Princeton University was founded in 1746, making it one of the oldest higher education institutions in the U.S. The private university was originally called the College of New Jersey, but its name was changed to Princeton in 1896. The university is located in the town of Princeton, New Jersey, situated around 50 miles southwest of New York City. Some 8,000 students attend Princeton and nearly two-thirds of them study at the undergraduate level. Around 12 percent of undergraduates and more than 40 percent of graduate students at Princeton are international. Housing is guaranteed for undergraduate students for all four years, and nearly all undergraduates reside on campus. Princeton has six undergraduate residential colleges – communities that offer academic and social programs for students. A large number of graduate students, around 70 percent, also live in university housing.

The Ivy League university is made up of an undergraduate college, a graduate school, the School of Architecture, the highly ranked School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Princeton undergrads can choose from more than 30 academic concentrations. The primary language of instruction is English, and the academic calendar is semester-based. Research at Princeton is conducted across four broad disciplines: engineering and applied sciences, humanities, natural sciences and social sciences. The university is affiliated with two national laboratories, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. The latter lab specializes in climate research and modeling.