<p>Well, Harvard is medical/law and Yale is law, what about Princeton?</p>
<p>Top universities are known for more than just one department. Hartvard is indeed known for Law and Medicine, but it is also known for Business, the Sciences, the Humanities and the Social Sciences. Yale is known for Law, but it is also known for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Princeton is known for the Physical Sciences, Engineering, Humanities and Social Sciences.</p>
<p>Princeton's engineering program is so low though (I mean, it's below UCSD/UCLA)...</p>
<p>Flippy, it is "low" because it is small. But in terms of quality, it is very highly regarded. Very good faculty and excellent curriculum.</p>
<p>I think Princeton's math department is also very good.</p>
<p>Philosophy, economics, history, comparative literature, foreign languages, international studies, public policy, mathematics, physics, astrophysics...all of these and more are fields Princeton is at or near the top in. It's not known for things like law and business because it doesn't have professional schools.</p>
<p>What is Princeton known for?; "the northern school for southern gentlemen."</p>
<p>Princeton is not trying to teach trades as UCs do. A Princeton engineer will also have a great liberal arts education and will be in great demand because of the rigour of thought their education involved.</p>
<p>Yes, Princeton's Humanities/Sceince programs are good, but engineering??? hmmm.. I will choose Berkeley/UMich engineering any day over HYP.</p>
<p>Princeton has a international reputation for its Seminary program</p>
<p>World-Class School:
H: Medicine/Law/Business
Y: Law/Humanities
Columbia: Politics/Business
MIT: Engineering
Stanford: Science/Engineering
Berkeley: Science/Engineering</p>
<p>Princeton is top-notch in math and physics.</p>
<p>I think a list of what they are not very good in would be far shorter.</p>
<p>Considering Princeton University and the Seminary are separate...no. It's better to focus on Princeton's undergraduate strengths. Obviously it can't compete with HYSM and the like in business, law, medicine, etc. because it doesn't have those programs. In the humanities, social sciences, and some natural sciences, however, Princeton is very much world-class. Engineering has some good programs, but I'll totally agree that if you're picking a school solely based on departmental strength, you should go to schools like MIT, CalTech, Berkeley, whatever unless there's something particularly striking as unique to you in Princeton's program. Luckily, though, people don't always pick schools solely on comparative departmental strength :)</p>
<p>Princeton's philosophy program is the best in the world</p>
<p>Philosophy, Classics, Literature, Languages, Astrophysics, Mathematics, Economics, History</p>
<p>Andrew Wiles, the guy that spent 3 years in his basement and eventually proved Fermat's last theorem (A^X+B^X does not equal C^X) went to Princeton, and people have been working on proving that theorem for over 300 years.</p>
<p>I think that I spelled theorem wrong</p>
<p>u.s. news undergraduate engineering rankings:</p>
<ol>
<li>princeton
---big gap---</li>
<li>harvard</li>
<li>yale</li>
</ol>
<p>as for other departments: at the time of the last national research council (NRC) report, issued in the 1990s, princeton offered 34 of the 41 graduate programs then rated by the council - more than either harvard or yale. as for the quality of those programs, princeton came in fourth, behind only MIT, berkeley, and harvard (schools with much greater graduate focus). specifically, it came in second in the arts and humanities, fifth in engineering, fourth in the physical sciences and mathematics, and eighth in the social and behavioral sciences. not bad for a place famous for its undergraduate focus.</p>
<p>I don't think you'd get many people in the field of philosophy to agree that Princeton is #1. Of course you don't get many people in the field of philosophy to agree on ANYTHING.</p>
<p>Having said that, being one of the top 3 universities in the country year after year, having an incredibly beautiful campus, having a world-wide reputation, and (drumroll please) having a smallish grad school so the undergrads probably get more attention from the spectacular faculty, I'm amazed Harvard continues to get the lion's share of the super-elite high school grads (see the thread on USA Today's academic all-America team--8 or 9 to Harvard, none to Princeton) when Princeton would appear to be a much better deal for undergrads. Can anybody explain?</p>
<p>Tourguide, I agree that Philosophy Departments are impossible to rank with any accuracy. But we both know what I think of the University of Toronto's Philosophy department! hehe</p>
<p>The All-America Academic team is made up of 20 excellent student, but there are 100s of others who are just as good who don't really make the list either because they don't apply or because they do not fit the "criteria". I was glad to see one (Alexander Gribov) going to Michigan.</p>
<p>Lacrosse...</p>
<p>Alexandre, was your Toronto friend a Descartes scholar? Sounds like she was well versed on the mind-body problem.</p>