Students invited to FSI are among the most outstanding young scholars in the country.  They are admitted Princeton students who have demonstrated exceptional dedication to scholarly inquiry, leadership, and service.

Like Princeton's broader admissions process, we select students based on a holistic review that determines whether the student would be a good fit for the FSI program and would contribute positively to the FSI communities.  Our scholars represent a wide array of intellectual, ethnic, social, and economic backgrounds.  We believe that an early exposure to the University's academic and co-curricular resources will help our scholars develop and share the unique perspectives that they bring to Princeton.

In our selection process, we thus look for students who are likely to use the FSI experience to make meaningful contributions to the broader campus community.  We are particularly interested in providing this opportunity to students who have not yet had the chance to experience similar enrichment programs or mentorship experiences.  We are also interested in students who plan to pursue significant intellectual, co-curricular, or service activities that require exceptional time commitments, since FSI offers students increased curricular flexibility.  In our review of applications, we often consider the following factors:

• whether a student is the first in their family to attend college
• intellectual curiosity and passion
• qualities of leadership, perseverance, and resiliency
• past access to academic enrichment and mentorship opportunities
• the educational resources available at the student's high school

Our curriculum is designed to help accomplished students with diverse academic strengths and interests take ownership over their own educational paths, begin to develop into campus leaders, and thrive in all aspects of their lives at Princeton.  We expect that many of our alumni will continue to be involved with the program, participating in ongoing academic workshops and research experiences offered by the program and mentoring future FSI scholars.  Our FSI alumni include student government leaders, peer tutors and mentors, medical and graduate students, international fellowship recipients, student athletes, and community activists.  If you are an invited scholar who is interested in learning more about the program or speaking to an FSI alum, please contact our staff at [email protected].