<p>Graphix, don’t believe Begoner’s nonsense about more undergraduate focus at Princeton than at its peer schools, particularly Harvard and Yale. Just because there are more graduate schools, doesn’t mean undergrads get less attention:</p>
<p>1) The law, medical and business schools at H and Y have their own faculties that teach their own students, they are seperate entities; there are sometimes opportunities for undergrads to study or conduct research in these schools, opportunities which will be relatively absent at Princeton</p>
<p>2) On an undergraduate level the overall student/faculty ratios and low and about equal for the three schools</p>
<p>3) In the arts and sciences, all three schools have departments with broadly similar faculty sizes who teach both undergraduate and graduate students. It’s not as if the faculty at Princeton ignores their grad students and their dissertations while slavishly catering to the whim of any undergrad.</p>
<p>4) Princeton competes for the same elite academic scholars as does Harvard and Yale (and probably Oxbridge, too.) Princeton faculty will be judged by the same exacting standards in decisions for promotion and tenure as scholars at H and Y, and, as a result, are every bit as obsessed with their own research outside the classroom as their peers further north.</p>
<p>5) At all 3 schools, the academic structure is similar: introductory classes in basic disciplines (Economics, Psychology, Chemistry, eg) will tend to be large and taught by a professor with weekly discussion sections (called different things at the 3 schools) probably taught by grad students. There will be many discussion sections for the class and they will probably have 10 - 20 students each. Higher level courses tend to be smaller (I have had courses as small as 3 students and a prof) and are almost always taught by a prof.</p>
<p>6) At all three schools you will have professors who will become your friends and invite you to their homes for dinner; others who barely recognize you and exude something of an indifference toward their teaching.</p>
<p>All said, you can get an excellent education in PP&E at any of these schools. Princeton is very strong in both Philosphy and Economics; Yale has started a PP&E program over the last few years; Harvard has long had a prestigious (and selective) Social Studies major which is something like PP&E.</p>
<p>If you have the means to visit, please do so. H, Y and P have different vibes and settings. Harvard’s in a great city. Yale is in a small city like Oxford and (purposefully) looks and smells a lot like Oxbridge. Princeton is probably the consummate removed “ivory tower.”</p>