Under the University’s new financial aid model, most families with incomes up to $100,000 a year pay nothing toward Princeton's cost of attendance, and many families living in the U.S. with incomes up to and even beyond $300,000 receive grant aid, including those at higher income levels with multiple children in college.

In the Class of 2028, 71.5% of students receive financial aid.

Approximately 25% of all undergraduates pay nothing to attend, with aid that covers tuition, housing, food, books and personal expenses.

Among recent seniors, 89% graduated debt-free.

In 2023-24, Princeton students spent more than $250,000 at local restaurants and cafés using the Pay with Points program from their dining plans.

The University’s endowment currently funds about 71% of the undergraduate financial aid budget, which has supported the University’s efforts to increase the socioeconomic diversity of the student body. 

In the Class of 2028, 16.3% of students are first-generation college students and 21.7% are eligible for federal Pell Grants, reflecting the University’s enduring commitment to attract, enroll and support extraordinary students from all backgrounds.

Looking back at 2023–24

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa, a Princeton alumna from the Class of 1986, attended Opening Exercises for the Class of 2027 and spoke at Orientation as the visiting Pre-read author.

Historian Michael D. Gordin was named Princeton’s next dean of the college. 

The New Jersey AI Summit brought 600 leaders from academia, business and government to Princeton to begin charting a course for the state’s role in the future of AI.

Princeton professor Peter Sarnak was the winner of the 2024 Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences. 

Graduate alumnus Avi Wigderson, now at the Institute for Advanced Study, won the 2023 Turing Award, the highest honor in computer science.

Alumnus Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and professor Jane Cox both won Tony Awards for the play “Appropriate.”

The Board of Trustees set aggressive new enrollment goals for low- and middle-income students.

The campus sustainable energy plan reached new milestones with an all-electric bus fleet and the completion of TIGER and CUB facilities for geo-exchange.

The University dedicated the new Omenn-Darling Bioengineering Institute.

A major gift from Thomas Frist Jr. and Patricia “Trish” Champion Frist named the new Frist Health Center, which is scheduled to open in 2025.

Twenty-six Princetonians competed in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, a record number for the University. The athletes represented 10 countries and won three gold medals.