I am currently applying to Princeton EA and I was wondering what the difference between A.B AND B.S.E is.
Particularly, I’m curious as to the difference in course load/course rigour, research opportunities, and what each degree prepares you for (e.g going into industry/going for grad school).
Also, does choosing one or the other give any advantage in terms of acceptance rate, and does choosing “undecided” harm my application?
Any feedback is appreciated!
I think Dean Bogucki explains the differences most clearly in this article:
https://path.princeton.edu/princeton-degrees-explained
In terms of acceptance rate, students are accepted into Princeton university - not a specific degree program. This means that admissions has an expectation that you will change majors once accepted and provided that you have the required preparation work, you can essentially change to anything you wish within your first year and even early into your second in some cases. Therefore, there is no advantage to applying either BSE or AB.
The only advantage to not applying as “undecided” would be the opportunity to display within your application the strength of the vision and passion you carry for a particular field of study. However there are definitely students who have been able to convey vision while stating they are undecided to begin.
The bigger question is “why Princeton?” What is it about the school and the prospect of studying there that excites you? What do you bring to the school that will strengthen its reputation? These will be important to clarify as you begin to craft essays and an application.
BSE is great
The main difference is BSE is for engineers and AB is everything else. If you aren’t considering engineering, obviously you shouldn’t apply as BSE. Though if you are considering it, but are torn between BSE and some of the natural sciences, then I’d advise applying BSE and potentially switching out. It is way easies to switch out of BSE than into it.