PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, located at Princeton, N. J. The first movement toward the establishment of the College of New Jersey was made in 1739 by a committee appointed by the Presbyterian Synod of Philadelphia, but this committee met with little success and the proj ect was laid aside for the time. In 1746 the promoters of the new college, who in the mean time had withdrawn from the Synod of Phila delphia and with others had formed the Synod of New York, again took up the matter and obtained a charter for the new college. In the same year the Log College, which had been conducted by Rev. William Tennent, Sr., near the Forks of Neshaminy, Pa., as a training school for ministerial candidates, was closed by the death of Mr. Tennent, and its leading men joined with the trustees of the new col lege. A second charter for the College of New Jersey was obtained in 1748. The scope of the college and the powers of the trustees as stated in the two charters were essentially the same, but the second charter was obtained by the original trustees, both because of some doubt as to the validity of the first charter, which had never been recorded verbatim in the records of the secretary of state, and also for thi• purpose of increasing the number of making the lay trustees equal in num ber to the clergymen and giving other religions communions a share in the administration.
The college was opened at Elizabethtown, N. J., in April 1747, with Rev. Jonathan Dickin son as president and was transferred to Newark in the autumn of the same year, where it re mained until 1756. In 1752 it had been decided to fix the location permanently at Princeton, and in 1756 the college building (Nassau Hall) was completed and instruction was begun, there. The college exercises were interrupted during the Revolution by the presence of both armies, but only one Commencement, that of 1777, was omitted. During the war Nassau Hall was badly damaged, the library scattered and de stroyed and the scientific apparatus rniOed. In 1783 the Continental Congress sat in Nassati Hall for several months. A law department was established in 1846, but discontinued in 1852 on account of lack of funds. The system of elective studies was introduced in 1870; the John C. Green School of Science was estab lished in 1873; the Graduate School in 1877, and the School of Electrical Engineering in 1889.
In October 1896, on the oc casiod e 150th anniversary of the founding of the college, the title of Princeton University was assumed. In 1900 a plan of alumni representation in the hoard of trustees was adopted, giving the alumni five elected representatives on the board. The other trustees are elected by the board it self and hold office for life.
The courses now offered by Princeton' T.Tni= versity may be classified as undergraduate courses in arts and sciences; graduate courses in arts and sciences; and technical courses.
The plan of undergraduate liberal studiei provides for two distinct courses: first, the bachelors of arts course (A.B.), in which Latin is required for entrance and forms a pre scribed part of the curriculum of the first year; second, the bachelor of science course (B.S.), in which a modern language may be substituted for Latin at entrance.
The Graduate School offers advanced and research work in arts and sciences, leading to the degrees of master of arts and doctor of philosophy.
The technical courses offered are a four year undergraduate course in civil engineering; and a two-year graduate course in electrical engineering, leading respectively to the degrees 9f civil engineer and electrical engineer.
Admission to the undergraduate courses is entirely by examinations, which are conducted College Entrance Examination Board. subjects required for admission vary in the different courses and while certain subjects are definitely required, there is a considerable mar gin for choice in the subjects offered by candi dates. Distinguishing features of the under graduate courses are: (I) the planning of the requirements for the bachelors degrees so that the student shall receive a broad general train ing, preserving as far as possible the ideal of the old American college course; (2) the treat ment of the student's preparation and college work as a whole and the requirement for gradu ation of a specific number of units, part of which must be met before entering the univer sity; (3) the requirement that a student shall have completed before the middle of his col lege course a certain number of units in lan guage including English, in mathematics, sci ence and in philosophy; (4) the divisional elec tive system, according to which a student must choose in his junior year at least three courses in a division (philosophy, literature, art or his tory, politics, economics or mathematics, sci ence), in which his work will thereafter be con centrated. His other two courses are unre stricted. Beginning with sophomore year which has only one required course, the stu dent has a full choice of electives within cer tain limitations • (5) an arrangement whereby students of high standing may by independent study during e summers qualify for gradua tion in three years. And (6) the preceptorial method of instruction, by which the lectures are complemented by informal conferences between the professors and small groups of students on the reading connected with a course. The preceptorial groups usually con sist of from three to six men, thus emphasizing the personal relation between teacher and student. All members of the faculty engage in preceptorial work.