Graduate School Admission Results

Congrats to all who got in.

TPB: Is it a known that Princeton accepted 50 students? I heard they cut down on their acceptances as well but I'm not sure

ctd...

I hate to burst someone's bubble here, but the chances of getting off the waitlist described by posters below is probably too generous. Here's a couple of reasons, in order of importance: - Harvard and MIT, who are the two school who dominate Princeton in general, reduced their admissions this year. Princeton expected that. However, I know from a P Prof that they definitely did NOT expect Harvard's 75% reduction of admitted students. So out of the 50 Princeton acceptances, there's around 25 (and that's generous) got MIT or Harvard. Princeton > Harvard in macro, macrofinance, etc., so there will probably be 1 or 2 students who choose Princeton over Harvard. In the ideal case for waitlisted students, that still leaves at least 26 admits at Princeton for a class of 21. - As to Stanford, they admitted quite a lot of people despite the pandemic. Princeton > Stanford in academic placement, Stanford > Princeton in general (median) and industry placements. Now the 40 people or so that were admitted by Harvard or MIT also likely got Stanford, so there will be people rejecting Stanford for H+M. The quantity of interest now is # of S+P admits that were not accepted to H+M. That number will be slim (

To posters very below: Princeton is a top rank university (top 5), so you are not going to see many posts here saying they will reject an offer from Princeton. However, I guess it is true that those who receive an offer from Princeton have offers from other universities such as MIT, Harvard, and Stanford and with a high probability, they will decline Princeton (unless they have specific preferences towards Princeton). Add to those 3 schools Berkeley (which is located in a better area and is very good in labor I think), Yale (which I think is better in metrics), and maybe Northwestern (which I think is very good in theory) and Chicago (which I think have had more star placements than Princeton) that I think are comparable to Princeton. Moreover, do not forget about business schools (although their size is very small compared to Econ programs.)

TPB: The chance depends on many factors, such as how many offers they have made, how many offers other universities, specifically those you mentioned, have made, how many of the accepted ones are outside of US (as many of them may consider deferring their offer due to the covid and visa issues), and as you said, how many are on the waiting list and a lot of more factors. Someone (very below) said that they have offered to 50 people, which is about 33% cut compared to previous years. (can anyone confirm?) If that is true, it should be good news for you. However, I think that not much can be said and you should wait until 15 April. I wish you all happy times and ask you to decline your dominated offers asap.

Usually (putting the recent pandemic aside), how is the chance of a wait-listed student at Princeton to receive an offer and how long is the waiting list? Is it true that many students who receive an offer from Princeton already have offers from better universities such as MIT, Harvard, and Stanford (and maybe also Berkeley and Yale)? Thank you in advance.

How many students does Princeton usually pick up from the waiting list according to previous years? Thanks in advance.

If you haven't yet been rejected by one/more of these schools as I have, keep up your hope :) Good luck!

GPA is grad. Fully expected. 1a/1w/7r/5ir/11p

Sad. 1a/0w/3r/8p

TPB: I've got both.

Did people who got wait-listed get an email from the dept on Wed night that they got wait-listed or only an email Friday morning? I got an email Wed night but not sure if everybody got that too

To whom asked, I received a call from Princeton on Friday morning stating I was "high on the waitlist." I assume others in a similar position got the same call.

I was also waitlisted and do not understand this. If they don't rank waitlisted candidates how do they choose if only a couple of spots open up? I don't have more info on the size of the waiting list.

Congrats to those accepted. Does anybody know the size of the waiting list? Somebody below said that they have offered to 50 applicants and there is about 1/3 cut in comparison to previous years (can anyone else confirm?). That is good news to waitlisted applicants; however, I think it is important to know how many of us are on the waiting list. I myself emailed and asked about the size of the waiting list and my position on it. They replied that they do not rank waitlisted students, but they did not say anything about the size. Finally, are there anyone with an offer from Princeton who is going to decline? Thanks in advance.

Dear future professor of our Department: (Of course this line was just for me, but the rest is also for others) Thank you for applying to Princeton University's Graduate School for the 2021-22 academic year. While I assure you that the materials you submitted were carefully reviewed by the faculty in the Department of Economics, I regret to inform you that the department did not recommend your admission for the coming academic year. The number of admission offers available at Princeton for entering graduate students is extremely limited, and we cannot offer admission to all applicants who are well qualified. Indeed, many departments consistently have applicants who would be admitted without hesitation if additional resources were available. Our decisions take into account not only the applicants' merits but also the suitability of the programs to the candidates' expressed interests. Our goal is to achieve a sound match between the strengths of our programs and the interests of the relatively small number of outstanding students that can be accommodated. Unfortunately, due to the volume of applications which we receive, it is not possible for the department or the Graduate School to go back and review applications to justify the denial or offer advice on fortifying a future application. I wish you success in your plans for graduate study and thank you for considering Princeton University.