Woody Woo or bust

Of course, shortly after arriving on campus I discovered that WWS was no longer a selective department, which initially only made me happier — now I wouldn’t have to worry about competing for only 90 spots. I began the fall semester as an engineer, but I soon switched to A.B. and promptly set my eyes on joining the Wilson School. However, the more I thought about what major I wanted to choose and which classes I wanted to and needed to take, the more I realized that choosing WWS is a risky path to follow, especially for those of us who really don’t have any idea what we truly want to major in. Now that admission to the department is non-selective, it becomes even more important that prospective social science majors truly think about why they are choosing to join the Wilson School.

Currently, WWS seems to be an overwhelmingly popular “default major” among the undeclared A.B. underclassmen, and judging by the consistent number of around 180 applicants every year, this is not a new trend. When asked about their majors, many of my freshman and sophomore friends will inevitably qualify their answers with “maybe Woody Woo,” no matter what they tell you at first. One interesting statistic is that 40 sophomores joined the Wilson School on the last day of the major declaration period — while this may have been just coincidence, it’s possible that for them, choosing WWS was simply another way of putting off making the decision. This line of thinking is exactly why open admission to WWS can cause major issues — indecisive students could become stuck in the WWS department and be unable to switch to politics or economics because they do not have enough classes in either major.

The unique nature of independent work within the Wilson School — junior seminars and policy task forces instead of JPs — means that switching into even a closely related major could be complicated and difficult. Moreover, along with the end of selective admission came curriculum reforms that ended the “disciplinary requirement” — WWS students before the Class of 2015 had to take at least three courses in the same social science department — so there is now a very real possibility that Wilson School students will end up taking a diverse mix of courses that do not really constitute a “concentration” of any sort. WWS majors must declare a track, such as environmental policy or foreign policy, but these are more like pre-professional programs than academic ones — just as taking organic chemistry and molecular biology does not make every pre-med student a chemistry or biology major, WWS students can take a wide range of courses unrelated to their policy track.

The increase in students resulting from opening up the department might also strain resources, especially since the Wilson School is based on policy seminars and task forces, which would not work nearly as well with almost twice as many students. Princeton may have the financial resources to support 162 Wilson School students easily, but it does not have enough faculty to keep the department running in the same way as before. Part of the allure of the Wilson School is its ability to give each concentrator individual attention within these seminars and task forces, but a sudden increase in the number of students will make this very hard to maintain. As Wilson School professor Stanley Katz said in a recent ‘Prince’ article, capping the number of WWS students at 90 per year made for a “much more manageable number” of concentrators.

Perhaps the Wilson School should remain selective after all. The department was designed so that selective admission would allow its concentrators to benefit from a set number of students each year, and making admission to the department open would require that the department undergo fundamental changes to its curriculum and structure. The Wilson School is a unique institution that sets Princeton apart from most other universities; to remake it with open admission could ultimately be detrimental to not only the intellectual experience of its students but also Princeton’s academic prestige as a whole.

Spencer Shen is a freshman from Houston, Texas. He can be reached at szshen@princeton.edu.