A newly released survey a detailed picture of how Princeton students view their academic experience, with nine out of 10 voicing satisfaction with their professors.
Students spend about 14 hours in class and 26 hours on coursework outside the classroom each week, said Michael Yaroshefsky ’12, former president of the Undergraduate Student Government, who led the Academic Life Total Assessment project. “Clearly, academics are a priority,” Yaroshefsky said. Among the other survey results:
About half of all undergraduates responded to the survey. Based on the results, a USG committee offered recommendations to faculty members in areas ranging from the pass/D/fail option to better access to course evaluations.
The committee said students should be allowed to rescind their P/D/F decisions after learning their final grades, saying it would encourage students to put more effort into courses in which they had chosen the option.
Other suggestions included urging professors to limit new course material during the midterm exam period, encouraging more student collaboration on homework and in study groups, and having the USG oversee anonymous midterm course evaluations.
The USG committee sought to back up its recommendations with research, Yaroshefsky said, but ultimately “faculty get to make the final decisions.”