One of Princeton's defining characteristics is its small, residential community that extends a wealth of academic and extracurricular opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students. Nearly all of the University's undergraduates and 70 percent of the graduate students live on campus. The University also offers housing and dining programs for faculty and staff.

Housing options available for undergraduates range from close-knit residential college communities to individual dormitories for juniors and seniors. For graduate students, dormitory-style rooms are available at the historic Graduate College and unfurnished apartments are offered in several complexes. With the inauguration of the University's four-year residential college system in fall 2007, upperclassmen and graduate students also have the opportunity to live in a residential college. Faculty and staff can rent from the 600 University-owned units near campus.

There also are a wide variety of dining options. Most freshmen and sophomores eat in dining facilities within their residential colleges. Juniors and seniors can take meals at the colleges, eating clubs, student food cooperatives, the Center for Jewish Life and other locations. Graduate students gather for meals in the Graduate College, or with their families in apartments. Faculty and staff have access to Prospect House, which offers both casual and full-service dining.

Students, faculty and staff often converge for meals and snacks at several locations on campus. These include the Frist Campus Center, the Woodrow Wilson Cafe, the Chancellor Green Cafe, the EQuad Cafe and the Genomics Cafe.

Recognized globally for academic excellence, Princeton University is a vibrant community of scholarship and learning. Princeton provides an academic and social setting where students quickly can become active members of the campus community. From the first day of class to Commencement, the opportunities for personal growth are countless.

Today, more than 850 full-time faculty members, who are leaders in their respective disciplines, instruct Princeton's approximately 4,850 undergraduate students and 2,295 graduate students. Princeton also serves as a leader in ensuring admitted students can afford college; in 2001, it developed one of the strongest need-based financial aid programs in the country and was the first to eliminate loans from aid packages.