Program Offerings

Graduate students at Princeton may pursue a number of interdepartmental and joint degree programs once enrolled as a Princeton graduate student. This includes certificate programs in select fields. This wide range of interdisciplinary opportunities complements and enriches our degree-granting programs, while promoting intellectual inquiry and research across departmental and divisional boundaries.

Departments and Programs

Associated admission and degree requirements for each of Princeton’s 43 degree-granting departments and programs can be found within the Fields of Study listings. All graduate students enter through one of these programs.

Joint Degrees

Princeton's Graduate School offers four full joint-degree programs: 

  • Interdisciplinary Humanities

  • Social Policy

  • Neuroscience

  • Materials Science

Established joint degree programs allow participating students to earn a Ph.D. within a recognized discipline, but with a substantial research component of a related discipline.  Students apply to a participating home department, and are usually accepted to a joint degree program after admission and enrollment. Students who successfully pursue a joint degree will receive a Ph.D. from their home department and from the affiliated program. Joint degree programs have their own listing within Fields of Study.

Dual Degree Programs

Princeton also participates in two established joint-degree programs with other institutions.  Information about these can be found in the Fields of Study listings for: 

  • The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (M.P.A.-J.D. & M.P.A.-M.B.A. programs) 

  • The Department of Molecular Biology (for the M.D-Ph.D. program)

Individual agreements or arrangements outside of these formal programs may also be possible with the support of a student's department and the Graduate School.

 

Graduate Certificates

Graduate certificate programs allow graduate students to develop a secondary area of expertise and require work that is in addition to a student's normal degree requirements.  Such additional work may include: 

  • Language study and acquisition

  • Course work

  • Participation in special workshops or colloquia

  • Research activity (for Ph.D. students, this additional research activity often involves significant additional content or methods for the general examination and/or the doctoral dissertation). 

Students are not admitted to the University via certificate programs; only graduate students already admitted to degree programs at Princeton may be eligible to pursue certificates. Certificate programs are listed within Fields of Study, either as their own entry or, in cases where it is sponsored directly by a degree-granting department, within the sponsoring department's entry. Entries for programs that have been approved by the Graduate School and the University to appear on a student's transcript are indicated. Such certificates are recorded on the transcript at the same time the degree is awarded. 

Students may pursue and earn one recorded certificate for each graduate degree awarded. In no case should degree progress be slowed or altered because of work on a certificate.