Inside Princeton University: Secrets, Legends, and a Billion-Dollar Budget | The Ivy League

What is the Ivy League? We are now at Princeton University. The Ivy League is America's oldest universities, with Harvard being the oldest. At the forefront, we're in Princeton. There are theaters, bookstores, clothing stores, the Princeton University store, a museum of art collections. Where would you like to have your wedding? At your university, of course. I think the atmosphere here makes you even more immersed in the whole educational process. Their annual budget is equal to the entire Russia's annual education budget, to everything allocated for education in Russia. Friends, today Andrey and I went to Princeton University, one of the most prestigious and legendary universities in the world. It is part of the Ivy League, and if you're watching this video, chances are you know what it is. Today we'll talk about the secrets of this educational institution, its legends, science, and everything else. We'll talk about Hollywood, I mean the films we all know that were filmed on campus. You're definitely familiar with Princeton from these films. We'll talk about the money in Princeton's accounts. The university is not short on money. I'm going to tell you and show you everything. Just listen and watch. By the way, subscribe if you haven't yet. Most people watch my videos without subscribing and then wonder why they never see such cool material. Well, I hope it's cool. On Andrey's no less legendary Tesla, we got to Princeton from New York in an hour. I'm very glad that Andrey decided to join me. We studied together at the University of Westminster in London. It's been more than 10 years since we graduated from there. Andrey also managed to graduate Harvard and we shared various stories from life and studying on the way. Long story short, I liked how Andrey characterized Princeton. We love to walk here with our family. We're approaching Princeton now. Although we've probably been driving on the territory for some time. Yeah, it's all Princeton. Yep, Princeton. There are guys running around on these fields. All these small buildings are Princeton. Here, for example, is Campus Club. It's a club for students. This is what it looks like. You know, when you need to come here. We once accidentally ended up here on the day of the student's arrival. It was a phenomenal thing. I've never seen anything like it, but you probably have. I was very, very impressed. We just come here with my family for a walk. Well, it's like a museum. It's like when you found out that Harvard is older than America. Yeah, I was shocked. I graduated and I still didn't know. That's the thing, they don't brag about it. Like, guys, we're going to teach you how old we are. A lot of people move around on bicycles here. Oh, map, map. Here, come on, show me. You said you couldn't find it in Columbia. All right, here we go. Listen, no, we won't be able to walk around all of this. We can just drive for a stretch. Four minutes radius, 15 minutes radius. Convenient. Okay, here's 15 minutes and here's four. So, apparently, all this is also theirs. Yeah, you can come by train. There's more detail. Right, you can take the train to Princeton Junction. It's a train station. We're by the University Chapel. It's this building right here. What else is here? So, University Chapel. Opposite us is the library. This is the library. The museum is under construction. Well, we don't have the time until it's finished. University place in a cell hall. Auditorium in Alexander Hall. Eric Feller College. Well, I think we'll go like this. This would be the main route. And we'll drop by here, too. The dorms here are incredibly beautiful. Yeah, here are the dorms. We walked around here a lot in our time. Let's go and have a look. And there are also various shops on the territory designated here. There are, like, theaters, bookstores, clothing stores, the Princeton University store, art museum, a museum of art collections. All of this. Everything that you see here are buildings and halls. But let's talk about history. To understand the university's greatness, you have to understand its history. It was founded in 1746. This university keeps over 250 years of history, academic achievements, and cultural traditions. Princeton University is consistently at the top of world rankings. Every year, the number of applications is more than 10 times the number of seats. Last year, about 6 percent of all applicants were accepted. Princeton is one of the most demanding universities in the world. More than 45 alumni and faculty are Nobel laureates. Per student, there are approximately 2.7 million dollars of Princeton Foundation money. But we'll talk about the numbers in more detail a little later. We come here as if to another city. Here we are, exploring another city, just walking here. Wow, it's so beautiful to walk around arches like those. Yeah, I really love just walking here. The word campus first appeared at Princeton University. That students called the broad lawn surrounded by academic buildings. In Latin, campus means field. This word perfectly described Princeton's spaciousness and greenery. The use of Latin words is not surprising, since in the 18th century, Latin and Greek were predominantly spoken in educational institutions. Over time, the term became widely accepted, and universities' lands are called campuses around the world. More than 5,000 trees are growing on Princeton grounds. The university has repeatedly received the Tree Campus USA title from the Arbor Day Foundation program for its commitment to preserving and expanding green space on campus. Look at this tree. There's something written on it, and they don't write things on trees for no reason. Bare oak. It's just the name of the species. I'm sure it's famous for something. They seem to have tried to burn it since it's dark on this side. Some party didn't go according to plan. Look, they've set up some kind of bar over there. I believe that in buildings like this, without even realizing it, you become more deeply involved in the learning process. That is, if you're this young rebel who doesn't want to listen to anyone. But willy-nilly, the architecture adds to the quality of education. Universities like this are fascinating with their traditions. Imagine entering a university and following traditions that began more than a century ago. One such tradition at Princeton is P-Rate. It began in 1896 and has been held every year since then. At the end of the spring graduation season, students and graduates gather for a colorful procession. Each class wears orange and black striped blazers, Princeton's signature colors. The parade where graduates represent graduation years connecting different generations. Usually, the most recent graduates go at the front of the column, while the veterans, who graduated several decades ago, finish the procession. Participants wave their year's flags and the most creative ones even come up with themed costumes. Many come to the P-Rate from all over the world to meet their classmates again. University's black and orange palette resembles that of a tiger and tiger became the symbol of Princeton in the late 19th century. In the 1880s, Princeton football players began wearing orange and black stripes on their socks, jerseys and caps, and spectators and sports journalists began to call them tigers. Thus, tiger quickly became a favorite mascot and remains so to this day. And I have a tricky question for you. And who's the mascot of Moscow State University? Andrey, which university would you ever choose to study at? Princeton, this one. But your dad studied at Harvard. No? You have a Harvard t-shirt. A Harvard t-shirt? Yeah, I bought it. And I'm gonna pick up this camera. There are also informal traditions. It may surprise you, but they're all alcohol-related. More precisely, with beer. It's called 24 cans. Funny enough, this tradition started with Paul Newman, who once joked while speaking on the Princeton campus. He said, 24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not. Since then, Princeton students pose a challenge every year on the 24th of April, drinking 24 cans of beer in a day. The rules are unspoken, but strict. Participants must stay up, attend classes and not fully sleep. Newman, by the way, was a graduate of School of Drama in Yale, one of Princeton's main competitors. Princeton is not the only university with beer traditions. Stay tuned to this channel for an upcoming video about Oxford, the oldest British university, which is also not known for its sobriety. And now, let's just feel the atmosphere. One of the most intriguing campus legends is the rumor of underground tunnels under the university grounds. These tunnels are said to have been built in the early 20th century to transport coal to the buildings, but have lost their original purpose by now. Students have spread tales that the tunnels were used for escaping from lectures, secret meetings or even as a refuge from harsh teachers. Nevertheless, do these tunnels really exist? Yeah, some of them could be seen today. But, obviously, most of them are closed to fend off unwanted adventure seekers. Albert Einstein He spent the last years of his life in Princeton working at the Institute for Advanced Study. Einstein was said to be a down-to-earth man who loved to stroll along the university buildings. He talked to students and professors. Some claimed to have discussed physical theories with him, others that they simply graded him as they passed by. Einstein was always a little absent-minded at the same time he was part of the student life. Many still claim that walking around campus gives you a chance to feel Einstein's spirit. Ivy League What is the Ivy League? It's America's oldest university, with Harvard being the oldest, at the forefront, when Princeton, near New York. Why Ivy League? Just look at the building. Just go. Yeah, well, let's go. Tell me, what's Ivy in the Ivy League? That is, these buildings are so old that they have all overgrown with ivy, and we can find it on all buildings of these universities. But, of course, it's a group of universities that are a prestigious being. They are some of the richest. Harvard, by the way, is the richest university in the world. I've tried to estimate all of its assets. You can get the idea, considering that it's all annual budget, with expenses like textbooks and stuff. It's six billion. Six billion dollars is the university's annual budget, just for expenses. Not bad, right? And, by the way, Andrew, here's another thing. I also looked up a Russian education budget. And, long story short, just two Ivy League universities, Harvard and Yale, have annual budget approximately equal to the entire Russia's annual education budget, to everything located for education in Russia. Just two of these universities have enough to cover entire Russian education for a year. If you become part of Princeton's community of students or faculty, you will become part of Princeton's culture. As part of it, it has its own secret language or dictionary with terms like arch-syncs, which means performances held in university's arches for creating an unusual acoustic effect. Andrew and I just walked through these arches. There are a lot of different arches here. You go through an arch and get from one yard to another yard again. And, like, the yards are surrounded by walls like these, like arches and these stairs. There is also the so-called picker, an intense selection process for university fraternities and sororities, which include several rounds of interviews. New members are selected during them. Each building has its own unique style, because, firstly, they were built at totally different times. As in Harvard, there are modern buildings, there are old buildings, different time periods, different sponsors. It's pretty much the same here. We always manage to catch weddings. Yeah, and as Andrei noted, yesterday we were at the New York Public Library, and there was a wedding. And here is another one right now. Where would you like to have your wedding? At your university, of course. Andrei here had his at Novosibirsk State Technical University. Technical University, yeah, against the building's exciting background. That's why you have to travel to all sorts of Princeton's. I still hope that the management of the Novosibirsk State Technical University will hear me and invite me to... Looking forward to it. I'll invite you to the filming. There it is. Yeah, well, invite me to the film, and when you'll go to university, call me. The only invitation I needed. The architecture. I feel like I'm walking around a castle or a palace. It's a very picturesque campus, and I immediately thought some movies definitely had to be made here. Hollywood certainly had a hand here. It did. A Beautiful Mind, a 2001 drama about John Nash, a mathematician and Nobel Prize winner played by Russell Crowe. The campus is seen in many scenes, and John Nash himself is indeed taught and worked at Princeton. The film shows the university's iconic buildings, classrooms and corridors. Another example, The Theory of Everything, a 2014 film mostly focusing on Stephen Hawking's life at Cambridge, but several scenes were shot in Princeton. These scenes portray the period when Hawking visited Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study. After my own filming at Princeton, about three weeks later, I flew to Cambridge. So, another big and interesting video about it is coming up, it's time to subscribe if you still haven't. Grace of Monaco is another 2014 movie about Grace Kelly's life starring Nicole Kidman. It focuses on former Hollywood star's marriage crisis in Monaco in 1962. Kelly visited Princeton and was very familiar with its campus. Unexpectedly for me, Requiem for a Dream was also filmed here. The Princeton scenes aren't as well known as in the previous films, but Princeton's campus added visual appeal. It intensified the atmosphere of alienation and struggle of the main character. Transformers 2, Revenge of the Fallen. Princeton is the place of study of the main character, Sam Witwicky, played by Shia LaBeouf. This is not the first campus I've filmed where a blockbuster was also filmed. University of East Anglia in Great Britain is another example. That's where they filmed The Avengers. It was the location of their headquarters, the base for Tony Stark, Captain America and the whole gang. You can find the link to the video in the description. This made me want to watch this film again, especially A Beautiful Mind. I think with its gothic neoclassical buildings, towers, spires, all this old stuff, a huge amount of details, cozy courtyards, green alleys and of course arches, which like portals transport you from one university world to another. This is the Princeton University Chapel, another example of gothic revival. Built in 1928, it became the largest chapel among American universities. It can accommodate 2,000 parishioners. It is second in size only to King's College Chapel in Cambridge. It also houses one of the US richest stained glass collections with scenes from Dante, Milton and the Bible. It has an organ with over 8,000 pipes. Concerts and ceremonial services are held here. Many interior details are made of wood intended for the production of cannons during the Civil War. You can pay attention to the altar chairs that are made of Sherwood Oak. Yeah, from that Sherwood forest where Robin Hood lived. By the way, another important point earlier, universities such as Cambridge were colleges. And what is a college? It's from Latin collegium, meaning collection, a gathering. Colleges were both places of study and of residence for teachers and students. Therefore, these historical colleges and universities are known for having their own residences, old residences, dormitories where students lived. We're about to pass by exactly such part. And I also stayed in Oxford. You actually live here? Yeah, I stayed in the Oxford residence. It's also several centuries old and some students have been living in those for several centuries. Must be convenient. Yeah, of course, it's been entirely renovated. It doesn't smell like old socks or anything. Alumni. If they brought oak from Sherwood itself, the graduates here are not simple commoners. Well, besides the ones I mentioned earlier. Woodrow Wilson, former president of Princeton and the 28th president of the USA and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. James Madison, a founding father who served as the fourth president of the United States. Michelle Obama is also a Princeton graduate. Jeff Bezos studied electrical engineering and computer science. Richard Feynman, a famous physicist and Nobel Prize winner, popularized science with a professor at Princeton. Francis Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby. He said that his years at the university influenced his style and subject matter. David Ramnick, editor of The New Yorker magazine, also studied at Princeton. He's one of the most renowned literary figures in the United States. And, of course, the money. The Princeton University Endowment is one of the largest among universities in the world. As of 2023, it's valued at around 37 billion dollars. Princeton is a financially independent institution. It can support programs, students and projects that it wishes to support. Its funds are not just sitting in the bank, but is invested in various projects and initiatives, from scientific research to campus modernization and financial student aid. How do you pay for your studies if you have no money? Princeton has a policy called need-blind admission. This means that the applicant's financial situation does not affect their admission. With its 37 billion dollars endowment, Princeton can offer support to a student. That is, if you have great scores and one top competition, university can finance you. What else does the endowment finance? The research that people are trying to get here from all over the world. Research in a wide variety of areas. Health, biology, space technology, research in aerospace engineering and particle accelerators, ecology, sustainable development, carbon footprint reduction, renewable energy and even improving waste management on campus. One of such initiatives is the Zebra Project, which is aimed to create buildings with zero energy consumption. If this sounds like science fiction to you, watch my episode from, once again, the University of East Anglia, where I have shown a similar energy-efficient building. Princeton has made a number of discoveries in the innovative gene therapy, which are used by biocompanies. The idea is to create remedies that can precisely target specific areas of DNA. This opens up new horizons in the treatment of various diseases, including cancer. Breeze ML is a project founded by Princeton University faculty. The company develops tools and solutions for machine learning, which helps automate data analysis and optimize business processes. Here, they work on creating blockchain-based applications ecosystems. All this, as you understand, is a drop in the ocean of projects that are being done at Princeton. So beautiful with the stonework windows, roof tiles. Look, there is a brick extension, do you see it? Yeah, they were built at different times. Here's another one. All the bike parking is full. We're comparing it with Andrea's Harvard dorm. What was yours like? Mine was a trendy modern one, like a nice, like a nice hotel. Yeah, it looked like a nice hotel. But would you want to live in one of these? I really would. It's very beautiful and authentic. I think the atmosphere here makes you even more immersed in the whole educational process. And by the way, there are a lot of student parties going on in these dorms. Friends, if you enjoyed the video, like and subscribe. Most of you watch without a subscription and then wonder why you haven't seen it before. Education is the most important part of our lives and we here at SMAPS are trying to make international, innovative, modern education more accessible to everyone.