Tony's Voice

Courses of study leading to the doctoral degree are offered in the arts and sciences, architecture, engineering and public affairs. In addition there are several master’s degree programs, in architecture, engineering, finance, Near Eastern studies and public policy. But unlike other universities, graduate work is not offered in business, education, law, medicine or theology.

1. Introduction to some graduate programs

(1). Graduate School Of Engineering and Applied Science Graduate education at Princeton Engineering is distinguished by the opportunity for students to immerse themselves in high-impact research projects across a variety of disciplines and to benefit from close interactions with world-class researchers and teachers. While joining a particular academic department, our graduate students enjoy rich interactions with faculty and fellow students from all parts of the University, including the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. Princeton Engineering offers graduate programs leading to the degrees of doctor of philosophy, master of science in engineering, or master of engineering. Students can pursue graduate work in all six departments.

(2). Master in Public Affairs (M.P.A.) The M.P.A. program trains generalists who are able to deal with public policy problems in manageable components. Students are taught sophisticated analytic techniques, making them adept at administration and incisive in analysis. Their preparation also allows them to recognize the wide range of cultural values inherent in public affairs problems. The School teaches individuals to create, implement, analyze, and interpret public policy in the domestic and international arenas. The School is committed to diversity in the classroom and has worked to encourage people of color, international students, and women to pursue their graduate studies at Princeton. In the past few years, women have comprised approximately 57 percent of each class, students of color 40 percent, and international students 22 percent. Each M.P.A. candidate selects a policy field in which to specialize. Students are examined broadly in their fields of concentration, regardless of their detailed course selections.

The School offers four fields of concentration:

• Field I: International Relations concerns the international system and the behavior of states, encompassing political and security affairs as well as international economics.

• Field II: Development Studies examines the factors involved in economic development and political and social modernization in the developing world.

• Field III: Domestic Policy focuses on the domestic policy agenda; policymaking at the federal, state, and local levels; and the relationships among government agencies.

• Field IV: Economics and Public Policy cuts across the other three fields and allows more intensive training in economic analysis for students whose substantive interests lie in Fields I, II, or III. These four fields are sufficiently broad to accommodate the study objectives of most students, although some students choose to combine a specialization in their major field with a supplementary concentration in a second field. The variety of courses available through the School and the associated departments of Princeton University make it possible to tailor programs of study to the interests of individual students.

2. Exchange Programs The Graduate School participates in a number of exchange programs. Some of these programs enable graduate students to take courses or conduct dissertation research that is necessary or beneficial to their work and are not available or cannot be done here. Formal reciprocal exchange programs allow students to visit Princeton University as non-degree candidates for a period of one term or one year, and Princeton University students may visit other institutions.

(1)Domestic Exchange Scholar Program The Exchange Scholar Program enables Princeton Ph.D. students to take courses or conduct dissertation research for up to one academic year at one of the following universities:

University of California, Berkeley

Brown University

University of Chicago

Columbia University

Cornell University

Harvard University

MIT

University of Pennsylvania

Stanford University

Yale University Students are normally eligible for this exchange program after completing one year of residence at Princeton; post-generals status is preferable in all but the most exceptional cases. Students are regularly registered at their home institution, and hold special non-degree status at the host institution. Participation in the program requires the approval of the director of graduate studies (or the department chair) and the graduate school dean at both the home and the host institutions.

(2)International Ecole Normale Superieure Paris (ENS) Each year two visiting students are admitted to Princeton from E.N.S. with full tuition and a fellowship. These students are recipients of the Jane Eliza and William Cooper Procter Fellowships. Students must be nominated for this fellowship. Nominees come directly to the Office of Academic Affairs from the director or assistant director of E.N.S.

The Department of French and Italian may nominate up to two Princeton graduate students, usually post-generals and applicants for French government grants, to be exchange students for one academic year at E.N.S. The students would receive the benefits of lodging and other benefits at E.N.S. Should the department be able to name only one or no students for the exchange, then, and only then, would eligible students from other departments be considered.

Graduate students from other departments who plan to be in Paris for dissertation research may be considered by the Graduate School Office for recommendation to E.N.S. Such students would be offered lodging at a preferential rent and some, but not all, the privileges of affiliation with E.N.S.

In any given year, no more than three students outside of the Department of French and Italian, and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Cultures will be chosen.

(3)Faculty Faculty members, groups of faculty members, or departments may be partners in multi-institutional research grants that call for the exchange of graduate students among the institutional partners in order to carry forward the funded project. In these cases, when graduate students from partner institutions need to come to Princeton to conduct collaborative funded research, a “Research Exchange Student Agreement” should be completed. When this agreement is approved by the Graduate School, the student or students should use the exchange student form to apply. For approved externally funded collaborative research projects, Princeton will not charge tuition of the research exchange students.

For more information, please search the website http://gradschool.princeton.edu/academics/exchange/ to get more information about exchange programs.

Library The library of Princeton University, one of the world’s most distinguished research libraries, consists of the Harvey S. Firestone Memorial Library and 15 special libraries in locations around campus. The library’s collections include more than 6.5 million books, 6.3 million microforms, 36,000 linear feet of manuscripts, and impressive holdings of rare books, prints and archives. The library also offers access to extensive electronic resources including e-journals, databases, statistical data, images and digital maps. Exhibitions from the library’s rich collections are free and open to the general public. So next time, when attracted by the sacred place, do feel free to search the university’s website and you will get a surprise by surfing on it.

Since its foundation in 1746 and with its motto: “Princeton in the Nation’s Service and in the Service of All Nations” echoing around every corner of the world, Princeton University has illuminated the world’s academic path.For more information, go to www.princeton.edu.

1. Princeton’s academic programs

Don’t be surprised at the fact that undergraduates in Princeton can choose among 34 departments in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. It’s a university whose curriculum encourages students to explore many disciplines and to develop a deep understanding in one area of concentration. The core of Princeton’s education notion is that “learning is an act of discovery.”

Maybe you still believe that students striving for Princeton will share the same anxious feelings with you as to which major should be specified on their application forms, for it’s a lifelong choice. Unfortunately, you are alone in being hit by such anxieties. Students who apply to Princeton University don’t apply to individual departments, programs, or schools. They don’t need to declare a major until later, when they have already gained a thorough view of where their real interests lie.

Students enrolled mainly fall into two categories: those who pursue the bachelor of arts (A.B.) and those who pursue the bachelor of science in engineering (B.S.E.) degree.

(1)Students in the A.B. degree program.

Unlike most universities which prohibit students strictly from choosing the relevant courses except those in their own major, students at Princeton are encouraged to explore the curriculum in their first two years. They are required to complete 1 or 2 courses in each of seven general areas: epistemology and cognition, ethical thought and moral values, historical analysis, literature and the arts, quantitative reasoning, laboratory science and technology, and social analysis. Besides, all A.B. students must demonstrate proficiency in English composition through a one-semester writing seminar. They also must become proficient in a foreign language. Princeton offers courses in more than 18 foreign languages. Students don’t have the concept of “major” when they are still freshman and sophomore. (Wanna to learn English literature? Then go to take the course and get credit! Interested in quantitative reasoning? Then take your seat and have a nice morning.)The only thing that deeply rooted in their heart is that one can get a solid foundation in miscellaneous subjects as well as the pride of being a student in Princeton University.

(2) Students in the B.S.E degree program

Students in the B.S.E degree program are encouraged to pursue multidisciplinary study, and many choose to undertake interdepartmental work. Everyone knows that a successful chemist is never a person who learns chemistry only. He must have once set his foot on a lot of fields in science: physics, math, chemistry and biology, to name a few from hundreds. And Princeton is the place which cultivates countless such erudite chemists together with those physicists, biologists and Mathematicians who share the same learning experiences as a freshman and sophomore.

For engineering students, they take courses in computing, mathematics, and the physical sciences, and fulfill general education requirements in the humanities and social sciences. In the spring of the freshman year, students select a concentration in one of six departments. During their junior and senior years, B.S.E. students take advanced courses in their field of concentration and carry out independent research projects. It is during this kind of combination of learning and applying what’s learned into practice that hands-on experience pierces the veils of the students subconsciously.

2. Interaction

It’s a tradition that the freshmen begin their academic life with an orientation. Everyone will have an advisor, with whom you talk and finally decide specifically which courses you are going to take. The advisor will be very useful in providing you with systematic information about all the courses you are currently interested in. And after getting to know which you are in, he or she will offer very rewarding suggestions. The orientation progresses in the day. And at night, there will be a party or a barbeque on the campus. There, you will meet with “interactors”, older students who volunteered to serve as mentors. You will then have a free talk with them, gaining a deep insight into what your life will be in Princeton.

Student can have an ease access to interacting with teachers during all four years in Princeton University. The student to faculty ratio at Princeton is 5:1. From freshman seminars to senior thesis, faculties are deeply engaged in undergraduate teaching, and they are readily available to students outside the classroom for individual conferences and informal conversations.

3. Applicants for Princeton University

There’s a great diversity in students’ background. International students kick up a large portion in its student body. All of them are highly competitive. For international students, the possibility of being admitted is only 10 percent. It’s not enough that you get 2400 in both your SAT 1 and SAT subject tests, with your GDP 4.00. You should have your own features that distinguish you from others and excel in both academics and other fields like athletics, extra-curricular activities, researches and projects and so on. But do strive for Princeton University. Even if you are rejected, that’s worth you effort.

–Thou shalt definitely agree that this university illuminates our path out of darkness

Finally I got here.

Seeing the sunset imbue the sky with beautiful pastels, I was struck by intoxication. Rows of mountain surrounded me; however, it was a sense of protection rather than a sense of immurement could be felt.

Hundreds of steps made their way to the peak: is it a indication that one will never reach the summit of knowledge or does it suggest a short-cut that will surely lead you there?

Perplexed but refreshed, I set my foot on it. Slabs of marble seemed impenetrable, but why there were lots of holes on them? Was it caused by years of erosion or by countless students and scholars who aspire to set sail in the ocean of knowledge? The mountain remained reticent, the steps on it silent. Countless years passed, they survived all types of imprecations as well as anger vented by God. I strongly committed to the notion that if it had been discovered by the medieval Europeans, it must have been worshipped as a bulwark in defense of the four horsemen–death, pestilence, famine and disease.

Toady, it is standing in our campus imperially but not imperiously. However, the spirit represented by it is more powerful than its body in volume. Then what’s the spirit? Hovering hawks–well versed in the mountain’s soul–wispered to me: eagerness for knowledge. Yes, that was the spirit.

 It was with this spirit that the entire hubbub could be turned into quietness; that all the humdrum could be turned into thrill and that all the imbecility could be turned into intelligence.

But it was also with this spirit that all the infallible theories shall be examined; that all the indisputable arguments shall be discussed and that all the incontrovertible truth shall be viewed with doubt.

I don’t need to advocate the spirit for it is omnipresent in the university. And I do hope this spirit will one day ooze from every pore of my body.

      Should People in China Spend Money Immediately or Save It for future use As our domestic economy has been thriving, whether we should spend money immediately or save it for future use has become one of the most controversial issues on which different people hold quite diverse standpoints. But as for me, I contend that saving money is more practical and reasonable.

    To begin with, since the majority of things in our life are always fleeting and transitory in the coming days, months and years, we fail to predict when we may be badly hurt in an accident or get a serious disease like cancer. If we, like some people, spend money as soon as they earn it, what then will happen to them under similar circumstances? Would they just wait for the coming death for lack of money with great suffer? Money, then, can reveal the key difference between life and death. There is certainly no denying that a wise financial mind deserves a treasure in our whole lifetime.

   Next, it is great morality that we should save money, develop thrifty habit and promote lifestyle. It is true that being a man with a thrifty habit will be beneficial greatly to heath. To illustrate, every businessman’s success is attained by saving money step by step. Those who seek an extravagant life will soon be thrown out of the summit of success. Last but not least, with the gap between the poor and the rich increasingly widening, the wealthy should never boost their fortune by spending money in an uncontrollable way. It may give rise to a hatred for the rich so that the society may be trapped into chaos, which could be a contributing factor in stemming our national development. But if we save money for future use, not only can we avoid these problems but also we use it in an emergency.

   To sum up, it seems reasonable to assume that saving money for future use is to one’s own and public interest. Only in this way can we face all the challenges in life and enjoy a more comfortable and convenient life.

When, during the courses of human endeavor, he, from the nameless foreigner to the homeless refugee, from the hungry boy begging for a job to the black body dangling from a tree , from the illiterate immigrant who is depressed by the fact that every door of opportunity is closed to him to the erudite Chinese professor who is interrogated severely on his assumed but unsubstantiated crime of leaking the top secrets of nuclear weapons , is experiencing and will continuously be experiencing the sorrows and pains, abuse and mistreatment both physically and mentally. He is sailing with a tiny boat, floating hopelessly on the perilous ocean where short intervals of merciless waves will only be followed by the horrible storm.

What should he do? Should he be scared? Should he kneel down and yield to the dark and mysterious power of the capricious danger? Should he be crying out of shock and tremor, until finally, when he finds out that his voice has been silenced by the ferocities of the perils penetrating into every corner? No, never should he do that if he thinks and still firmly believes that he should be classified as a member of human being.

So, what should he do?

Yes, let the last drops of sweat which covered his face when fighting against the fate and dim prospects be swallowed as the tea which releases him from the fatigue due to persistently fierce battle. With pains caused by streaks of blood from the whips and the grief caused by the deprivation from the families, he should shout, not only to himself but to the world, let the storm be violent!

Hoffman, in his intriguing story “The Sandman”, presents us with a vivid character, Nathanael, who from the cradle to the grave goes through a series of emotional changes.

In his early childhood, Nathanael, was ordered to go to sleep around 9 o’clock by his mother for the sake of “the Sandman”. His first impression of “the sandman” was that he was a nasty guy, because of the horrible and dull trampling step made by “the Sandman” as well as the deprivation of the opportunities which allowed him to enjoy the intimacy with his father if not interrupted. Then came the curiosity about who “the Sandman” is. The old woman’s answer didn’t satisfy his originally strong desire of knowing “the Sandman” .Conversely, the description given by her became the real source of Nathaniel’s ongoing imaginations of “the Sandman’s” size, look and any possible image that could be categorized as “frightening”.

On the other hand, the seeds of horror were plowed into the soil of his heart and began to grow quickly. Finally, when he summoned up his courage to steal the glance of his face, he found the most hideous face in the world .It was the lawyer Coppelius. He shrieked when seeing his father forced to work and when hearing “Giving me eyes”. He was caught and beaten severely before losing his consciousness. When he came back to himself, he found himself cuddling against his mother. “The madman” was gone, albeit one thing remained in his heart, probably even in his very soul: the unshakable horror for the sandman. It was so intense a horror that the moment he saw the barometer dealer, he thought he was the sandman.

For a long time, Klara was his “pretty angel”. But when Klara told him to “throw that mad, insane, stupid tale into the fire”,he became totally disappointed with her. Immersed in the gloominess of being understood by no one, he suddenly realized that Olympia, the Professor’s daughter was his only listener with a “poetical nature”, of which he was in dire need. He interpreted her heavenly eyes as a bridge that linked his spirit to hers.

When it later turned out that Olympia was merely an automaton, he burst in madness. Finally, he ended his life at the top of the tower in a violent way when seeing the sandman again.

In reading the story, I have a feeling of sailing where wayward and fluctuating waves kept coming during the intervals of the tranquility of the sea. Surprises are everywhere , : “…the horrible Sandman, was the old lawyer Coppelius…” ; “ A duel was inevitable”; “She was a lifeless doll”; “He roared horrendously ,like a hunted beast”; “and in the midst of them there towered the gigantic figure of the lawyer Coppelius”……

The surprises, anticipated an unanticipated alike, makes the story more like a thrilling journey, in which I go with Nathanael sometimes discretely, sometimes boldly, sometimes cheerily and sometimes mournfully.

The thought-provocative ending imbued me with a feeling of gaiety mixed with sadness. Klara finally found her true happiness. In the remote area, she and her family enjoyed the tranquil life in their snug and cozy house. But who’s that pleasant-looking man? He could be anyone but Nathanael. Why just can’t Nathanael step out of the Arctic of the horror and walk with Klara into the warm sunshine, where any ice ,however solid, could be melted?

Sandman, from my personal point of view, is more Nathanael’s deep horror towards the person who brought sorrows to Nathanael and his family in his childhood than the lawyer Coppelius. The horror has long been rooted in Nathanael’s mind and, reinforced internally and externally ,has grown deeper and deeper with the passing of time. He’s doomed to the tragedy by the Sandman—the horror from the very beginning.

  The first time he saw the Sandman is not when he stole the glance of the lawyer, but when he heard his mother talking about the “the Sandman”, because this is the real source of the horror. Initially, this horror is not a pure horror. Rather, it is a mixed feeling: a horror as well as the hatred of the nasty guy who separated his get-together with family. Later, when the nurse told him the story that the Sandman would “sprinkle handfuls of sand in children’s eyes until they bleed and take the eyes out”, the hatred part weakened and the horror part grew stronger.

  The horror keeps on expanding because Nathanael “refreshes” all kinds of horrendous materials everyday by filling and refilling his mind with whatever hideous pictures he extracted from sources of all types. Like playing a jigsaw game, he stretches every component to the limit of horrors that he could bear and extends that limit further and further again by updating it. By this, he sowed the seed of the Sandman in his mind and provides it with the nutrients that a voracious eater urgently needs. The hatred part weakens, becomes weaker and weaker and until eventually completely surrenders to the horror part, mainly because the attitudes his family adopt towards the lawyer. Hatred requires people to take the firmest stance that someday the revenge should be taken. But, at a glance, anyone would notice the submissiveness and passiveness Nathanael’s parents behaved and especially, they seemed to keep this inferior status willingly. The “model” was set. So followed Nathanael. Finally, etched into his psyche, the absolute horror became a habit and a reflection that everything which reminded Nathanael of the horror would be viewed as a Sandman.

  Nathanael had a feeling that Sandman always followed him wherever he went because the real Sandman is in him, lives with him and has become part of him. It’s no wonder that he can’t get rid of himself. The Sandman—the horror, a kind of dark power—“treacherously attached a thread to his heart”. And he was lead onto a “perilous and ruinous” path unconsciously”. That is, he didn’t realize it. Conversely, he believed the Sandman is the barometer dealer. And when he found Klara couldn’t share his tortures and struggles in his very soul, he believed Klara had alienated him. Because he needed to vent his strong feelings, strong feelings that when flowing on papers, become poems. That is also why he later found great intimacy with Olympia. When digging into the essence of intimacy, of which he is dire need, the intimacy is not love in any respect. It’s only a delight that there he found a “person’ who could silently listen his insurmountable hardships with him. And he found it on Olympia.

  Nathanael death is not a surprising result since the Sandman—horror—keeps on enlarging his boundary, there must be one day it will explode. We can say, it is the Sandman who killed him, but we can also say it is he, Nathanael, who killed himself. Because the Sandman is the horror that has pierced into his vein, has dissolved into his blood stream and has been integrated into his own ego so that Nathanael will carry the “Sandman” until his death.

One’s most splendid days are not those when one enjoys the victories in people’s applause and reverence, or those when one enjoys the luxuries of coziness and laziness, but are the most difficult days in which one struggles, strives and endeavors with great perseverance, strong hope, boundless energy and irremovable confidence, knowing that calamities, dishonor and the most painful sorrows are still standing in his way, blocking his path at every crossroad and preparing the most horrible attack on him.