My daughter was and I’m not sure why. I believe it’s mandatory (?) and it’s going to interfere with a family vacation if she accepts.
@Sidwellmom if you read Princeton’s FSI FAQ (https://fsi.princeton.edu/faq) you’ll see that it is recommended, but not mandatory:
FSI is usually for lower income kids, who may have not been exposed to a rigorous high school environment, yet were promising enough to be admitted. It is like a jump-start to Princeton that eases the kid into a demanding college environment. The two credits earned during the program can be applied to the student’s graduation requirement, so they can take less classes over the four years, this a great benefit of the program.
Sucks to miss a vacation, but Princeton doesn’t offer the program randomly and there are huge benefits to attending, both socially and academically. If your student was from Sidwell, it probably isn’t an academic issue, perhaps they think your child might bring a diverse peer leadership element to the group?
It’s also offered to recruited athletes I believe (if it is the same program I am remembering) to help them make the academic adjustment and offset some of the time demands of the first year. My son was offered the opportunity to go and declined. In hindsight it would likely have helped with the massive adjustment that first semester but there aren’t any serious regrets for not going.
It is offered to some athletes, not all, on the same criteria laid out in @psywar’s post. The only exception is I don’t think it is necessarily for low income kids (one of my son’s freshman roommates, a non athlete, attended and he was from a hoist toity prep school. I always assumed there was just some type of “hole” in the application materials of particular kids that merit an invite to FSI. While my son was not offered the opportunity, I know several parents of kids who were. Most if not all were very glad their sons attended. Princeton is hard, and if offered a chance to get a leg up I personally would snatch it regard,Eds of family plans.
@cantiger interesting. Of the three athletes I know, only one was invited, a football player. The fencer and track & field weren’t. Maybe some sports are more demanding of a student’s time?
@psywar You may be correct that it depends on the sport. I wonder if it may also be connected to the students’ choice of concentration as my son was a BSE concentrator.
^something less than half (maybe a dozen out of twenty nine kids?) of the football recruits in my son’s class went through FSI.
And sorry for the horrible typos in my previous post. I really shouldn’t post from my phone, lol.
It’s very likely athletes that compete in the Fall are more likely to be invited due to the demands on their first semester. Obviously other athletes have commitments off-season but not at the same level as in-season.
I was today all the results came out by email