Graduating at Sing Sing and Princeton
At Princeton, college graduates step into six-figure salaries. At Sing Sing, they step back into their cells.
What could Sing Sing Correctional Facility and Princeton possibly have in common? Attending their graduation ceremonies reveals that they share more than one might expect: both are highly selective, both have education programs, and both are inordinately expensive. Dig a little deeper, and one sees that they also both rely on massive state assistance to sustain their operations.
No such thoughts were in my head as I traveled to Princeton to congratulate a relative on his four years there — and a week later departed to Sing Sing at the request of a student I had not seen since classes in Elmira’s maximum security prison in 2005–6. Celebration was the order of both days.
Princeton’s 1 Percent
Princeton’s ceremony was all that one might expect when great intelligence is married to great wealth. Regularly ranked the number one university in the nation, Princeton also ranks first in endowment per student with $3 million for every one of its eight thousand students. No wonder that its average student grant runs over $46,000, that it covers 100 percent of tuition, and 83 percent of its seniors graduate debt-free.
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