Princeton University in popular culture

• F. Scott Fitzgerald's literary debut, This Side of Paradise, is a loosely autobiographical story of his years at Princeton. A Princeton Alumni Weekly[2] on Princeton fiction called it the "novel of Princeton life."[3]
• Geoffrey Wolff's The Final Club is a coming-of-age book about Nathaniel Auerbach Clay, a fictional member of the Princeton Class of 1960 (Wolff was an actual member of this class). The Final Club is written as homage to F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise and The Great Gatsby.
• Princeton plays a large part in the second half of Stephen Fry's Making History, in which the protagonist, Michael Young, attends Princeton.
• Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist is partly set at Princeton and the characters Changez and Erica are fictional members of the Princeton Class of 2001. (Hamid was an actual member of the Princeton Class of 1993).
• The book The Rule of Four is set on Princeton's campus and the campus of neighboring Princeton Theological Seminary.[4]
• In Her Shoes, a novel by Jennifer Weiner '91: Rose Feller is a Princeton grad. Her younger sister Maggie camps out in a Princeton library.
• Admission, a novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz, is largely set at Princeton and features as its protagonist 38-year-old Portia Nathan, an admissions officer at Princeton University. Korelitz worked as a part-time reader for Princeton's Office of Admission in 2006 and 2007 and is married to Princeton professor Paul Muldoon.
• Humboldt's Gift (winner of the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) features Von Humboldt Fleisher who briefly achieves the position of "Chair in Modern Literature"
• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – The first word of the book is “Princeton” and the novel is set in Princeton where the main character has a fellowship. The book explores race in America.[5]

• The beginning of the 1944 film Wilson is set there.
• In A Beautiful Mind, the Academy Award–winning film about the famous mathematician John Forbes Nash, the depiction of Nash's initial days at Princeton were filmed on campus.[4] Although the film is a fictionalized biography of his real life, Nash did receive his doctorate from Princeton and was a Senior Research Mathematician at the university's mathematics department till his death in 2015.
• The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) features Matt Damon as Tom Ripley, who pretends to have gone to Princeton, and at one point in the film can be seen wearing a crested Princeton jacket.
• The movie I.Q., which stars Meg Ryan and Tim Robbins with Walter Matthau as Albert Einstein, takes place in Princeton.[6] The scene in which Tim Robbins' character gives a lecture was filmed in Room 302 of the Palmer Physics Laboratory, which is part of Frist Campus Center.
• In the film Risky Business, Tom Cruise portrays a high school student whose father wishes him to attend Princeton. Joel Goodeson, Cruise's character, is interviewed by a Princeton alum.[7]
• Spanglish, a film featuring comedian Adam Sandler, is presented as an essay on a fictional Princeton application. The film was released in 2004.[8]
• In the movie A Cinderella Story, a major part of the storyline revolves around Chad Michael Murray's and Hilary Duff's characters both aiming to attend Princeton to study writing.
• Across the Universe's Jude, played by Jim Sturgess, comes to America to find his lost father at the university. He thinks his father is a professor but discovers that he is in fact a janitor. While Jude is searching on campus, he encounters Max, played by Joe Anderson, an actual Princeton student.
• Bruce Wayne, Christian Bale's character in the film Batman Begins, attends Princeton as an undergraduate. Though he informs butler Alfred Pennyworth that he likes the university "just fine", he drops out and flees to China to begin his training with Henri Ducard.
• In the Scott Derrickson 2008 remake of the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still, Jennifer Connelly plays the role of Dr. Helen Benson, a professor of astrobiology at Princeton University.
• In Stay Alive, a 2006 ghost story/computer-gaming cross-genre movie, the lead female character, Abigail, tells her friends that she got into Princeton, but later admits she was lying.
• In The Happening, a 2008 horror movie by M. Night Shyamalan, one of the scenes takes place on Princeton's campus.
• Scenes from the 2009 film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen were filmed at several locations on campus in July and August 2008 as main protagonist Sam Witwicky attends his freshman year at college.
• The university is one of the destinations of Harold and Kumar, the main characters of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.[9] Though the characters visit campus locations filled with undergraduate students, the film was actually filmed in the graduate dormitories.
• The film Admission is based on the story of a fictional Princeton admissions officer and is also partially filmed at Princeton University.
• In the 1979 film Last Embrace, Ellie Fabian is a doctoral student at Princeton who is secretly murdering descendants of the Zwi Migdal as revenge for the organization having enslaved her grandmother.

• The characters of House, M.D. work at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. The outside façade of the fictional hospital is represented by exterior shots of the university's Frist Campus Center. Guyot Hall, home to the EEB and Geosciences departments, is also often visible in the outdoors shots, and so are Fine Hall and the Lewis Library. Four years after the show's first season, fact followed fiction as ground broke on the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro.[10]
• In the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Carlton Banks' dream school is Princeton University (which his father, Philip Banks, also attended) and he eventually attends the university as the series ends.
• In Family Ties, "Young Republican" Alex P. Keaton spends the first two seasons of the series preparing to attend Princeton. While visiting for an on-campus interview, Mallory has an emotional crisis. Ultimately, Alex chooses to tend to her rather than complete his interview, thus destroying any possibility of attending Princeton.
• In the FX series Atlanta, Earnest "Earn" Marks is a Princeton dropout, and struggles to make it in the Atlanta music scene as a manager for his cousin, rapper Paper Boi.
• In The Flintstones, season two episode "Flintstone of Prinstone" Fred Flintstone attends Prinstone University (Which is a parody of Princeton University) as Fred took night classes to better himself, but instead he plays football.
• In The Newsroom, season one episode 9, ACN's mock Republican debate takes place at Princeton. In season three, Don Keefer is asked to investigate a Princeton student's story of sexual assault for a potential broadcast.
• In The Simpsons, season eight episode "Brother from Another Series" mentions Cecil Terwilliger having spent four years at Princeton, which his brother Robert alludes to as ‘clown college’.

"University of Northern New Jersey" logo

• The University of Northern New Jersey, a fake university created by the United States Department of Homeland Security to investigate student visa fraud used a logo very similar to Princeton's seal

Listed in alphabetical order by title name.

• 24 – President Charles Logan graduated from Princeton University[11]
• 30 Rock – Jack Donaghy is an alumnus; multiple episodes center on his college experience
• Across the Universe – the character Max attends Princeton, but drops out
• Atlanta — Earnest "Earn" Marks attended Princeton University before dropping out
• Batman Begins – Bruce Wayne attended Princeton University, although he chose not to continue his education there after returning home (it is unknown whether he had completed his undergraduate school education and was attending graduate school or if he was dropping out of college)[12]
• A Beautiful Mind – tells of the mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr.'s initial days at Princeton University (Although the film is a fictionalized biography, in real life Nash did receive his doctorate from Princeton and was a Princeton professor)[13]
• The Big Bang Theory – Leonard Hofstadter attended Princeton, and Amy Farrah Fowler served a fellowship there until Sheldon Cooper proposed to her.
• Boardwalk Empire – James "Jimmy" Darmody attended Princeton, but dropped out to enlist in World War I, disappointing his guardian Enoch Thompson
• Burn After Reading – Osbourne Cox, the lead played by John Malkovich, was a Princeton Graduate Class of 1973, and in a scene at a fictional Princeton Club, leads a fast-tempo rendition of Princeton's anthem, Old Nassau[14]
• The Change-Up – Dave Lockwood graduated from Princeton University
• Charles in Charge – Charles gets accepted as a graduate student in Princeton
• A Cinderella Story – the characters played by Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray will be attending Princeton at the end of the movie[15]
• Commander in Chief – Kelly Ludlow, the press secretary played by Ever Carradine has graduated from Princeton
• The Cosby Show – Sondra Huxtable and her (future) husband Elvin Tibideaux of graduated from Princeton[16]
• Cruel Intentions – Marci Greenbaum, Tara Reid's character was accepted into Princeton. Sebastian, the protagonist, manipulated her.
• Designated Survivor – Tom Kirkman, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development turned President of the United States who was named designated survivor for the State of the Union address, and rose to the presidency after a terrorist attack killed the entire line of succession, was a Princeton alumni.
• Doogie Howser, M.D. – the namesake child prodigy graduated from Princeton at the age of 10 in 1983 and received his medical license at age 14[17]
• Everwood – Amy Abbott is accepted to Princeton[18]
• Family Ties – "Young Republican" Alex P. Keaton (Michael J. Fox) spends the first two seasons of the series preparing to attend Princeton
• The Flintstones – in the 1961 episode entitled "Flintstone of Prinstone", Fred briefly attends Princeton's prehistoric counterpart, "Prinstone University", as a part-time student; in the 1964 episode "Cinderellastone", Fred's dream character also attended Prinstone
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air – Princeton is Philip's alma mater; his son, Carlton, enrolls in Princeton by the final episode[19]
• Gilmore Girls – Rory Gilmore is accepted into Princeton University
• The Girl Next Door – Eli is mentioned as having been accepted to Princeton
• Good in Bed, novel by Jennifer Weiner – protagonist Cannie Shapiro is a Princeton alumna
• In Her Shoes (1991), a novel by Jennifer Weiner – Rose Feller is a Princeton grad. Her younger sister Maggie camps out in a Princeton library
• Leatherheads – the character of Carter Rutherford is a star Princeton quarterback[20]
• Left Behind series – character Cameron "Buck" Williams is a Princeton grad
• Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, science fiction novel by H. Beam Piper – Calvin Morrison had been a theology student at Princeton, but dropped out to join the U.S. Army and fight in the Korean War; He later becomes an officer with the Pennsylvania State Police and transported to another time-line
• Mad Men – Paul Kinsey is a Princeton graduate (class of '55) and in "My Old Kentucky Home" (season 3, episode 3), Kinsey's classmate Jeffrey, a drug dealer, reminisces about the Tigertones a cappella group[21]
• Mars Attacks! – President James Dale (Jack Nicholson) is a Princeton alumnus
• The Mindy Project – the main character, Mindy Lahiri, attended Princeton
• Numb3rs – the characters of Charlie Eppes and Larry Fleinhardt are Princeton Alumni (Charlie graduated at the age of 16 and Larry at the age of 19)
• The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement – Anne Hathaway's character has graduated from Princeton[22]
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist, novel – the characters Changez and Erica are Princeton grads
• Risky Business – Tom Cruise's character gets into Princeton after an unconventional interview at his own home
• Rubber – one of the spectators ("film buff Ethan") appears wearing an orange-embroidered black baseball cap reading "PRINCETO"
• The Rule of Four, mystery novel – the protagonists are Princeton students and the Art Museum and its collections play a central role in the plot
• Salt – Angelina Jolie's character Evelyn Salt went to Princeton
• The Simpsons – Cecil Terwilliger, the brother of Sideshow Bob, is an alumnus (Sideshow Bob refers to it as the years Cecil spent in Clown College);[23] Snake also attended, but took a year off, presumably never to return
• South Pacific – Lt. Joe Cable attended Princeton
• South Park – Mayor McDaniels[24]
• The Sun Also Rises – Robert Cohn is a Princeton graduate
• The Talented Mr. Ripley – Dickie Greenleaf (played by Jude Law) has attended Princeton,[25] and the title character Tom Ripley pretends he is a Princeton alumnus.[26]
• There's Something About Mary – Mary attended Princeton University,[27] as did her ex-boyfriend "Woogie" who was also holder of a scholarship from Princeton[28]
• Thirtysomething – Hope Murdoch Steadman, portrayed by Mel Harris, graduated from Princeton
• This Side of Paradise, semi-autobiographical novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald – a Princeton alumnus himself, the protagonist Amory Blaine attends Princeton[29][30]
• The War of the Worlds, 1938 radio adaptation Professor Richard Pierson of the Princeton Observatory, portrayed by Orson Welles
• Watchmen, a graphic novel created by writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colorist John Higgins – Dr. Jon Osterman/Doctor Manhattan, born 1929, attended Princeton University in 1948–1958 and graduated with a Ph.D. in atomic physics
• Weeds – the character Megan gets accepted into Princeton
• The West Wing – former Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) is a magna cum laude Princeton graduate[31]