEE discovered she really enjoyed coding and decided to be a Computer Science major, for instance, while another friend took classes in both the Physics and CEE departments during his first several semesters to get a feel for both.

Even after you declare, though, it's somewhat surprising how many choices you have in your schedule to select classes outside of your department. I generally have about two to three required classes for my major per semester, and then I can choose two to three others to fill my humanities and social sciences requirements or work towards certificates (minors). Next semester, for instance, I'm planning to take a French conversation course (which will fulfill a social sciences requirement) and take an environmental chemistry course (which will count towards my Sustainable Energy certificate). So while I really like being a part of the CEE department and taking CEE classes (which are generally my favorite courses), it's nice that I still get to experience other departments during my time at Princeton.

"Dec Day" might have been a little extra, but it was a lovely moment where we could imagine what we'll do in the future with our CEE knowledge and training.

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I thought I would share what a day in my life looks like when I have a packed schedule of extracurriculars, socializing and schoolwork! 

7:45 a.m.

I don’t normally wake up this early, but I have a lot of morning classes this semester so I take the time to get breakfast and study for my Japanese quiz!

8:30 a.m.

My first class of the day is “Introduction  to Digital Humanities,” which is the class I am taking for my Quantitative and Computational Reasoning distribution requirement, even though it’s an English class! We’re learning about the intersection of digital media and the humanities, and I love how I am able to take a wide range of non-conventional classes to fulfill my distribution requirements.

10:00 a.m.

My second class is Japanese, of which I am in my second year. Starting a new language at Princeton is undoubtedly a challenge, as classes meet every day, but each class is structured around time for grammar, speaking, and writing practice, which makes all the hours you have to put in worth it. 

11:00 a.m.

I then head over to do work in the eating club I’m a member of, where I am supposed to meet a friend for lunch and study together after. As a sophomore, we get two meals per week at our eating club, which is a great way to integrate ourselves into a community we will soon be fully immersed in next semester. Each eating club at Princeton has its own library, so I just did readings for my seminar later today there. 

1:30 p.m.

I had my final class of the day, “Everyday Life in Mao’s China.” This is my favorite class this semester, where we are taking a ground-level view of how the lives of everyday people were impacted by the various changes during the Mao era. Seminars at Princeton are usually three hours long with around fifteen people, though mine is capped at nineteen because so many people were interested in taking it. 

4:30 p.m.

I went to Coffee Club, a student run cafe located in Campus Club to grab coffee with a friend and work on my Japanese homework. Coffee Club has new seasonal drinks every month or so, so I got to try their lavender latte (last month they had raspberry matcha as a specialty). 

6:00 p.m.

Dinner time! I went to dinner at my eating club, where every Thursday night is a member’s night. I got to sit with my friends and catch up on what they did over spring break while also meeting seniors in the club I had never met before. 

9:00 p.m.

My a cappella group was performing at a show for Princeton’s East Asian dance company, Triple 8, so we met near the dressing room at the theater to rehearse beforehand. 

10:00 p.m.

After my performance, I went back to Firestone Library, my favorite library, to do work. I normally leave the library around midnight and go straight to sleep. 

By the midpoint of the semester, I usually have a sense of what to expect in my courses, and I start to find which topics I'm really enjoying. This semester, my favorite course is probably CEE308: Environmental Engineering Laboratory. When I first enrolled, I wasn't sure exactly what the course would entail—environmental engineering is a broad field, after all, with many possible laboratory experiments. It turns out that we experimentally show many of the concepts I learned about last semester in CEE207: Introduction to Environmental Engineering, which is a really satisfying progression of my studies. For instance, in the first lab we measured the soil partition coefficient of a contaminant, and partition coefficients is a topic Professor Bourg covered and assigned a problem set on last semester in CEE207. I also really like the weekly workflow of this lab course. On Monday, we meet in a classroom with Professor Jaffé, where he discusses the theoretical concepts behind the lab we'll be doing on Wednesday by writing equations and diagrams on the blackboard. On Wednesday, we meet in Professor Jaffé's laboratory to carry out the lab. Sometimes the lab requires measurements on multiple days, in which case we'll also come to the lab over the following days to take readings. Each lab is building towards the final report, which is going to be an Environmental Impact Statement of a hypothetical plan to use golf course pesticides on the Princeton lawns and athletic fields. 

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I was nervous about the course at the beginning, because I had not-so-fond memories of my previous lab courses, which were remote (holding my breadboard up to a Zoom camera to try to understand why my circuit wasn't working was a bit of a challenge). But in person, I've found that I really love laboratory work, even the problem-solving and explanation-finding of experiments that don't go as planned. During our first lab, for instance, the data showed a mostly horizontal line when we were expecting a linear trend. At first, I thought that maybe my lab group had made an error in the experiment—why doesn't this look how I'm expecting it to look? I showed the results to Professor Jaffé, though, and he helped me realize an explanation for why the trend appeared as it did. We might have carried out the experiment correctly, but the concentrations used may simply have been too high to see the linear trend we expect at low concentrations. In my report, I simply showed the unexpected results and gave my best explanation for what could possibly have caused them. This skill, accepting unexpected results and working to understand them, is likely just as important as understanding the chemical and physical concepts behind the results we expect to get. 

As the weather gets nicer, Professor Jaffé is planning to assign experiments that require soil and water samples from around campus. I'm looking forward to this, as an afternoon spent outdoors in the sunshine will be a nice treat midweek as the semester gets more hectic. I have my fingers crossed for nice-weather Wednesdays during the second half of the semester.

I have always been fascinated by languages. I grew up bilingual, speaking Haitian Creole and French. Then, at the age of twelve, I realized that it would be cool to actually understand the songs of Akon which I was a big fan of: that's how I decided to start learning English. Later, in high school (coincidentally around the time Akon had hit pause on his musical career), I decided to move on to new horizons and started studying Spanish, followed by German. I think languages are cool, especially at Princeton.

At Princeton, every A.B. student has to pass the language requirement (i.e. demonstrating proficiency in a language other than English) before they graduate. There are many ways to fulfill this requirement. I, for example, took a French Placement Test the summer before I came to Princeton, which allowed me to place out of the language requirement. That meant I did not have to take any language classes at Princeton. But I still did! Why? Because languages are cool! Rather than starting with a completely new language at Princeton (which I might still do later on), I decided to keep learning Spanish for a while. I took the Placement Test for Spanish a couple of days after the French one and got placed into Spanish 108 (for Advanced Learners). 

I took the class last semester and it was amazing! My instructor was extremely kind, supportive and knowledgeable. My experience in that class was nothing like what I had seen in language classes before. Not only did the course focus on the development of the students' oral and written expression, but it also did so by engaging with interesting and thought-provoking material that explored the cultures, histories and politics of Spanish-speaking communities in the United States as well as the larger Hispanic world. The regular writing and speaking exercises encouraged me to frequently engage with the language beyond a superficial level in order to become comfortable expressing complex ideas in Spanish. All this in an encouraging and low-stress environment. I ended up doing very well in the class thanks to the incredible support I received from my instructor and my peers.

This experience reassured me in my decision to pursue a Certificate in Spanish, so much so that I am taking another Spanish class this semester: Spanish 209. In this course, we learn to analyze films in Spanish, which is a great way to improve my writing and speaking skills. It's also a great excuse to watch TV on the weekend without feeling guilty! I am only a few weeks in and I already love it! In addition to the language courses, Princeton offers other opportunities to get better in languages such as speaker events, internships abroad, summer language courses abroad, etc…

I truly feel that Princeton is one of the best places to brush up your skills in many languages or acquire new ones. Plus, you will want to take a class in East Pyne (the building that hosts most of the language departments): it is absolutely stunning! If you don’t believe me, come see for yourself!

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P.S.: If you have questions about any of the things mentioned above, do not hesitate to send me an email!

I still don't know exactly what my concentration will be. When I applied to Princeton, I thought I was going to concentrate in the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA). However, in the middle of my first semester, I started to have doubts. I began to seriously wonder if SPIA was the right path for me. A semester later and I am more unsure about my concentration than I have ever been. What contributes to my uncertainty is the fact that Princeton offers so many interesting opportunities that I am torn between so many departments, research and funding options. While I am still unsure about what my concentration will be, one thing is certain, I will write. A LOT!

I remember reading somewhere that Princeton is one of the universities that places emphasis on writing. This is one of the reasons why all students are required to produce a senior thesis before they graduate. This is also why all undergraduates are required to take a Writing Seminar, either in the fall or spring semester of their first year. Writing seminars are intended to introduce first-year students to academic writing. There are several seminars that students can rank before they are officially assigned to one. I attended mine, WRI 167/168: Justice Beyond Borders, in the fall. I remember one day, as we were discussing Kant's main claims in "Towards Perpetual Peace", a staff member walked into the room and introduced us to a wonderful resource: The Writing Center.

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Essentially, the Writing Center offers free 50-minute and sometimes 80-minute one-on-one appoinments to students in which consultants help them work on writing assignments, ranging from 3-page essays to 20-page research papers. Consultants are undergraduate students who are trained to provide guidance on writing assignments. Personally, I see the Writing Center as an accountability checker. I schedule my appointments days (even weeks) before the deadline for my essays. My thinking is this: if I have a writing consultation scheduled, then I need to have something written. There are even times when I don't have an essay to receive feedback on. Sometimes I only have rough outlines or just broad ideas. However, scheduling a consultation forces me to set time aside to at least think about my writing assignment and to get someone else’s perspective on my initial ideas.

The consultants that I work with always listen to me and ask questions that help refine my ideas and push them further. When there is really nothing to think about, they propose exercises that encourage reflection on specific parts of my essay. Wherever you are in the writing process, they've got you! That's the beauty of the Writing Center. In fact, the consultations I found most useful were the ones where I didn't even have a draft. It is important to note that while no two consultants are the same, at the end of every appointment, I always feel ready to embark on my next step in the writing process.

I see the Writing Center as a group of students who not only listen to me talk about my ideas, but also help to formulate them into words, and ultimately in a "coherent, sensitively argued and well-written essay" (by the way, these are the comments that one of my teachers made on an essay workshopped by the Writing Center. It really works guys!)

This is just my experince with The Writing Center and while others may have a different take, I can say that it has been a helpful tool for me and it may be helpful to you as well. And who knows, maybe I will be a Writing Consultant by the time you come to Princeton and I will consult your essay!

The Princeton academic experience offers a liberal arts education to each student, even those not majoring in the humanities or social sciences. Kevin has a lovely post about what a liberal arts education means to him as an engineer. Like Kevin, I chose Princeton in part because I hoped to gain the technical knowledge needed for my engineering career as well as broaden my perspective on major life themes. I wanted to be trained in the knowledge and skills for environmental research, yet I was also seeking a liberal arts education that would guide my decision-making and problem-solving throughout life. 

Engineering students at Princeton take a writing seminar in their freshman year, and they take a minimum of 7 additional humanities or social science courses before graduation. This averages to one humanities or social science course each semester for engineering students. There is plenty of room for selection with these courses, which can span topics from Happiness and Being Human in Catholic Thought (a philosophy freshman seminar I took last fall) to Mother Tongues (a linguistics freshman seminar I took last spring) to Advanced French (a language class I took last spring).

This fall, I decided to enroll in a visual arts course called Fabric Logics: Textiles as Sculpture. The major units in the course are string art, sewing and weaving. The structure and assignments of the course are very different from what I'm used to: the class meets only once a week, but for a 4-hour class, and instead of being assigned papers or problem sets, I create artworks using the techniques we learn in class. For the sewing unit, our sample project assignment was to create a fruit or a vegetable to practice machine and hand sewing. Please enjoy this image of the banana I made:

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Being able to explore courses in the humanities and social sciences each semester allows me to pursue other interests and learn techniques and ideas that could one day influence my engineering career. For instance, the weaving technique in Fabric Logics could be similar to a lab procedure I'll need one day, or my studies in French culture could influence the type of environmental solutions I propose for a francophone city. Princeton's liberal arts education prepares me to be a creative and dynamic problem-solver, which I hope will allow me to have the greatest positive impact I can have in the world.

Taking difficult courses in one of the world’s most prestigious universities, topped with moving to a new and different country seemed daunting at first. Coming from Poland, I didn’t know if my academic preparation was enough to thrive in a Princeton classroom and whether I’d fit well in the American college social life. As these thoughts began to fill my mind when I entered the walls of the beautiful Princeton campus, I remembered a piece of advice that has helped me succeed throughout my life: don’t be afraid to ask for help. I never would have thought that this piece of advice could make such a difference in my transition to college. 

As I progressed through my first fall semester, I quickly realized how many resources Princeton offers when you’re seeking advice. When I was choosing courses or became worried about my progress in them, I spoke to my wonderful academic adviser, Gene Grossman, a professor in the Department of Economics and Princeton School of Public and International Affairs who always knew exactly how to put me on the right track by both challenging me with exciting course choices and encouraging me to strike a work-life balance. Although he knew I was a prospective economics concentrator, he encouraged me to take Freshman Seminars which seemed to be very loosely connected with my concentration (one of which focused on the importance of failure in life, while the other on the constitutional debate over freedom of speech). These courses allowed me to discover areas of knowledge I never explored before and provided a healthy break from learning about economic consumption patterns and supply & demand. 

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When I found my days getting disorganized and unproductive, I scheduled mentoring sessions with the McGraw Academic Life & Learning Consultants who helped me organize my academic life. When I feared I’d never secure a summer internship after my first year I spoke to the advisers at the Center for Career Development who helped me polish my resume and land an incredible summer opportunity. With their support, I had a wonderful experience working for Magma Partners during my first-year summer: a venture capital investment fund that focused on supporting fintech and insurtech startups in Latin America. 

Finally, when I worried about adjusting to life in the United States I found a robust community at the Davis International Center. The Davis IC helped me effectively transition to living in a new culture. It allowed me to surround myself with people who found the same things about the United States to be different from their home countries and Davis IC empowered us to adapt to them together. I can certainly say that although Princeton has been a challenging experience, I was able to navigate through it well, without being afraid of failure. I proudly wear orange and black as I know that here I’m always surrounded by the right people who will help me succeed no matter what obstacle I encounter.

One aspect of the college transition process that I was worried about was how the workload and workflow would be different from high school. For my science and math courses in high school, I generally had daily textbook exercises to complete before school the next day. In college, instead of textbook exercises assigned every day, I usually have one problem set (p-set) per week per STEM course. A p-set is a series of problems of varying difficulty that you complete and hand in to be graded, and the questions are based on the material covered in class that week.

The number of p-set courses you take in a semester depends on your concentration, and most students try to strike a balance between p-set courses, writing courses as well as courses that don't fall into either category (like art courses). This semester, for instance, I have three p-set courses, one art course and my independent study.

My first p-set course at Princeton was MAT202 Linear Algebra. I completed the first few p-sets on my own, but I soon found a study friend with whom I could collaborate. Working with someone else really helped me grasp the material and learn better, and since then I've always made sure to find my study buddies early on in my p-set courses. This level of collaboration is what I've found to be the biggest difference between high school homework and college homework.

P-sets are designed to be challenging, and it often takes a group to figure out the toughest questions. When I'm stuck, someone else can explain how they approached the question, and at other times I'm the one explaining my method or reasoning. Additionally, it's simply more pleasant and rewarding to work on something and come to a conclusion with a group than completely solo. To give you a sense of what completing a p-set is like, I've outlined the general steps I take for each of my weekly p-sets:

1. Read and attempt

Before we start covering the material in class, I like to read the textbook section and give the p-set a first try on my own. I can usually figure out the easier questions, but it's unlikely I'll be able to complete everything on this first pass.

2. Go to lecture and precept

During the week I'll go to the lectures and precepts (small group problem solving sessions), which will often help clarify what I didn't fully understand from the reading. Sometimes a slide in lecture will show me how to approach a question I couldn't figure out before, so I can go back and try it again.

3. Check with a friend

Once I've given all the problems a try, I'll meet up with friends from the class who have also attempted the p-set and we'll compare our answers. When we have the same answer, we'll feel pretty confident that we're right. When we have different answers, we'll each explain what we did and try to understand how the other person solved it.

4. Go to office hours

For the toughest questions that stump my entire study group, or for questions that we just can't agree on, we'll go to the office hours of the professor or the assistant instructor (AI) or a teaching assistant (TA). Office hours are designated times outside of class  to give students the opportunity to ask questions, receive clarification, or just to catch up with the professor or instructor. In my experience, we'll explain our reasoning and thoughts to the AI, who will help clarify where our approach is correct and where we're missing something. The AIs won't tell you how to solve a problem, but they'll often drop helpful hints.

5. Submit!

When I agree with my study group on all the questions, I'll finally submit my pset! Most submissions are through Canvas, so I'll scan and upload my work.

6. View feedback

Wait, submission wasn't the last step? In a few weeks, I'll get back my graded p-set. This feedback is a great resource for studying for exams so that I don't make the same mistakes.

Towards the end of every semester, students must answer the age-old question: what classes do I want to take next semester? While course selection seems like an impossible task when you haven’t even finished the current semester’s courses yet, this is a delicate art that all Princeton students come to master. So, I’d like to present you with a guide on how to select your courses.

Choose Classes Based on Your Concentration

This is a great way to get started on filling up your four- or five-course semester. Every concentration has its own set of course requirements tailored to students declaring that area of study. In fact, most departments even provide a sample curriculum or a general path to graduation to help students decide how to split up course loads. Granted, not every first-year student is certain of their concentration upon arriving on campus, but you should take the first two semesters as an opportunity to explore concentrations you might have not considered. Remember that Princeton allows a lot of leeway when it comes to choosing a concentration, so don’t feel like you’re wasting your time if you end up taking a class that’s not the best fit for you. Instead, you are one step closer to discovering your field of interest!

Choose Classes that Sound Exciting to You

I cannot stress this enough! While many of your classes will be taken for your concentration, do not miss out on the unique courses offered here! From “Princeton University Steel Band” to “Yaass Queen: Gay Men, Straight Women, and the Literature, Art, and Film of Hagdom,” there is always some course that attracts the attention of each student. Don’t worry if the class seems out of your comfort zone or intellectually demanding -- first of all, most courses at Princeton are, but more importantly, if you are motivated by your fascination, you will naturally excel in the course. Also, since not every course boasts a catchy title, I encourage you to read all the course descriptions as well to give each course a chance. 

Be Aware of Your Distribution Requirements

Students pursuing a Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) must fulfill general education requirements in addition to taking classes for their concentration. This includes one semester of a writing seminar, demonstrated proficiency in one foreign language, and an assortment of distribution requirements that will broaden a student’s level of knowledge. Overall, these courses may take up a significant amount of space in your schedule, so be sure to spread them out over your four years.

For most students intending on pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (B.S.E), you will have to take certain math, science and computing courses to prepare you for advanced engineering courses. Your adviser will recommend that you tackle introductory courses first so that you can fulfill most of the prerequisites early on in your Princeton career. And, you will still have room for humanities and social science electives!

Use Online Resources

Princeton’s registrar website has a lot of information and it may feel overwhelming to figure out how to create a balanced schedule for the semester. I recommend that you take advantage of these online resources carefully crafted by Princeton alumni who have faced the same challenges:

• Princeton Courses: This website allows you to explore course information, ratings and evaluations of courses and professors across different semesters. You can even look up courses by concentration and distribution requirement.
• Principedia: Once you have found some classes you might be interested in, you could head over to Principedia to read course analyses written by students who have taken these courses before to get a better idea of what to expect.
• ReCal: This course-selection tool helps you visualize your course schedule in a weekly calendar format. It is incredibly useful to ensure that none of your courses conflict with each other and that you have allocated sufficient time to eat lunch between classes.
• TigerPath: Finally, this is a tool for planning out your four-year course schedules. Especially if you are ambitiously pursuing multiple certificates or simply want to be well-organized, TigerPath can keep track of all courses you plan to take to ensure that you fulfill all of your concentration requirements.

That’s all I have! If you have any other questions about course selection, please feel free to reach out to me.