And still call itself a “university”? Even lowly Brown has a med school, but Princeton has nothing. There is a point of view that Princeton, absent professional graduate schools, is really just Amherst or Williams with some liberal arts grad departments. At least all the other Ivies contribute to the professions (doctors, lawyers, businessmen), but Princeton can’t or won’t. Explanations welcome.
“Princeton is really just Amherst or Williams with some grad departments…”
Sounds like a ringing endorsement of Princeton to me. Not sure I see what the problem is.
Princeton, by its own admission, is highly focused on the undergrad experience. They have chosen to make this their primary mission and do it with excellence.
Because graduating undergrad students totally doesn’t contribute to anything at all.
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You are welcome to not apply or attend if their mission doesn’t meet your needs…
OP, you have lots of interestingly-titled threads. Maybe drop Princeton from the Ivy league and add a school with professors that can explain the variation between growth time-tables of leg and head hair?
Their reasoning is as precisely as @Cantiger described. Princeton is the Ivy where many undergrads choose to study for because of the exact reason with which OP takes issue. Princeton focuses entirely on its undergraduates, which is incredibly rare for a school of its caliber. The fact that all of their resources, their incredible professors, and amazing connections are all for undergraduate students should be astounding, not frustrating! Princeton sends its students to many other incredible graduate schools – its very deliberate choice not to have such a school reflects highly on their quality of education. Even thinking about it in basic terms, this fact means that you won’t have a grad student teaching your classes, like you could at some other institutions. Princeton is an impressive school for many reasons, and this is indubitably one of them.
LOL.
IMO the fact that Princeton doesn’t have professional school is a huge plus if you plan to go there for undergrad. If you want to go there for professional school, well, then you have a problem.
Indeed 
Just like lowly Harvey Mudd which is engineering focused, but does not have a graduate program. Even Iowa State/ Buffallo (add bunch of names) offer PhD programs in engineering.
And how do you call yourself not ignorant if you don’t know that the definition of a university in the US is that a school offers education above a bachelors degree, which is what Princeton does.
The OP is one of those Duke fangirls who hates Princeton for some unknown reason. Nothing worth writing home about.
As a parent of both a Princeton grad and a Duke grad, it baffles me that a Duke fan would dislike Princeton. What is it, they don’t like the architecture???
@sherpa Someone probably got rejected.
Most Dukies love Princeton (after all, our campus is modeled on Princeton’s campus). Please don’t make this about Duke.
“And still call itself a “university”? Even lowly Brown has a med school, but Princeton has nothing. There is a point of view that Princeton, absent professional graduate schools, is really just Amherst or Williams with some liberal arts grad departments. At least all the other Ivies contribute to the professions (doctors, lawyers, businessmen), but Princeton can’t or won’t. Explanations welcome.”
Gosh, I’m sure that right now, the good folks at Princeton are devastated - devastated I tell you! - that they haven’t impressed YOU, Makenna Compton. Who cares? If you desire to restrict your college search only to places that have graduate professional schools, be my guest.
@NerdyChica - Yes! In fact, “modeled” might be a bit of an understatement. To a casual observer like me they’re generally similar, but to my kids, each of whom knows their college very well, the similarities are striking. More importantly, both are world class universities.
There is some truth to what the OP writes. In the 1980’s Princeton decided that they needed a molecular biology dept. So they went out and built one of the best departments in the country.
This would not have been possible on the undergraduate level. What professor would have agreed to come to a place and not be involved in teaching grad students?
The point is that Princeton does have a high caliber of graduate programs, but just not in the professional schools (law, medicine, MBA). Why not? What does a graduate school of biology offer that a law school does not?
Full disclosure: I’m a Dukie
My definition of a modern university is one that has professional graduate schools. Feel free to differ. Oxford and Cambridge have them; every Ivy but Pton has them. The argument that Pton is oh-so-focused on its precious undergrads and so disdains the professional grad schools is so untrue – Pton kids are taught as much by grad students as any other Ivy or any other university (other than Oxford or Cambridge, which have the tutorial system). Did that poster mean to imply that, somehow, business/law/med students come out of their hives and teach undergrads as graduate assistants? Big laugh. Of course they don’t! What I am trying to convey is that the MODERN UNIVERSITY – QUA “UNIVERSITY” – has professional schools. The “focus on the undergrads” is purely the purview of the LACs. Claiming that because Pton doesn’t have professional grad schools means that it focuses on undergrads is specious reasoning. Pton simply doesn’t have those schools, that all… It could have any it chooses – for example, the Woodrow Wilson School is essentially a professional school for the State Department (like Tuft’s Fletcher . . . but, hey, Tufts also has a . . . MEDICAL SCHOOL, too!!!). I just think that Pton undergrads get to go to all those other professional schools without Pton itself adding to the pie. I continue to argue that, if you cut through it and look at the fact of constitutes the character of a modern “university,” Pton fails the test. It is, of course a “university,” but with a decidedly lower-case “u.” Again, just a Williams with a bigger endowment. Move along, nothing to see here . . .
Also, I am not asking Pton to accept my definition. I am stating my own point of view. I hardly think Pton will be “devastated” by it. I doubt they particularly care, and so what with that? The next time Zuckerberg wants to waste $100 million (as he did with the union sandbagging in the Newark school system) he might ask Pton if they want a medical school so the money does some good. At which point, Pton gains its capital “U.”
@makennacompton: "The next time Zuckerberg wants to waste $100 million (as he did with the union sandbagging in the Newark school system) he might ask Pton if they want a medical school so the money does some good. "
Are you under the impression that Princeton does not have professional schools because no one has donated enough money to make that feasible? Because Princeton could not raise such funds through a capital campaign?
You say that P’ton does not fit your idea of the modern university, and, okay, you don’t like how Princeton has molded its focus and educational model, and I guess you feel it gest into the university camp by sneaking in the back door, or making a thin appearance there.
But are you under the impression that they are aching to have something they have decided not to develop?
"I continue to argue that, if you cut through it and look at the fact of constitutes the character of a modern “university,” Pton fails the test. It is, of course a “university,” but with a decidedly lower-case “u.” Again, just a Williams with a bigger endowment. Move along, nothing to see here . "
“Just” a Williams with a bigger endowment is a pretty nice place to be.