Dear reader,

Welcome to The Daily Princetonian’s fifth-annual Frosh Survey. Our team has spent months diligently analyzing responses from over 800 first-years, seeking to tell the story of the Great Class of 2029.

Our survey was conducted over a period of 12 days, from July 28 to August 8, 2025. On four occasions, the ‘Prince’ sent emails containing a link to the survey to members of the Class of 2029 included in the Residential College Student Facebook as of July 28 — a total of 1,408 people. We received 877 responses, comprising just over 62 percent of the class — the highest participation rate yet.

Every question on the survey was optional. On select sensitive questions, respondents could explicitly decline to answer. All responses were fully anonymous and multiple submissions were disabled. To protect respondents’ anonymity and data, only select members of our survey team received access to the raw data, and none made any effort to identify individual respondents. As part of our commitment to comprehensive privacy, we collected and aggregated all raw data on Google accounts unaffiliated with the University.

Upon receiving hundreds of submissions, we embarked on a months-long process of compiling and checking each tabulation. A minimum of two ‘Prince’ editors from the Data team verified every datapoint.

We exercised discretion when presenting the data in question. Our team carefully considered the implications of various cross-tabulations and sought to ensure that the responses of individual students could not be identified. When utilizing percentages, rather than using raw numbers to represent data, our team rounded the value to the nearest tenth of a percent. As every query was optional, many questions garnered sample sizes one to two percent smaller than the overall respondent pool; in our narratives, “respondent” refers to any student who responded to a given question.

Special thanks to Sam Kagan ’24, who developed the original Frosh Survey and without whom this project would not have been possible. Special thanks also to 2022 Senior Survey Director Caroline di Vittorio ’22 for her work developing programs to generate charts and web generation.

Despite our best efforts, our survey includes limitations. We did not complete statistical analysis of data points cross-tabulated from two or more questions, nor did we make any attempt to increase or decrease the weight of various demographic groups to more accurately match the overall picture of a larger group. At the same time, a check of our respondent pool’s composition against data previously released by the University regarding the demographics of the Class of 2028 indicates a fairly representative and large sample.

In sincerity, all that we report is a little out of date; between the survey and now, some respondents have likely had their first drink, experienced changes in their financial situation, and changed their major — then switched it back, then changed it again. We’re pretty sure at least some of the 71 percent of respondents who were virgins at the time of filling out the survey … aren’t anymore. Our survey constitutes a glance at the Class of 2029 as it existed in July, unresponsive to other life interruptions which may have taken place since.

Thank you for taking the time to read, consider, and interrogate our work. The Frosh Survey is meant to serve as a collaborative reflection, initiating dialogue for the greater Princeton community while preserving the stories of this consummately unique class. We also hope that it is, and continues to be, a whole lot of fun.

Regards,
Alexa Wingate and Vincent Etherton
Head Data Editors

Credits