Dear First-year Self,

These next four years will be some of the best years of your life—you will take classes with world-renowned professors, form life-long friendships, and travel the world. There will be various obstacles and challenges in your way, but you will learn from these experiences and turn out to be stronger and wiser. I know you are apprehensive about fitting in and succeeding academically, but rest assured, you will get the hang of things.

I’ve written some of the biggest lessons that will help you in your time at Princeton:

Embrace failure

You will soon learn that failure is inevitable. You will face rejection from the internships you apply to, not getting the grade you wanted, and trying to compare yourself to others. Remember that every time you fail you come out a stronger and more resilient person. Don't let failure discourage you from trying new things at Princeton and putting yourself out there!

Live in the moment

Although you care about academics and trying your hardest, there are life-long memories to be made at Princeton. Go out with your friends instead of staying in for a problem set, go to New York City for a weekend and most importantly, have fun! Remember that it's ok to have fun once in a while and enjoy the company of your peers. When you look back at your time in college, the experiences that you will cherish the most are those in which you chose to live in the moment.

Be open to change

It’s ok if you change your major or if you drop a class you thought you would enjoy. I know that you are used to following a rigid pathway in high school, but this will not be the case in college. Your time at Princeton will be of self-discovery and adventure: chase after your true passions and you will find where you belong. Unexpected changes will make you reflect on what matters most to you.

Enjoy these four years because they will fly by. 

Sincerely,

Senior-year you
 

One of the first people I met at Princeton was my Residential College Adviser, or RCA. Every first-year student belongs to a “zee group” of 15 or so other first years, living together in one area of their residential college with an upperclassman RCA who is there to help with any challenges or questions they might have. RCAs are the first resource for first years and do everything from hosting study breaks to mediating conflicts. I formed a really great connection with my own RCA and knew pretty early on that being an RCA was something I also wanted to do.

The application process can be pretty competitive, so I was thrilled when I learned I’d made it! I imagined all the different study breaks I wanted to do, from painting to getting sushi to playing bubble soccer. I was excited to be part of Clash of the Colleges, a yearly orientation event between each residential college where first years competed in fun games. And of course, I was happy that I’d be living in Forbes College again as an upperclassman. 

But as you know, this year has changed all of that. When we all went virtual, I was worried about meeting my zees online and doing everything through Zoom. I was incredibly disappointed and stressed about what the semester would look like. 

Fortunately, things turned out okay. I’ve been able to hold weekly study breaks online where my zees can come by to talk and play games, and I’ve organized some events with my fellow RCAs so our zees can get to know more people. I still meet with them one on one, maybe not in Starbucks as I pictured, but the sentiment is still there. I always wanted to be an RCA to be there for my zee group, and I can still do that.

As we look to be on campus in the spring per the University’s recent announcement, I’m cautiously optimistic and excited. I’ll be living in Forbes as I originally envisioned, and I’ll meet my zees for the first time. While large gatherings aren’t possible right now, I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to meet with them one on one, and truly welcome them to our Princeton home. 

My home in Midlothian, Virginia, is about 300 miles away from Princeton, but this semester, I’m much farther away — 822 miles, to be exact, in Chicago, Illinois.

As a first-year, I had no idea what to expect from college in the first place, but when it was announced that the fall semester would be virtual, any ideas I had of a normal “college experience” went out the window. Instead of buying dorm decorations, I got together with three other first years, and we scoured AirBnB for a good deal. We ended up here, in Chicago’s West Ridge neighborhood, just a few minutes away from Loyola University.

Image

First-year fall is always a time of growth and change for students, but it’s hard to overstate how strange of a first year I’ve had so far. Instead of living in a dorm with a Residential College Adviser (RCA) and taking my meals at a dining hall, I’m living in an apartment with a landlord where I cook and clean for myself. In addition to the growth necessary for the transition from high school to college work, I’ve had to become more responsible in other ways to ensure my daily tasks don’t interfere with my schoolwork and vice versa. Some examples are as whimsical as me running time trials with my roommates for our weekly grocery run, and others are as serious as working with my health insurance to get out of state coverage when my mental health started to suffer.

This isn’t the first time I’ve lived away from home, but it has certainly been odd to explore a new city at the same time I was exploring a new stage in my life. I’ve spent the weekends here going to art museums and getting takeout from local restaurants, and the weekdays diving into subjects like linguistics and metaphysics that I wasn’t able to study in high school. While looking over concentrations (our term for major) and deciding what I want my academic life to look like in the future, I’ve also been thinking about where to live my life — do I want to live in a city like Chicago? Do I want to be closer to nature? I miss being equidistant between the coast and the mountains, like my house in Virginia, but I love being so close to one of the largest cities in the United States.

Although I won’t lie and say that I’m not looking forward to whenever the world is safe enough for me to finally live and study on Princeton’s campus, this is a semester I otherwise never would have experienced.

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.

To Future Princeton Quest Scholars, 

As a QuestBridge scholar, I distinctly remember how nerve-wracking and confusing the entire match process was, especially since I was one of the only students in my high school who applied through the match process. I had to navigate through the arduous task of sifting through each of the university-specific applications alone. When I applied, Princeton was a non-binding partner school, so I had the privilege of being able to experience campus life during Princeton Preview, the admitted students’ event, before making up my mind. Personally, it wasn’t the admission letter that fueled my decision to attend Princeton, but rather what was implied in between the lines.  I saw that the University had full faith in my future success: they chose me over thousands of other candidates, as might be the case with you, and that means quite a lot.

This year, Princeton’s QuestBridge decision is binding which means, if matched, you’ve committed to enrolling at the University! Though it may not seem easy to assess whether Princeton will be a great fit for you despite all the virtual offerings and the descriptions you may have read online, this can also be a blessing in disguise. While your peers are still trying to decide which colleges to apply to, you have already done the majority of the work. Now your application is in the hands of the Admission Office who take care to get to know you, your experiences and what you’ll bring to the Princeton community.

Image

At this point in time, you may also wonder what comes next after you match with Princeton. (Besides a heartfelt congratulations and sense of accomplishment, of course.) QuestBridge requires that all partner colleges meet 100% of need for match students. In fact, Princeton is one of the most generous universities and always covers 100% of demonstrated need for all students.

As a Quest Scholar you may wonder if you will fit in at an Ivy League institution. There perhaps exists a false perception that all students at Princeton are wealthy (I even believed this myself.), but that’s just not the case, around 60% of students are on financial aid and I have never been isolated because of my socioeconomic status. Instead, we are motivated to seek out employment and internship opportunities that are equally accessible to every student on campus. There are also plenty of resources available for students who are first-generation or lower-income like the Freshman Scholars Institute (FSI), Scholars Institute Fellows Program (SIFP), First-Generation Low Income Council (FLIC) or Programs for Access and Inclusion (PAI).

Additionally, one of the perks of enrolling at Princeton through QuestBridge is that you will get to know a community of students who can empathize with your financial situation. I was able to develop relationships with other students who matched with Princeton through Facebook and other social media platforms. Through our conversations, we all realized that we all faced many of the same worries and fears and we bonded over them. Remember that this is unfamiliar territory for everyone--not just you! While networking might be somewhat difficult during these unprecedented times, I still encourage you to make connections with other Questies because this will be the community with whom you will spend the next four years.

Image

I wish good luck to all future Quest scholars and I hope that you end up matching at the university of your dreams, regardless of whether that may be Princeton. We can’t wait to meet the Class of 2025!

This fall, many students have chosen different paths for their college experience. Some have chosen to take a gap year, others are social distancing at home, and then there is the third option: quarantining with the roomies. I fall into the third group. This semester I am living with two of my friends in a quaint little airbnb just ten minutes away from Princeton’s campus. I am originally from Nashville, Tennessee so the change in scenery was very much appreciated. It has a porch that looks onto Lake Carnegie; it is a view to take your breath away. I would like to think I got incredibly lucky for getting to room with such great people in such an amazing place. 

Each morning, I wake up to a refreshing breeze from the lake and the vibrant greenery all around. It feels peaceful and secluded, but the location actually provides relatively easy access to Princeton’s campus. Every now and then when we go into Princeton for groceries, we pass by the campus and Nassau Street. Suddenly, a wave of nostalgia washes over me and I get a little wistful. No one had any idea what would happen just a year ago, and now the Class of 2022 has a handful of memories from simpler times. I miss the littlest things from campus: running from one end of campus to another within a ten minute time span, late meal at Frist Campus Center, and sitting in Firestone Library for hours on end. I may be in the town of Princeton, but it is so different from being on campus, from being a part of Princeton University. Right now many students who have made this campus their home are feeling the same distance no matter where they are in the world, but I also think it is important to revel in that nostalgia. 

Nostalgia is how I make it through the tough days. I think of my favorite spots on campus and I recreate them. Whenever I reach for a cookie while studying for an exam, I accompany it with a cup of tea, put my headphones on, and imagine myself in Murray-Dodge Café. Towards the end of the night, I sit at my desk by the window and picture myself in the glass reading room in Firestone Library. When I start getting zoom fatigue, I step out into the living room, lay sideways on the couch, and trick myself into believing I am laying on the square blue couch on Firestone’s second floor. I have also zoomed professors from previous semesters to reminisce about good times, and it has been a while since I have laughed like that.

For those who look forward to living on campus when this is all over, I stress the importance of finding your niche in its diverse types of spaces and atmospheres. I cannot think of late summer without Forbes brunch with friends, chatting over the açai bowls. Fall is synonymous with the golden crisp leaves dancing along the path to Marquand Library. Winter is frozen in time with me sledding down Whitman’s snow-covered hill; it was a night where only the moon illuminated the dark indigo sky. Spring is intertwined with memories of me walking back to my dorm at one in the morning after a girls night in because I still had assignments due that week. The places and people who are there for the ride alongside are just as important to our experience as what we choose to learn.

Image

This fall, Christian Union NOVA hosted one of its first virtual events this semester entitled "Speed Meeting," which was a cool way of meeting new people (and a nice spin on speed dating). Christian Union Nova is a Christian-based group on campus, partnered with the Office of Religious Life. It truly is like a second home for me! There are so many ways to get involved like worship and a weekly lecture series called "Encounter" and "TruThursday."

The hosts would use the breakout room feature on Zoom to randomly match two students into rooms and they would have about 2-4 minutes to chat. The whole event lasted about an hour. Some of the questions I encountered ranged from “Why did you pick your major?” to “If you could have any superpower for a day, what would it be?” I was matched with 5-6 different people and it was so much fun. The rounds weren’t awkward at all. Though I met people in Christian Nova from all years, it was primarily a great opportunity for first-years to get to know members of the NOVA community. I felt that this event allowed us to engage with one another on a level even beyond what in-person events could offer. Because I joined Christian Union Nova my sophomore fall,  I didn't have the chance to "speed meet" everyone like many first-years would during orientation. Since this event was open to anyone and everyone interested, however, I met some really cool people and got to know some first years! 

If making friends and thinking through what clubs to join is at the top of your priority list, just know that there are events that are suited for even the most introverted person and there is absolutely no pressure. You will find your people and find the clubs that are cool, fun and so interesting to you. Even in the midst of this strange Zoom environment, I really appreciated CU Nova for bringing community and family to the virtual scene.

Shameless Plug:

NOVA Instagram!

Tru Instagram! 

Check out CU Nova's official website! 

We’re a few weeks away from the start of the new year, and it certainly seems like this year will look nothing like it ever has before. For first-year students, the start of their Princeton experience may look different than they imagined, and for upperclass students they will face some pretty big changes in the way they know and love campus life.

I know that, as is the case for many things in our current situation, Princeton will not look how we envisioned. It’s tempting to look at the challenges and inconveniences that lie ahead with pessimism. But as I look to the year ahead, I hope that together as a community we can grow and emerge stronger than before. 

I will be a residential college adviser (RCA) in Forbes this fall, mentoring and providing support for a zee (advisee) group of first-years. (If you're in Forbes, check out our welcome video!) This is a role that I’ve looked forward to having since literally before I came to Princeton and although my experience will look different from the way I imagined it, I am trying to find the bright side every day. For example, although I may not be able to host large study breaks, I’m looking forward to getting to know my zees one-on-one. I had a lot of positive experiences with my own RCA, and I hope to be there for my first-years in the way she was for me.   

As I anticipate starting the school year in August, I know that this will be an unprecedented year. Hopefully, things will soon return to normal - but I’m confident that before they do, we will find ways to make this year unique in good ways too. This really will be a college experience like no other. Let’s make it a happy (and healthy) one.

I did not know I was a dancer or how much I loved to dance until I joined DoroBucci African Dance Company, Princeton’s premier African dance group. I first saw DoroBucci perform at Princeton Preview and instantly fell in love with the energy of their moves and the way that they looked like a huge family on stage just having fun. Joining DoroBucci turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve made at Princeton and I cannot imagine my first years here without the family I’ve cultivated through DoroBucci. 

DoroBucci is an audition-based group that encourages any and all interested applicants to audition regardless of dance experience. During auditions, the current members of the group taught us two dances, one high energy and another more swaggy and chill. After that, there's a freestyle portion where everyone dances together and just hangs out. Being that I knew nothing about African dance styles and music, I was so nervous. The dancers and leaders of the group really encouraged me to try even if I did not know what I was doing and were able to walk me through moves each step of the way. DoroBucci changed the way I thought about working in a group and helped me see that family and community are as important as getting moves right and performing. I have formed lifelong friendships, found people who will stand by me during my lowest and best moments, been encouraged by my mentors and supporters and made valuable life lessons.

Image

DoroBucci is a family to me. Oftentimes in high school, we focus on activities and opportunities that we think colleges would like. Well, I’m here to encourage you to try something outside of your comfort zone or your plan. Joining clubs and dance groups on campus have been so important towards my personal and professional development. I’ve learned about team building, leadership, communication, lobbying, advertising and so much more. I’ve learned so much about myself in DoroBucci. The skills we desire and the skills we have can be cultivated and improved in ways that we’ve never imagined on campus. So, allow yourself to learn and grow in whatever you choose to join in college! And if you don't like it, that’s totally okay, but there’s absolutely no harm in trying. 

When I first came to campus, I didn’t know that much about the town Princeton University was located in. As I started to venture out the FitzRandolph Gates, I got to interact with the local community and beautiful landscape. From the lively atmosphere on Nassau Street to apple-picking at Terhune Orchards, the idyllic town of Princeton is a boon often overlooked.

Image

Coming from Tegucigalpa, the buzzing capital of Honduras, to the town of Princeton was definitely a transition. While in Tegucigalpa I would get by with a car, in Princeton I can walk or bike to most places, or simply hop on one of the Tiger Transit buses. The University provides transportation through Tiger Transit for students to explore the town. There are many types of activities that students can partake in. Personally, I enjoy going grocery shopping at the Princeton Shopping Center, walking to Nomad Pizza (the best pizza in town!) and going to watch a movie at the Garden Theater. In terms of connecting with nature, Lake Carnegie is on the south end of campus and is extremely beautiful! I often go on runs to the lake and have rented a kayak for a day.  

Image

I would categorize Princeton as a college town, given how thoroughly students are incorporated into the local community. There is an annual event, Communiversity, in which local artists, merchants and nonprofits convene with student clubs, right in front of the University. My friends and I always look forward to this day because we enjoy eating from food trucks and watching live entertainment. I know that once I graduate, I will not only miss campus but also the town, which is why I have made the effort to take advantage of every opportunity I have to explore the surrounding areas. I must admit that when I was applying to Princeton I thought of its location as mundane and unexciting, but my experience here has disproved my initial assumptions.

Image

This town is filled with surprises and beautiful scenery that you won’t want to miss out on as a Princeton student.