Christopher Eisgruber

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Princeton University’s president approaches the 10th year of his leadership on a campus that has thrived despite a global pandemic, emerged as a national leader in expanding socioeconomic access to higher education, and is poised for a period of unprecedented growth while preserving the 275-year-old university’s commitment to an intensely residential liberal arts education.

Guided by what he calls “an unwavering belief that we must attract and enroll extraordinary students from all backgrounds who will improve the University and increase our impact on the world,” the school has partnered with college access organizations to attract high-achieving applicants from a wide array of backgrounds; reinstated a transfer admission program focused on community college students and U.S. military veterans; and begun to implement a plan to increase the undergraduate student body by 500 students, including the construction of two new residential colleges set to open in the fall.

As a result of these efforts, today the percentage of Princeton undergraduates eligible for federal Pell Grants for lower-income students has increased to 22% in the Class of 2025, up from 7% for the Class of 2008; and nearly 20% of incoming students are first-generation college students.