Academics
The academic life of students in the Class of 2023 is no less exciting. The average GPA of survey respondents is once again much higher than the most recently released average GPA of 3.49 in 2018, suggesting a mix of selection bias and grade inflation since then. GPA is also not evenly distributed, varying widely by subgroup. The ‘Prince’ asked about the honor code, extracurriculars, concentrations, and certificates.
Activities

Community service remained the most popular extracurricular among respondents in the Class of 2023. However, community service is not nearly as popular among Class of 2023 respondents as it was among respondents to the 2022 Senior Survey, with only 33 percent of 2023’s respondents indicating they participated in community compared to 40.8 percent of 2022’s respondents.

77.4 percent of the respondents for this year's survey were employed by the university at some point in their college careers, and 23.4 percent of respondents were employed outside of the university. 13.0 percent of students served in an official mentorship position in their residential college, which is a slight increase from last year’s respondents.

Grades

The average GPA of respondents sat at 3.70, with a median GPA of 3.77. 2.1 percent of respondents report having a perfect GPA. More B.S.E. students reported having received at least one A+ in their time at Princeton than A.B. students. Over a quarter (26.1 percent) reported having a 3.9 or higher GPA.

Students who were not recruited athletes were more likely to receive a GPA of 3.5 or higher (88.2 percent) than recruited athletes who are still on their team (57.8 percent). 2.0 percent of respondents have reported failing at least one class at Princeton.

The difference in GPA between first-generation students and non-first-generation students is stark. 29.3 percent of non-first generation students reported having a 3.9 or higher GPA, compared to 11.4 percent of first-generation students.

Honor
Code

For another year, a large percentage of Princeton students said they had violated the Honor Code. 25.4 percent of respondents reported cheating on an assignment or exam in violation of the Honor Code — compared to 36 percent last year — while 33.6 percent of respondents reported violating the Honor Code by failing to report a peer; a mere 0.9 percent of respondents reported a peer for violating the Honor Code.

Just 6 percent of respondents felt that they had seen improvements to the Honor Code over their time at Princeton, despite a number of changes over the past four years. It’s also highly unpopular — just 15.8 percent see the pledge favorably, compared to 23.4 percent of the Class of 2022.

Studies

Computer Science remains the most popular major, and Statistics and Machine Learning is the most popular certificate. The survey respondents’ concentrations are largely representative of the listings on the Residential College Facebook. 15.86 percent of the Class of 2023 are in the Computer Science department (A.B. and B.S.E.) — 15.7 percent of respondents said the same. Similarly, 72.4 percent of the Class of 2023 will graduate with an A.B., compared to 71.9 percent of respondents.