The ACCEPTANCE RATE for applicants for admission dropped below 7 percent for the first time as the University extended 1,908 offers of admission for the Class of 2019 — 6.99 percent of the record 27,290 applicants. Of those offered admission, 48 percent are women, 11.4 percent are international students, 49 percent are U.S. students self-identified as racial or ethnic minorities, 61 percent are from public schools, and 15 percent are the first in their families to attend college. Ten percent are legacies, and 39.6 percent — 767 students — were admitted through early action.
About 1,200 students were offered positions on the wait list. Admitted candidates have until May 1 to accept their admission offer. Princeton expects to enroll 1,310 incoming freshmen; an additional 35 are expected to defer enrollment to take part in the bridge-year program, a year of community service in China, India, Bolivia, Senegal, or Brazil.
The third PRINCETON-FUNG GLOBAL FORUM will bring researchers, public-health officials, and policymakers to Dublin, Ireland, Nov. 2–3 to discuss “Modern Plagues: Lessons Learned From the Ebola Crisis.” Scheduled speakers include more than a dozen Princeton professors and several alumni who work for government or nonprofit groups, as well as other scholars and institutional leaders.
“As we become a more global community, it’s important to know how crises are handled and think about how we should respond to the next crisis,” said Elisabeth Donahue, associate dean of the Woodrow Wilson School, which has organized the conference.
The forum is open to the public. Registration is required; more information can be found at http://fungforum.princeton.edu/.
Senior research mathematician JOHN NASH *50 is a winner of the 2015 Abel Prize for his work on partial differential equations. The award, presented by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, is one of the most prestigious in mathematics. Nash, a 1994 Nobel Prize laureate in economics known for his research in game theory, was portrayed in the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind. He will split the $800,000 prize with colleague Louis Nirenberg, a professor emeritus at New York University.
The risk of MENINGITIS B on campus is now considered the same as at any other university, Princeton officials said last month after consulting with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No new cases have been reported since November 2013, following an outbreak of nine cases associated with the University.
Princeton said that 98 percent of undergraduates have received at least one dose of the meningitis B vaccine. The University recommends that all new students receive the vaccine before arriving in the fall.
A fund launched by members of the CLASS OF 1977 on the crowdfunding website GoFundMe.com to express solidarity with sexual-assault victims has raised more than $7,300, surpassing its $5,000 goal in four days. Class members created the fund, called “Not the Princeton Mom,” in response to classmate Susan Patton’s statements on date rape and sexual assault. The proceeds will be donated to the University’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Advising, Resources, and Education (SHARE) office.
Patton, who has referred to herself as “The Princeton Mom,” sparked controversy for her comments during TV appearances. In December, she suggested that victims of campus sexual assault had to take responsibility for putting themselves in a vulnerable situation, and distinguished between rape “at the point of a gun or knife” and “what really is a clumsy hookup melodrama or a fumbled attempt at a kiss or a caress,” calling the latter category “not a crime,” but “a learning experience.”
This official guidebook to Versailles, first published in 1674, is included in “VERSAILLES ON PAPER,” an exhibition in Firestone Library’s main gallery through July 19. On display are books and prints from the 17th and 18th centuries that document the development of the palace and gardens during the reign of Louis XIV. The exhibition’s website is http://rbsc.princeton.edu/versailles/.