The University offered admission to 1,931 students, or 7.29 percent of the near-record 26,498 applicants for the Class of 2017 — the LOWEST-EVER ADMISSION RATE for Princeton. Thirty-six percent of the admitted students applied through early action; the rest learned of their acceptance March 28.
More than 10,600 applicants had a 4.0 GPA, and more than 13,800 had combined scores of 2,100 or higher on the three sections of the SAT. Of those admitted, 48.8 percent identified themselves as students of color, including biracial and multiracial students. Men make up 50.2 percent; women, 49.8 percent. International students are 11.4 percent of those admitted. The University estimated that 60 percent of the incoming freshman class would receive financial aid. Children of alumni make up 9.7 percent of the admitted students, compared with 9.5 percent a year ago.
At Princeton’s peer institutions, the lowest admission rates this year were reported by Stanford at 5.7 percent, Harvard at 5.8 percent, and Yale at 6.7 percent. The final admission rate for Princeton’s Class of 2016 was 7.85 percent.
The faculty voted to change the ACADEMIC CALENDAR by starting Thanksgiving break a day earlier, on the Wednesday before the holiday. The fall semester will begin on the second Wednesday of September, instead of the second Thursday. The change takes effect this fall.
CHEN GUANGCHENG, a blind, self-taught lawyer who has spent decades working to expose human-rights violations in China, received the American Whig-Cliosophic Society’s James Madison Award, its highest honor, March 28. He said that activists within China are fighting to end human-rights abuses, but the international community must do more.
IN MEMORIAM RABBI JIM DIAMOND, the executive director of Princeton’s Center for Jewish Life from 1995 to 2003, was killed March 28 in Princeton when a speeding car sent a parked auto into a third car, which Diamond was entering. He died at the scene. Diamond, 74, was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Indiana University. He taught classes in Judaic studies and Hebrew literature at Princeton and, before that, at Washington University in St. Louis, where he directed the Hillel organization. The author of numerous books, he was working on a translation of the works of Nobel-winning writer S.Y. Agnon when he died.
In a statement, the Center for Jewish Life noted that Diamond, a Conservative rabbi, was “admired by students and faculty for his kindness, his teaching, and his efforts to bring different Jewish denominations together.” Several hundred people attended his funeral in Princeton.