"Freshman class reflects success of diversity efforts"

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
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<p>The Princeton class of 2011, selected from a record-high number of applicants, reflects continued success in the University's efforts to attract a diverse student body.</p>

<p>"With a record-high representation of students from minority backgrounds as well as international students, the class of 2011 is the most diverse in Princeton's history," Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel reported at the Sept. 17 faculty meeting. This marks the second consecutive year that Princeton's incoming class has included record numbers of minority and international students.</p>

<p>Applications have steadily increased in recent years as Princeton has attracted a broader pool of prospective students through the expansion of recruitment efforts and the institution of major improvements in its financial aid policies, most notably the groundbreaking "no loan" program. </p>

<p>The University received a record total of 18,942 applications for the class of 2011, up from 17,564 a year earlier. Princeton offered admission to 1,838 applicants to the class of 2011, representing a record-low rate of 9.7 percent. A year earlier, admission was offered to 1,790 students, or 10.2 percent of those who applied to the class of 2010. </p>

<p>A total of 463 freshmen are from minority backgrounds, representing 37.2 percent of the 1,246-member class. This compares to 456 minority students, or 37 percent of the 1,231-member class of 2010. The class of 2011 also includes 139 international students, constituting 11.2 percent of the class, which is up from 128 students, or 10.4 percent of the class, a year earlier. </p>

<p>"Building a strong multicultural community is a high priority for the University, and we will continue to concentrate on the recruitment, selection and yields of minority students in the applicant pool for the class of 2012," Malkiel said.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S19/00/62O39/index.xml?section=topstories%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S19/00/62O39/index.xml?section=topstories&lt;/a> (with more on success of financial aid reforms)</p>

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<p>this is great for Princeton! Too bad I come from a country that has already sent a lot of students at Princeton :(</p>

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<p>some of princeton's very best students, too. see:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S18/98/72M33/index.xml?section=topstories%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S18/98/72M33/index.xml?section=topstories&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Freshman First Honor Prize</p>

<p>Andrei Bogdan Ungureanu of Drobeta Turnu Severin, Romania, received the Freshman First Honor Prize, awarded each year to a sophomore in recognition of exceptional achievement during the freshman year.</p>

<p>A graduate of Colegiul National "Traian," Ungureanu is an A.B. candidate who plans to major in mathematics and complete certificates in finance and in applied and computational mathematics. He participated in three International Mathematical Olympiads as a member of the Romanian Mathematical Olympiad team, winning gold medals in 2006 and 2005 and a silver medal in 2004. </p>

<p>During his first year at Princeton, Ungureanu placed in the Top 25 of the Putnam Undergraduate Mathematics Competition and received a book award from the German department recognizing "outstanding achievement in the study of German language and literature" as the best student in German 107. Next month, he will receive the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence.</p>

<p>George B. Wood Legacy Junior Prize</p>

<p>This year's George B. Wood Legacy Junior Prize is shared by Samuel Fallon and Andrei Negut. The award is given to a member of the senior class in recognition of exceptional academic achievement during the junior year.</p>

<p>Negut is a graduate of Colegiul National "Tudor Vianu" in his hometown of Bucharest, Romania. He is majoring in the Department of Mathematics and plans to complete a certificate in applied and computational mathematics. His academic interest is pure mathematics, and he will be pursuing a thesis in algebraic geometry this year.</p>

<p>A member of the Romanian Mathematical Olympiad team, Negut participated in three International Mathematics Olympiads, winning a gold medal in 2004 and silver medals in 2003 and 2002. Since coming to Princeton, he has participated in three Putnam Undergraduate Mathematics Competitions, placing in the top 25 in 2006, 2005 and 2004. He also has participated in three International Math Competitions for Undergraduates, receiving the grand first prize in 2007 and 2005 and first prize in 2006. </p>

<p>Last year Negut was a recipient of the George B. Wood Legacy Sophomore Prize, the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence and the Andrew H. Brown Prize in Mathematics, for the outstanding junior or juniors in mathematics. In a national competition, he was awarded a Josephine DeK</p>

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<p>You forgot another powerful example: Ana Caraiani. She has graduated from Princeton last year and is now at Harvard. Among all Romanian students studying in US, she is my model.</p>

<p>From <a href="http://www.awm-math.org/schaferprize/2007.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.awm-math.org/schaferprize/2007.html&lt;/a> :</p>

<p>"Ana Caraiani is a senior at Princeton University, and she is already conducting professional-level mathematical research. In the summers of 2005 and 2006, Caraiani participated in the REU program at the University of Minnesota at Duluth. She worked independently on a project on semigroups of rational numbers, related to the 3x + 1 problem. Her work on this problem is highly praised. The resulting paper, “On Wild Semigroups,” introduces new ideas that exhibit significant ingenuity.</p>

<p>Caraiani’s coursework at Princeton has been remarkable. She has done very well in extremely difficult classes, and is noted for her independence and mathematical sophistication. One professor has said that her work “made you think that it was a professional mathematician who was answering the problems.” Another professor rates her among the top undergraduate mathematics majors in fifty years at Princeton.</p>

<p>Caraiani has won the William Lowell Putnam competition twice, scoring among the top five competitors in both her freshman and sophomore years, and is the only woman ever to have done so. The Princeton math department awarded her the Class of 1861 Prize her sophomore year and the Andrew H. Brown prize for outstanding juniors. She is expected to become a major mathematical figure and a world class research mathematician."</p>

<p>Ana has also been the first at the IMO in 2003, if I remember correctly.</p>