Princeton Faculty Lead Nation in 2007 Guggenheim Fellowships

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
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<p><a href="http://www.gf.org/April052007.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.gf.org/April052007.html&lt;/a> = Guggenheim press release
<a href="http://www.gf.org/newfellow.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.gf.org/newfellow.html&lt;/a> = list of this year's scholars</p>

<p>The Guggenheim Foundation has just announced its 2007 Fellowship Awards recognizing "189 artists, scholars, and scientists selected from almost 2,800 applicants." </p>

<p>Princeton had six Guggenheims this year, the largest number for any institution. This is particularly noteworthy given Princeton's size relative to many schools on the list.</p>

<p>As the Foundation notes: "Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment." </p>

<p>Princeton's Guggenheim Fellows this year represent a range of disciplines including history, economics, English, music, Russian literature and painting:</p>

<p>Daniel T. Rodgers (history) Transformation in social thought in 1980s America.</p>

<p>Jose Alexandre Scheinkman (economics) The economics of the informal sector.</p>

<p>Nigel Smith (English) Literary production in early modern Europe, 1500-1700.</p>

<p>Dmitri Tymoczko (music) Music composition.</p>

<p>Michael Wachtel (Russian Literature) Pushkin's lyric poetry.</p>

<p>Tommy White (Creative and Performing Arts) Painting.</p>

<p>Institutions With The Largest Number of 2007 Guggenheim Fellows</p>

<p>6 --- Princeton
5 --- Brown, Harvard, MIT, UCLA, U. of Michigan
4 --- U. of Chicago, U. of Indiana, U. of Minnesota</p>

<p>Within the Ivy League</p>

<p>6 --- Princeton
5 --- Brown, Harvard
3 --- Yale
2 --- Columbia
1 --- Cornell, Dartmouth, Penn</p>

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<p>Princeton's announcement of the Guggenheim awards along with links to the faculty members' web pages:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S17/65/75O35/index.xml?section=announcements%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S17/65/75O35/index.xml?section=announcements&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>In terms of academic content/quality of faculty/scope for research, how would you rate Michigan vis-a-vis Princeton.</p>

<p>The points, I have considered are:</p>

<p>Cost: OOS for Michigan is expensive, and doesn't give much of an advantage.</p>

<p>Student Body: Overall student body is better at Princeton, though the top 15% at Michigan will be as good as the top 15%at Princeton.</p>

<p>Reputation: Princeton is a global brand far ahead of Michigan, while within the country Michigan is very well respected for its strong engineering programs.</p>

<p>Campus Life: Both have some unique attractions. </p>

<p>Campus look: Princeton appeard more beatiful.</p>

<p>For a student who would like to pursue research work and later on move to the field of teaching, will Michigan give an advantage? </p>

<p>As I mentioned, I am aware of the 'Prestige value' of Princeton.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Student Body: Overall student body is better at Princeton, though the top 15% at Michigan will be as good as the top 15%at Princeton.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>That's definitely not true. Although some highly elite students may be swayed to attend Michigan by special programs, lucrative scholarships, an aversion to competition, or other special reasons, the vast majority will choose Princeton instead. See [url=<a href="http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ffp9901.pdf%5Dhere%5B/url"&gt;http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ffp9901.pdf]here[/url&lt;/a&gt;] and [url=<a href="http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/hoxby/papers/revealedprefranking.pdf%5Dhere%5B/url"&gt;http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/hoxby/papers/revealedprefranking.pdf]here[/url&lt;/a&gt;], for instance. Students at the very upper end of the ability distribution will be found predominantly at schools like Princeton, not Michigan.</p>

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<p>Rintu, I’m going to give a response that might surprise you but one which I hope becomes more common on CC. With all due respect to GR Elton’s response which might be factually true, I still want to say this.</p>

<p>Is Princeton better for you than the U. of Michigan? </p>

<p>I don’t know and would not be qualified to say. </p>

<p>The U. of Michigan is always at or near the top of the list of the strongest public universities in the nation. I know that much. However, I’ve never been a student there or even visited. As an undergraduate, I applied to and was accepted at Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, Yale and a number of other schools. I chose Princeton for my undergraduate work and Harvard for law school and I don’t pretend to be qualified to speak (at anything more than a superficial level) about any schools other than the two I attended. In the case of Harvard, I’m really only qualified to speak about the law school experience, though I did know a number of undergraduates there.</p>

<p>So, there you have it. I can’t compare Princeton to the U. of Michigan in any way that would be fair, well-informed or meaningful to you. I only wish more of the posters on CC would limit themselves to speaking about what they actually know through first hand experience. There are too many who express their opinions about the quality of one school in comparison to another without having attended both. The “I have a friend (or relative) who says,” or the “everybody knows that…,” or the “I’ve always heard that…” statements are generally worthless, sometimes malicious and typically full of misleading stereotypes.</p>

<p>I will suggest, however, that the alumni and current students who post on the Princeton board will be a good source of information for you about that school in the same way that alumni and current students posting on the U. of Michigan board will be when speaking about their alma mater. Just don’t expect well-informed comparisons of the two on either board.</p>

<p>I truly wish that I could be more helpful in this way but, honestly, I can’t. I will say this. I believe you are exactly right in stating that the best students at any competitive school will be, as a group, similar to the best students at all other competitive schools. Those who know how to work hard and are eager to learn will make good use of the tremendous resources at any of these institutions. Those who are lazy will get little out of even the top schools in the country. I’d be very happy to answer any specific questions about Princeton and I hope that you’ll have a chance to visit.</p>

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<p>looking forward to their classes!</p>