April Tiger Talk

New Expanded Edition!

On the Road Again

With Bob Harsh, Peter A. Wilson, and Gib Hentschke, all '66

Wednesday, April 30, 4:00 p.m. Eastern

Three very different classmates.

Bob Harsh came to Princeton from Binghamton, New York. On campus he majored in Religion, ate at Cottage, swam for the varsity for three years and then played rugby and was a Chapel Deacon. Initially was headed for the ministry and attended Union Theological Seminary, but changed careers and spent many years teaching at the college level (sociology, writing, honors program) and counseling disadvantaged students at SUNY Plattsburgh. He and Carole live in Essex, NY and have two children and four grandchildren.

Peter A. Wilson came to Princeton from the Woodberry Forest School in Virginia. He majored in Politics, ate at Charter, and went on to do Ph.D. work in Political Science at the University of Chicago. His thesis and graduate work dealt with nuclear weapons, international relations, and national security. He worked at the CIA and State Department, including getting to know Jim Timbie '66 while working on SALT II. He then spent a long time associated with RAND Corporation and teaching at various universities. He writes frequently on national security issues and you should ask to join his email list. He and Betty live in Murfreesboro, TN and have two children and three grandchildren.

Gib Hentschke came from Southern California (Glendale), majored in History, was President of Terrace (where he met Peg), rowed heavyweight crew, and was secretary-treasurer of the interclub council. Stanford Ph.D. in Education, taught at Columbia and the University of Rochester, rose to be Dean of the School of Education at Rochester and then for many years at U.S.C. Later an education consultant at Parthenon/EY. He and Peg live in Rancho Mirage, CA and have two children and four grandchildren.

So what unifies them? All are long time members of the Alumni Schools Committee, and have interviewed many, many high schoolers interested in Princeton, as have many of us. These often have been in small towns and small schools with limited AP offerings, and like the rest of us it has been tough to get even exceptional students admitted. They have watched as Princeton has become much more welcoming to applicants who are the first in their families to attend college and who qualify for Pell Grants (very low family income), and they will share with us how they see Princeton has changed from the applicants' point of view and what the university applications ecosystem looks like today. If you have volunteered for the ASC, or have seen your children or grandchildren go through the applications process in recent years, or just want to meet special classmates with current real-life knowledge, please join us.

Just as an aside, when we applied to Princeton the acceptance rate was about 30%. Now it is under 5%. That doesn't prove our oft-repeated "I wouldn't get in today," but it sure doesn't disprove it either.

The Tiger Talk will be Wednesday, April 30 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern. As usual we will start right on time, so we suggest you sign in 15 minutes early and engage in some classmate conversation. The link for the Tiger Talk is here https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87649162891.