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One of Princeton's most distinctive characteristics is its close-knit residential community. On-campus housing is guaranteed for undergraduates for all four years. The University's six residential colleges are the center of residential life and offer an array of academic and social programs that enhance the undergraduate experience.

In fall 2007, with the opening of Whitman College, the University inaugurated an expanded residential college system that provides more housing and dining opportunities for all undergraduates. The new system establishes three four-year colleges and pairs them with three two-year colleges, enabling juniors and seniors to remain linked to a residential college, regardless of whether they live there.

Each college has a faculty head, dean, director of studies and director of student life. Academic advising for freshmen and sophomores is centered at the colleges, and juniors and seniors also are encouraged to confer with their college advisers for nondepartmental academic advising throughout their undergraduate careers. Undergraduates also benefit from the guidance of residential college advisers, who are upperclassmen, and resident graduate students.

Each architecturally distinctive college is made up of a cluster of dormitories and a range of facilities, including dining halls, common rooms, academic spaces and arts and entertainment resources. The colleges often interact through social events and intramural sports and, as a community, help to define University life.

The four-year and two-year college pairings are: Butler-Wilson, Mathey-Rockefeller and Whitman-Forbes. To learn more, visit each residential college website.